The positive properties of gelatine have been undisputed for centuries. Even today many consumers put their trust in the healthy properties of this natural foodstuff. Gelatine as a high-quality source of protein must not be missing from the diets of many top sports personalities – and of hobby sportsmen and women. Moreover, gelatine, which is practically free of cholesterol, fat and sugar, acts as a companion to a low-fat and whole-food diet.

Gelatine – The Best Examined Foodstuff from Cattle

80 per cent of the edible gelatine produced in Europe is pure pig-skin gela-tine. 15 per cent comes from cattle spit. This is the thin layer containing collagen between the upper skin and the subcutaneous layer. The remaining 5 per cent comes from pig and cattle bones, poultry and fish.

However, since BSE has been a topic of discussion, some consumers have become sceptical about gelatine. Understandably, but without justification: in fact, no other foodstuff from cattle has yet been so comprehensively examined for safety with regard to BSE as gelatine. “Gelatine is procured only from raw materials from healthy animals that have been examined by veterinary surgeons and whose meat can be bought at the local butcher’s,” explains biologist and head of the committee on Legal Provisions, Hygiene and Quality of the European Gelatine Association GME, Dr. Uwe Seybold.

Even before the EU Commission adopted pan-European regulations in 1999, the gelatine manufacturing industry had introduced quality controls in the early 1990s in order to ensure the absolute safety of the gelatine.

On the basis of international research results the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission for Health and Consumer Protection have confirmed that gelatine is safe.

International Studies Confirm Gelatine’s Safety

In an international study presented by scientists from the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, the Baltimore Research and Education Foundation (USA) and the ID-Lelystad (Netherlands) in Brussels in December 2001, the manufacturing process for gelatine from cattle bones in particular was examined. In this connection, the results of earlier studies were confirmed, i.e. that the methods used to remove and kill BSE pathogens are extremely effective. Even if raw materials that had previously been artificially infected with BSE were used in the trials, the results of the studies showed that no infectious residues could be detected even with the most sensitive measuring methods.

The GME, the European Association of Gelatine Manufactur-ers, commissioned this study in 1999 under the auspices of the European Commission as part of its BSE Research Programme.

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