Halal Food Guide - Gelatine

When you think of gelatine, you think "jelly". While it's quite obvious that jelly is something we're careful about, you'd be surprised how many other products also contain gelatine. So this post is partially for vegetarians as well.

Basically, gelatine is produced by partial hydrolisis of collagen from animal by-products - skin, bones and connective tissues. 

It's mainly used as a gelling agent and is found in jelly, marshmallows and other confectionery (gummy bears, jelly babies etc.)

marshmallows

It's also often used as a stabiliser or thickener in yoghurt and cream cheese. You'll also find it in most of the low-fat yoghurts, where it's used to add volume and texture without adding extra calories.

It's also present in mousses, as it makes them set and hold the texture.

Another use of gelatine is for pharmaceutical capsules - it's used to produce shells, making the capsules easy to swallow. You can't even imagine how long my Hubby was trying to find omega-3 capsules that would be Muslim-friendly ;)

So, how can we replace that?

• halal beef gelatine

While looking at different products I observed that pork gelatine is still the most commonly found type, although there's more and more products containing beef alternative available. But just because it isn't pork, it doesn't make it halal - gelatine must be produced from zabihah (ritually slaughtered) animal. 

Halal confectionery is not that hard to find - they're widely available from Asian grocers and major supermarkets in "world foods" section. And the ones pictured above were actually bought in Primark ;)

halal sweets in Tesco

• fish gelatine

To be honest, I've never been able to find any of it locally. By the way, I'm actually wondering why they can't use it to make these bloody omega-3 or cod liver capsules?

• vegetarian alternatives

Agar agar, pectin, carrageenan, konjac... There is a variety of plant-derived gelling agents.

image source: www.mysupermarket.co.uk

Vege-Gel, made with carrageenan, is great alternative to gelatine in the home cooking. Well, I say great, although I can't seem to make it work for me and I always screw it up ;) Although I'm planning to give it another go soon :)

Agar is probably the most popular in home cooking (at least most recipes call for it as a gelatine alternative), but it's hard to come across in the supermarkets. I get mine from Amazon ;)

I can observe, however, that agar-based jellies are very much on the soft side - they don't quite set as well as the animal-based ones.

Sainsbury's fruit jellies

Pectin is the one you will usually find in commercially produced sweets. While most of branded jellies will have pork and occasionally beef gelatine in them, look for supermarkets' own products. A lot of Sainsbury's and Tesco confectionery contains pectin and is suitable for vegetarians. Seriously, the little "V" sign is a life saver, seeing this I'm pretty much always sure I can safely buy the stuff.

[Please note: I'm not an expert. Any material posted comes from my own research and I'm open to constructive criticism and correction.]