Would Vegans Eat Jell-O Derived From Humans?

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Rebecca Greenfield 2,328 Views Jul 15, 2011

Vegans don't eat Jell-O because the crucial ingredient which gives it that wonderful texture, gelatin, is made from animal bits. But now it seems scientists are close to a substitute.

A study out of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found a non-animal substitute for the gelatinous substance: "the scientists developed and demonstrated a method where human gelatin genes are inserted into a strain of yeast, which can produce gelatin with controllable features." That's right, instead of eating animal bits, scientists propose creating eating human bits...or yeast bits. Something like that. To be clear: it's not as if they're grinding up fingers to make pudding snacks.

Would vegans actually eat this? On the one hand, there are no animals involved: But, then again, there's that creepy human element in those treats. So, what's the verdict? When we reached out to PETA they provided the following statement.

Scientists moving away from testing on animals and from using animal products is always a good thing. As long as human-derived gelatin will not include animal products and won’t be tested on animals, it sounds like a good development.

That sounds like a go to us. Welcome to the wonderful world of Jell-O, vegans.

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