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The tainted milk / baby formula incident is the one that most readily comes to my mind [0]. That and the soy sauce made from human hair. [0] https://en.wikiped

by csdrane 10y ago

The tainted milk / baby formula incident is the one that most readily comes to my mind [0]. That and the soy sauce made from human hair. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

louprado 10y ago
I was speaking to some chemists recently that claimed some U.S. nutritional supplements have human hair as an ingredient. They went on to mention that the hair is often sourced from China and lately has tested for higher levels of heavy metals. I can not verify the above claim from an internet search. But does anyone know why the protein in hair might be more beneficial as a supplement than other forms of protein ?
- desdiv 10y ago
  That's a pretty common myth spread by articles like this one[0]. Wikipedia's article on Cysteine debunks it[1]: The majority of L-cysteine is obtained industrially by hydrolysis of animal materials, such as poultry feathers or hog hair. Despite widespread belief otherwise, there is little evidence that human hair is used as a source material and its use is explicitly banned in the European Union. Makes sense too, since ~50 billion chickens are slaughtered per year, the amount of poultry feathers available for processing probably dwarfs the amount of human available. [0] http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_bread.html http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_brea... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine
  - hn9780470248775 10y ago
    > poultry feathers or hog hair Yum! I'm not sure the truth is all that much less disgusting than the myth.
- MartijnHoutman 10y ago
  There is a Dutch television programme that does research on ingredients of common food products, to check where the ingredients come from. Sometimes based of speculation, but they tend to back it up with scientific research. Here is the episode about l-cysteine (in Dutch, parts are in English, not sure if watchable from outside NL): http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2014/30-118799-06-02-2014 http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2014/30-1187... One of the suppliers actually confirms that human hair is being used in production, and being sold to bakeries around the world. While European bakeries claim to only use the l-cystein from animal sources, this video tends to show otherwise.

by csdrane 10y ago

louprado 10y ago

I was speaking to some chemists recently that claimed some U.S. nutritional supplements have human hair as an ingredient. They went on to mention that the hair is often sourced from China and lately has tested for higher levels of heavy metals. I can not verify the above claim from an internet search. But does anyone know why the protein in hair might be more beneficial as a supplement than other forms of protein ?

desdiv 10y ago
That's a pretty common myth spread by articles like this one[0]. Wikipedia's article on Cysteine debunks it[1]: The majority of L-cysteine is obtained industrially by hydrolysis of animal materials, such as poultry feathers or hog hair. Despite widespread belief otherwise, there is little evidence that human hair is used as a source material and its use is explicitly banned in the European Union. Makes sense too, since ~50 billion chickens are slaughtered per year, the amount of poultry feathers available for processing probably dwarfs the amount of human available. [0] http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_bread.html http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_brea... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine
- hn9780470248775 10y ago
  > poultry feathers or hog hair Yum! I'm not sure the truth is all that much less disgusting than the myth.
MartijnHoutman 10y ago
There is a Dutch television programme that does research on ingredients of common food products, to check where the ingredients come from. Sometimes based of speculation, but they tend to back it up with scientific research. Here is the episode about l-cysteine (in Dutch, parts are in English, not sure if watchable from outside NL): http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2014/30-118799-06-02-2014 http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2014/30-1187... One of the suppliers actually confirms that human hair is being used in production, and being sold to bakeries around the world. While European bakeries claim to only use the l-cystein from animal sources, this video tends to show otherwise.