Rennet (About Cheese)

I love cheese!  It's always been one of my favourite foods but on my Vegetarian journey I have learned some things about cheese I didn't know. I'm glad to know now! And ALWAYS check for the big "V"


Here goes...


Rennet is a complex of enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach, and is often used in the production of cheese.Natural calf rennet is extracted from the inner mucosa of the fourth stomach chamber (the abomasum) of slaughtered young, unweaned calves. These stomachs are a by-product of veal production.Dried and cleaned stomachs of young calves are sliced into small pieces and then put into saltwater or whey, together with some vinegar or wine to lower the pH of the solution. After some time (overnight or several days), the solution is filtered. Deep-frozen stomachs are milled and put into an enzyme-extracting solution. The crude rennet extract is then activated by adding acid; the enzymes in the stomach are produced in an inactive form and are activated by the stomach acid.When making cheese, an enzyme is added to milk to separate it into two things: curds and whey. The enzyme added is most often rennet, which may be vegetable, microbial, or animal-sourced (in this case, it is an enzyme that comes from the ground-up stomachs of calves). The curds become cheese and the whey... remains whey. 

Wiki Source


YUCK! I can't believe I was ever eating calf stomach. Makes me feel so sick! Never mind... there are many alternatives and most cheese I find in the shop is Vegetarian. I still check and double check! I DO NOT want to eat that! Look for the "V" I avoid anything with Whey in it too!