Transglutaminase

by Doug Mason 3 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Doug Mason

  Transglutaminase is often used in the formation of meats -- including expensive cuts of meat, skinless sausages, chicken, and fish -- as well as in the preparation of some dairy products such as some cheese and yoghurt, and in tofu, which vegetarians consume.

  Transglutaminase, also known as "meat glue" is often created from a coagulating product in the blood of pigs or cattle. Factor VIII, which blood product the WTS permits, is one such transglutaminase.

  Has the WTS made any public statements regarding the widespread use of this product? Or does its permission to use sub-particles of blood cover the use of "meat glue"?

  The use of this product is not always disclosed in an ingredients list, or it is disclosed with the generic description of "enzyme".

  Doug
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  Band on the Run

  It looks like not only Witnesses avoid blood. The ethnic butcher sells blood sausage- and it flies out the store with happy customers. Now I am going to have to be on the hunt for this product.
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  Bobcat

  Here are some links for further info.
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  Teary Oberon

  I've read that the Transglutaminase used for meat glue is more often created through microbial batch fermentation, though it can also be extracted from blood.

  It also raises the interesting question: is this substance actually bood, or is it an essential component of our concept of blood? Would blood still be blood if we were to remove this piece, as Aristotle would say.

  Seeing as how this enzyme is more a microbial byproduct that can be produced entirely independently of blood and also stand as its own unique substance, I could see someone making the argument that it is not blood.

  Do remember, the prohibition is on the specific act of taking blood into one's body, but not necessarily on other random uses of blood (e.g. juggling it or testing it or handling it). If a person were to separate out only the pure water content from a packet of blood, and then drink the pure water, has he violated a prohibition on taking blood into one's body, even if the water was originally derived from blood? Is water blood? The same questions can be asked of enymes like Transglutaminase.