According to a documentary I’m watching right now and a source from the internet it’s possible and almost sure that human hair, duck and chicken feathers are used in dough improver.
The makers of the (Dutch) documentary where denied access to many factories that produce L-Cysteine … one factory denied because they said the factory was too dirty to show on TV. A German reporter working in China confirmed (he has visited one) that they are dirty as the hair is collected on the not so clean floors …
China has no law to prevent use of L-Cysteine from human origin in food … does Taiwan?
According to some manufacterers the [strike]can contain up to 80% human hair[/strike] L-Cysteine is made of up to 80% human hair, the rest is feathers and others …
[quote]Eating Human Hair by Another Name?
by Syed Rasheeduddin Ahmed
Your bakery product may contain human hair and you may not even realize it. It comes in the form of L-Cysteine, a non-essential amino acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. There are 20 amino acids of which 8 are essential for human growth. The amount of these essential amino acids in a protein determines its quality. Casein, a milk protein, has the highest quality of protein whereas wheat proteins are lacking in amino acid Lysine, so they have less quality than milk protein.
L is refers to levorotatory a type of optical rotation of a compound under plane-polarized light.
L-Cysteine is used as a reducing agent in bakery products. It is used to:
Reduce the mixing time of the flour dough,
Stop shrinking of pizza crust after it is flattened,
Help move the dough through various bakery processing equipments or dough conditioners.
L-Cystein is used in Bagels, Croissants, Hard Rolls, Cake Donuts (from human hair in Dunkin Donut’s cake donuts only, Yeast raised donuts do not contain L-Cysteine), Pita Bread, some Crackers and Melba Toast. It is also used as a nutrient in baby milk formula and dietary supplements.
The source of L-Cysteine is human hair, chicken feathers, cow horn, petroleum by-products and synthetic material. It was reported by a food company that a Rabbi refused to Kosher certify L-cysteine from human hair obtained from a temple in India where hairs are cut because of religious rituals.
L-Cysteine is manufactured in Japan, China and Germany only. Human hair is the cheapest source for L-cysteine.
Some reports suggest that European Union countries are thinking to ban the use of L-Cystiene from human hair in food products. There is no pressure from consumers in USA and Canada to ban the L-Cysteine from human hair. It is a haram product for Muslims because it is a part of human body. Islam does not allow to consume any part of human body. Some Rabbis accept it as Kosher ingredient saying it is dead part of the body but some do not.
Majelis Ulema of Indonesia has halal certified L-Cysteine from synthetic material for Ajinomoto Company and this L-Cysteine is used in USA by Caravan Products of New Jersey in their mixes for bakery industry.
Majority of L-Cysteine used in USA is from human hair, so please read the ingredients on the package, if you find it call or write to manufacturer and find out the source of L-Cysteine and also tell them that you can not use it from human hair.[/quote]
[quote] A vegetarian friend alerted me to the existence of an animal-based flour additive called L-Cysteine. It is an amino acid which is used as a flour improver. It is known as E920 and is permitted for use in all biscuits, breads and cakes except those that claim to be wholemeal.
The problem for a would-be vegan like me is that traditionally L-Cysteine is produced from feathers, pig bristles and sometimes even human hair. These days L-Cysteine can also be produced synthetically but apparently human hair remains one of the richest sources of this amino acid – it makes up about 14% of your hair - and there is a small industry in China making the additive from hair clippings.
There’s even a paper on the web written by a Rabbi about whether L-Cysteine from human hair is kosher. Apparently it is – so long as the hair in question was not harvested from dead bodies.
So how commonly is L-Cysteine used? My vegetarian friend claims that the problem with E920 is that – even when it is used – it doesn’t have to be listed in the ingredients. She says that’s because it is broken down in the baking process so the manufacturers argue that doesn’t constitute an ingredient.
That is something the Food Standards Agency flatly denies. It says that L-Cysteine must always be labelled. Indeed, the industry says the reason you so rarely see E920 on labels is that these days it is very rarely used (apparently it was much more common fifteen years ago). The industry also says that the only L-Cysteine their members would use is the synthetic variety.
That is a little odd because according to the Food Standards Agency the European regulation specifies that only L-Cysteine produced from duck and chicken feathers or from pig bristles can be used. That means that, so long as your daily bread was baked in Europe, it almost certainly does not include human hair.
But it leaves me a little confused. If British bakers are using synthetic L-Cysteine are they breaking EU guidelines? It is hard to get a straight answer because the biscuit makers told me it would be added when the flour is milled and the millers say it something the bakers would add[/quote]
[quote]The Bad Stuff
If you are not careful you could end up blighting your lovely, fresh home made bread with some rather nasty chemicals. L-Cysteine (E920) is obtained from poultry feathers or human hair. It can also be found in cigarettes! Another one to watch out for is Amylase (E1100). This is derived from the pancreatic acid of a pig. These are sometimes listed in ingredients as simply “enzyme”.[/quote]
