no. most medium to hard and about 2/3 of soft cheeses have rennet, which is usually taken from the stomach lining of a cow. Some manufacturers use a vegetable rennet. really soft cheese like cottage or ricotta can be made without the digestive enzyme.
so does the animal die to get this rennet, or does it pass through the mammaries to the milk?... sorry i'm confused, and my bf was wondering as well
Rennet is scraped from the dead stomach. It's a meat product. Just like gelatine in jelly and sweets, except that's made by boiling spines and hooves.
What about Mozzarela, creamed, or Asiago? Those are about all I eat. I knew about the rennet thing, but the Lard thing is new...
rennet is listed in ingredients, although it wont tell you whether it's an animal rennet or a vegetable one. also, if i'm not mistaken, i think it's listed as 'microbial enzyme' too sometimes.
in germany, you can get cow-rennet-free cheese at healthfood stores such as alnatura, or füllhorn, or at reformhaus. they usually don't say it if it is from an animal source, but they say it, if it's from a synthetic source. So if you are back here, ryu, you know where to go! oh yes, and rennet is lab in german.
blah.... That 'microbial enzyme' is in the cheese I eat. Thanks for the warning! Thank you! Thank you!!!
aha looky what i found... ___________________________________________________________ http://www.wholefoods.com/healthinfo/rennet.html Types Of Coagulating Enzymes Used To Make Cheese Animal rennin is the coagulating enzyme (rennin or chymosin) that is harvested from the stomachs of calves. Vegetable rennet is a misnomer given that the definition of rennet recognizes it strictly as an animal derived substance. Although cheese has been made using enzymes from the Lady Bedstraw, Stinging Nettle, and Thistle flower, the term vegetable rennet is most commonly used when describing enzymes produced using microbes. "Vegetable rennet" is sometimes used more generally to describe any non-animal rennet. Microbial rennets are enzymes derived from a controlled fermentation of a fungus (e.g., Mucor Pusillus, Mucor Miehi, and Endothia Cryphonectria) or microbial rennets. However, microbial rennets cannot be used to produce cheddar or hard cheeses, limiting their application as an alternative to animal or bioengineered rennets. Genetically engineered rennets. Shortages and fluctuations in the available supplies of calf rennet prompted the development of genetically engineered rennet. Food scientists can however produce a continuous and pure source of microbial chymosin by incorporating a calf's prochymosin gene into a microorganism. The first microbial chymosin was affirmed GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA in 1989, with many others following shortly thereafter. Currently, it is estimated that 50% of the chymosin used is produced by transgenic means. Rennetless. The term "rennetless" is used to mean two things in the cheese world. First, rennetless cheeses are also called "acid precipitated cheeses" and include cottage cheese, ricotta, and some mozzarella. These types of cheese are created using their natural acid levels and do not require the addition of a coagulating enzyme. The second interpretation of "rennetless" cheese is any cheese made without the use of animal derived coagulants. http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul10/articles22.htm Owing to an increase in demand for cheese production world wide – i.e. 4% per annum over the past 20 years, approximating 13.533 million tons (ref. 3) – coupled with reduced supply of calf rennet, has therefore led to a search for rennet substitutes, such as microbial rennets. At present, microbial rennet is used for one-third of all the cheese produced world wide. __________________________________________________________________ these are the only two sources i've looked at so far, but it seems to me that microbial rennets, or enzymes, are from fungus and not animals. the sources aren't in sync with how often this is used though.
from what i gather on this paper, http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul10/articles22.htm microbial enzymes is in reference to vegetable or alternate sources of rennet as opposed to the kind harvested from animals.
look for buffalo mozzarella, which is sold in balls. Will say on the label no rennet. bloody expensive, but the smoked is really close to paradise, so I treat the fam several times a year to "my pizza" using it. cream cheese could go either way: making your own is really easy: plain whole milk yougrt, a coffee filter and some patience. this is also paneer in Indian food. whip it for the spreadable effect. asiago is a VERY hard cheese. find a maker that won't use rennet. Even with soy and rice cheeses, be aware that not all are truly vegan. some are marked "kosher dairy." and kosher dairy can have gelatine: yoplait flavors. I got word some months back (and its buried in the back pages here somewhere) that one of the koshering associations was accepting gelatine in dairy products AND allowing "porcine sources." Pig skin gelatine? schmucks.
aww now i feel bad for eating cheese in past times!! thank god i don't eat cheeze anymore!!!.. Gawd people are cruel.
