Snopes.com: “The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation”. Snopesed (verb), Snopsing (noun) Derivation: the online urban legend reference site: Snopes.com where you plug in keywords to reveal basic fallacies and/or half-truths inherent in a forwarded email. Usage: to indicate the validity of a suspect story: “It sounds fake. You should snopes it”. To question the origin of a forwarded email using red flag key words that initiate a “Snopsing” (“Important! Send this to everyone you know!”), or the dubious attribution of quibbles and witticisms to celebrities (often Kurt Vonnegut, George Carlin or Julius Caesar), and dire warnings and predictions that cause alarm in the well-meaning. My mom is the one who taught me the importance of “Snopsing”. She never sends out a fact-based email without “Snopsing” it first. She did once, and it led to the most odious of Vallow indignities: the debunking by my brother (the original Encyclopedia Brown). For my mom, a medical doctor and a stickler for facts, this led to harsh self reproach: “I KNEW I should have Snopesed it!” Believe me, no email has been propelled into the cybersphere from her imac unSnopesed since.
Because I spend most of my free time riding my horse and consuming sugar free jello, it is obvious that a certain question has been weighing heavily on my mind. On this week’s Snopes It! I ask the experts at Snopes.com if it’s true that…...JELL-O is made from the hooves of horses!
Answer: FALSE! JELL-O is NOT made from the hooves of horses! But before you can say “wahoo! Bring me a puddin’ pop!”, consider that this debunking led to an even grimmer revelation:
Claim: JELL-O is made from bones and hides.
Status: True.
Origins: JELL-O is made from gelatin, an animal product rendered from the hides and bones of animals. The production of gelatin starts with the boiling of bones, skins and hides of cows and pigs, a process that releases the protein-rich, collagen from animal tissues. The collagen is boiled and filtered, dried, and ground to a powder. Because the collagen is processed extensively, the final product is not categorized as a meat of animal product by the federal government.
The good people at Kraft – responsible for 80% of the gelatin market – claim that hooves don’t have enough collagen in them to use in JELL-O. May I suggest you Snopes it, JELL-O-man.
So….Jell-O is hide trimmings. JELL-O is animal tissue that’s been rendered, purified, filtered, purified again, leaving the protein collagen. The innocuous sounding “gelatin” (rhymes with skeleton) that makes up so many sweet treats, is actually a translucent, colorless, odorless, nearly tasteless substance that is made by the prolonged boiling of skin, ligaments, cartilage and bones from farm animals (acquired, presumably, from the remainders bins courtesy of our good ol’ American meat industry). We’re talking about pork skins and cattle bones. Pork gelatin, if you will. Head Cheese.
This sheds new light on my Aunt Eleanor’s popular and inarguably scrumptious Christmas Jell-O “Salad” – a “salad” of cherry JELL-O, Cool Whip, mini marshmallows and those tiny oranges from the can. But before you scapegoat JELL-O, consider that Skittles, Starburst and Gummi Bears/Worms are made with cattle bones and pig skin, too. All those chewy candies use gelatin/head cheese, except Swedish Fish. Swedish Fish don’t contain gelatin – one of a very rare group of gummy-type candies that’s made without it (Snopes It).