Talk:Rennet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Rennet on ingredients lists

If a cheese in the United States lists "rennet" on the ingredients list, is that necessarily animal rennet? Is there a way to tell whether the rennet used in a particular cheese is vegetarian? I have some vegetarian friends, and one of them was telling me about avoiding all cheeses that listed rennet.-- Creidieki 4 July 2005 16:03 (UTC)

My impression has always been that if it simply lists "rennet" as an ingredient, there is no way to know if it is vegetarian, and it quite likely is not. I would have assumed that cheese marked as "kosher" would have to be vegetarian, but according to this page, http://www.kosherquest.org/bookhtml/CHEESE.htm , that is not the case. Anyway, not to be preachy but if you're concerned enough to ask this question you should do the right thing and go vegan! --Brian Z 03:22, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
The leniency allowing the use of rennet from Kosher animals to make Kosher cheese is from Conservative Judaism. Orthodox Jews consider the addition of Rennet to be a disallowed mixing of milk & meat. Since most hechshers are run by Orthodox groups, you're pretty safe in saying that a Kosher cheese contains no animal products besides milk. Elipongo 21:45, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


In Australia I know that if it contains non-animal rennet it will definitely be marketed as a "vegetarian" cheese.
I have never seen "rennet" listed on anything in any way, so my guess is no. --Bky1701 10:21, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I see it every now and again. Trader Joe's usually says whether it is microbial or animal derived. Anyways, do cheeses always say if there is rennet (of any kind) because I often just see "enzymes" without any specifics? The Ungovernable Force 01:10, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rennet Sources

A recent edit added camels and giraffes as possible sources of rennet. A quick web search turns up serious references to camel rennet, but none to giraffe rennet. Is this actually done or even possible? Some sort of reference would be good here, 'cause if true, it's kind of interesting. Mattdm 20:43, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

The best coagulation for milk from a special mammal is done with the rennet from this mammal. So calf rennet is not very good for camels milk - there will be no real coagulation. But there is limmited slaughtering of young camels, so there is no camles rennet available. With genetic technology it is now possible to produce a camel rennet for all those regions that are producing cheese from camels milk. Giraffe and dolphin and whatever seems to be a joke from someone funny minded. like: www.savetherennets.com Years ago there were trials with pigs rennet which caused many many tons of cheese to be thrown away. Similar thing is whith chicken pepsin. hope this answers your question - if you need more information please tell me (Bioren 14:51, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

[edit] in humans is rennin is source of curdling?

i have read that rennin(enzyme is secreted as prorenin) transforms milk protien i.e cassien to calcium paracasseinate and chymotrypsinogen also do the same but rennin works in pH 5-6 and this conditions are found in infants. so my question is which is the source cuedling in human adult? plz verify anil

[edit] in humans is rennin is source of curdling?

Human adults as all grown up mammals are no longer able to digest only milk - this will cause diarrhoea. The digestion enzyme pepsin will still coagulate a nice quantity of milk and pepsin is the proteolytic enzyme which is produced when the alimentation changes from milk to other foodstuff. - Hope this helps. (Bioren 14:15, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Creeping Charlie

An anon recently added this plant into the list of rennet substitutes. Please verify. `'mikka (t) 00:57, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Renet Limtations

"Natural Rennet is a limited product anyway - only about 35% of the worlds cheese production can be done with original natural calf rennet so there is a need for artificial coagulants especially for cheap and lower quality cheeses." -- what is this supposed to mean? In particular, what does "can be done" mean?

[edit] Rennet Limitations

"can be done" means that only 35% of the worlds cheese production comes from the coagulation of milk with natural calf rennet. This is because there are not more stomachs available and therefore the rennet production is limited. The availability of stomachs depends on the consumption of veal. No animal neither calf nor giraffe (this in nonsense anyway, because there is no giraffe milk) is ever slaughtered because of the stomach.

Therefore and for the satisfaction of customers needs (cheaper, cheaper, cheapest production) about 65% of the worlds cheese production "is done" by coagulation of the milk with cheaper artificial coagulants. (Bioren 14:16, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

It is for this reason that I put a {{fact}} template on "The most common source of rennet[citation needed] is the abomasum..." From what you write, this is unlikely to be true. --Craig Stuntz 14:05, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
It is because rennet is ex definitonem the natural product and everything else is artificial coagulants or artificially produced enzyms. All of the natural rennet comes from calves (chym. + pepsin) and cows (pepsin) and some is produced from goats and lambs. The rest like pigs or chicken is not to be used by serious people for serious cheese. kind regards (Bioren 14:50, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Precise meaning of "rennet" vs. what is on a cheese package

Bioren (talkcontribs) wrote this on my talk page:

I know somethig about rennet and about interests of big companies and all that stuff and I know that there is alot of miss-information going round - especially considering the information of vegetarians. I wrote "the most common" because rennet is ex difinitionem natural rennet and 99.9% of the rennet comes from cows and calves.
Everything else is an artificial coagulant or chymosin produced by genetically modified bacteria or yeast or mould. So these things are rennet-substitutes.

Well, this is perhaps something the article should clarify, but realize that this terminology, while perhaps technically precise, is not how cheese is labeled here in the U.S. There is a variety of terms used in ingredient lists on cheese packages, with, for example, "enzymes" and "microbial rennet" used to describe different packaging of the same cheese. When one sees "rennet" on a package here, it isn't safe to assume that the listed ingredient is in fact calf rennet or something different. Similarly, if you see "enzymes" on the ingredient list you can't tell what the precise ingredient was. If a cheese actually says "calf rennet" or "microbial rennet" then you have a good idea of what you're getting, but these terms are less common on cheese packages.

I added this line to the article this morning:

There are also non-animal sources of rennet.

Would you prefer it read, "There are also non-animal-derived substitutes for rennet which are commonly, if imprecisely, called 'rennet.'"

That strikes me as a bit more precise but too wordy. --Craig Stuntz 15:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I am not freaky about this detail - really not. Rennet - any rennet - is considered as processing aid and not as food additive and therefore naturally exit different opinions on labelling - as I wrote: ...you will find about 0,0003 grams of rennet in 1 kg of cheese! - this is nearly a homeopathic dosage. If I was a vegetarian I´d rather stop eating cheese or change to ANALOG-CHEESE which is already used on pizza and in saussages without indicating it. Maybe Tofu is also a nice alternative considering that for the milk calves have to be born and killed! So as we say here in Austria: either full or nothing - half is not possible. kind regards wolfgang (Bioren 16:12, 2 August 2006 (UTC))

Forgive my pedantry, but you changed this to "The most common source for natural rennet..." Would "The most common source for animal rennet..." be clearer to the casual reader? --Craig Stuntz 19:10, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes off course - will do so (Wolfgang 15:24, 8 August 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Giving up the cheese

Ewww...does most rennet really come from slaughterhouse animals? And especially newborns?!?!?!? I'm cutting out the solid dairy from my diet. Bye bye cheese, even tho I used to love you. VegScene

From the article: Only about 35% of world-wide cheese production can be done by the use of animal rennet; 65% is already done with other coagulants. --Craig Stuntz 17:42, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
No - you do not have to give up cheese. You will find enough cheeses and also whey products coming from microbial rennet or genetic rennet - as long as you accept that calves have to be killed for the milk production. No calf: no milk - much milk: many calves - and not all of them will become further milk-cows. But this is going in somehow philosophical regions - like: corn-harvesters are killing young rabbits, bambies and other animals on the free fields - this is a by-product of corn-production - so: is corn still vegetarian? And I think there might be also better examples for what I want to say with this. (Wolfgang 10:25, 24 September 2006 (UTC))