Vanilla Extract

[Abdullah Zul Bijadaayn]

On the shelf, you will find many products that have Vanilla Extract, cakes, pastries  & finally the Vanilla Ice Cream, we feel that other Ice cream flavors like Mango, Pistachio, Chocolate, Strawberry, etc. are made with Vanilla Ice cream itself, only by addition of some artificial colors & flavors.

 

Vanilla Ice cream should be avoided, because it has at least 2 ingredients which are DOUBTFUL :

1. Vanilla Bean specks
2. Emulsifier E 471

You can read some details at the website of Muslim Consumer Group

 

For Vanilla Extract, they wrote :

 

"Vanilla bean specks are made mostly from vanilla bean seeds which are obtained after alcohol extraction Vanilla Beans for vanilla flavors. The seeds leftover after alcohol extraction are dried and grind to make vanilla bean specks. This is called exhausted Vanilla bean specks in food industry. Vanilla beans specks without alcohol extraction are very expensive so many ice cream manufacturer do not use this type of vanilla bean specks. Our Ulema consider vanilla bean specks as not Halal if it is obtain after alcohol extraction because alcohol is used on seeds to get vanilla flavor and it contaminates the Halal vanilla bean seeds".

 

Regarding E 471, information by Wikepedia is fare enough :

 

Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471) is a food additive. These synthetic fats are produced from glycerol and natural fatty acids, from either plant or animal origin. E471 is generally a mixture of several products, and its composition is similar to partially digested natural fat.

[edit] Concern for vegetarians and vegans

E471 is mainly produced from vegetable oils, although animal fats are sometimes used and cannot be completely excluded as being present in the product. The fatty acids from each source are chemically identical. However, vegetarians and vegans, not wishing to consume any animal products, generally avoid products containing E471 unless they are certain that it is derived from vegetable oils. Also, because there is a risk of pork fat being present, Muslims and Jews will also avoid products containing E471 unless they know that it is made from vegetable oils. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) disease may also be a concern^{[citation needed]}.However there has been no official scientific study on this issue.