When it released a new £5 note in September, the Bank of England said the new polymer bills were stronger, safer and better for the environment.
One thing they are not, it turns out, is meat-free.
To the dismay of vegans and vegetarians across Britain, the central bank has confirmed that tallow was used in the base of the new notes, which are worth about US$6.25.
Photo: AP
If you are wondering how many people would actually eat a bank note, the answer appears to be a lot: In promoting the new notes this year, the bank said that 5,364 bills had to be replaced last year because they had been chewed or eaten.
Tallow, a hard, fatty substance usually made from rendered beef or mutton suet, is much more likely to be found in soap and candles than in a currency.
“There is a trace of tallow in the polymer pellets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes,” the bank said repeatedly in responses to inquiries this week on social media.
That led to an outpouring of outrage.
“Being forced to pay taxes to contribute to animal products is a breach of rights,” Tim Doble, who describes himself in his Twitter profile as a vegan, wrote in a tweet Tuesday.
“Shut. up. omnivores. You have no say in this,” he added.
The anger was not just abundant, but also swift. By 4pm on Wednesday, a petition calling on the central bank to make a vegan-friendly bank note — “This is unacceptable to millions of vegans, vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in the UK,” it read — had received almost 100,000 signatures.
Not all were sympathetic to that cause, with many observing that there was no reason to eat a bank note in the first place.
“Even if I was a vegetarian I still wouldn’t eat a five pound note,” wrote a Twitter user who identified himself only as Chris. “Don’t know what all the fuss is about. Have a carrot.”
Critics of the new note said that the issue was about much more than what people choose to eat. Although some people are vegan or vegetarian for health reasons, or because a meat-free diet suits them best, others are also concerned about animal welfare.
The new notes also represent something of a problem for Hindus. Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism and eating beef is prohibited. The latest census, released in 2012, showed that there were more than 800,000 Hindus in England and Wales, making them one of the biggest religious groups there.
“There’s a choice issue that comes into it,” said Lynn Elliot, the chief executive of the Vegetarian Society in Britain. “If you go into the sofa shop, you don’t have to pick the leather one, you can pick the fabric one. But this is the currency of the land, so you don’t really have a choice.”
When you are trying to live a life that avoids harming animals, using a currency that includes a product derived from them makes that goal more difficult, Elliot said.
The bank has printed 440 million notes since this summer, but Elliot said her group was working with bank officials to resolve the issue.
This is not the first time that tallow has been discovered in a product for which meat might seem unnecessary.
McDonald’s had to pay US$10 million to vegetarian and religious groups in 2002 after lawsuits were filed in the US for its use of beef ingredients in its French fries. When the company disclosed that it had used tallow, Hindu groups in Mumbai, India, attacked one of the chain’s restaurants.
Similarly, brewer Guinness went vegan last year after coming under fire for using isinglass, a gelatinlike substance derived from dried fish bladders.
The new £5 note was unveiled in June and was said to be made from polymer that would allow it to last at least 2.5 times as long as its cotton-paper predecessor.
On a Web site introducing the bill, the bank said the notes were safer to chew and less likely to be destroyed by toddlers or pets.
In the interim, there is a possible refuge for British vegans: Scotland, whose leaders have been making noises about holding a second vote on independence after British voters decided in a June referendum to leave the EU.
The Bank of Scotland, which also prints currency, said in response to a question on Twitter that its £5 note was free of animal products.
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