Other places we've stumbled upon GMOs

[bibliophile birds]

So, it seems like we're constantly stumbling upon new and oh so exciting places that our food has been f*cked with and we didn't even realize it. I guess I'm starting to assume all these things, but it's still surprising when I find one I wasn't aware of.

Here's today's discovery:

When calf-rennet grew scarce in the 1960s, scientists developed a synthesized type of Chymosin by fermenting certain bacteria or fungi (microbial rennet), but this also wasn't useful for all types of cheese-making. A solution using recombinant-gene (GMO microbial rennet) technology was developed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1990. This splices the calf-gene for producing chymosin into the genes of certain bacteria, yeasts or fungi, producing pure chymosin. Approximately 80 percent to 90 percent of cheeses produced in the United States and Great Britain are made using this GMO technology.

Found that while researching how cheddar cheese is made. Nice...

Please feel free to add to the list.

 

[freemotion]

Yowza!!! :/

 

[Rebecka]

&$%$!!! I love cheese. Guess I am going to have to try out that recipe for making rennet from nettles sooner than I had planned.

 

[valmom]

ACK! And I haven't even gotten to start making cheese yet. Is there a way to buy natural rennet?

 

[~gd]

ACK! And I haven't even gotten to start making cheese yet. Is there a way to buy natural rennet?

Question your proposed supplier, I would suspect anyone supplying To the do it at home trade would go out of his way to get non GMO materials. Commercial cheese makers may not care but the home trade does,

 

[bibliophile birds]

this site sells animal rennet and organic vegetable rennet. it's kinda of strange that the vegetable rennet is labeled organic but the animal rennet isn't... and that the animal rennet has "caramel coloring" as one of it's ingredients.

but it is available.

eta: so many people on SS make cheese, maybe one of them can shed some light on this. i know Ohiofarmgirl does and freemotion.

 

[bibliophile birds]

here's an interesting tidbit from this article:

Potter said that approximately 70 percent of all cheese is produced with fermentation-produced chymosin, while approximately 25 percent is made with microbial coagulants and the remaining 5 percent is made from calf rennet.

Unlike microbial rennet, fermentation-produced chymosin is produced by genetically-modified microorganisms. The microbes are removed from the final product after extraction, purification, and standardization of the chymosin; therefore, the chymosin is not generally considered a GMO product.

so, maybe i'm splitting hairs here, but i feel like it should still be considered a GMO product if genetically-modified mircoorganisms were present and doing the bulk of the actual work in turning milk to cheese...

 

[~gd]

this site sells animal rennet and organic vegetable rennet. it's kinda of strange that the vegetable rennet is labeled organic but the animal rennet isn't... and that the animal rennet has "caramel coloring" as one of it's ingredients.

but it is available.

The animal rennet comes from cattle processing and very few true organic cattle are processed, so they do the honorable thing and don't claim "organic". I have no ideal why caramel color would be added. The vegetables they can buy direct from organic producers.