"Daniel Miller" > wrote in message
news
> 8th Continent is the brand of soy-milk that comes in those plastic
> roundish curve-contoured bottles. I formerly discovered that it had
> the sheep product of lanolin. But lately I reviewed the ingredients on
> a bottle and lanolin is not listed, only "natural flavors."
>
> My suspicion is that there has been no change in the composition of
> the product, they have merely realized they can tuck the lanolin
> content neatly away behind the innocuous designation of "natural
> flavors." Anyone agree with this suspicion? Anyone got the lowdown on
> the rules, if any, for the "natural flavors" catch-all?

I don't recall lanolin ever being listed as an ingredient. I could be
wrong. However, the lanolin comes from vitamin D3, derived from wool fat.
Below is an article from Vegetarians in Paradise about 8th Continent Soy
Milk.

from Vegetarians in Paradise (http://www.vegparadise.com/news19.html)

July 17, 2002 -- Vegparadise News Bureau

Lanolin-laced Soymilk Hits the Supermarkets: the Vitamin D3 Story


The world has functioned quite well with seven continents until this year
when two conglomerates combined their efforts to add one more, 8th
Continent. A joint venture of Protein Technologies International and General
Mills, 8th Continent is gearing up to flood the American market with its new
laboratory creation--soymilk that won't be labeled vegetarian.

Protein Technologies International, creator and worldwide marketer of Solae
brand soy protein and soy fiber and developer of this soymilk, has been a
division of Dupont since it was purchased by the giant chemical company in
1997.

Skeptics who wonder what kinds of products would emerge from joint efforts
of General Mills and Dupont would find some of their answers on the labels
of 8th Continent soymilk. No one should assume that a soymilk is vegetarian
or vegan.

When we called General Mills Consumer Information to inquire if this soymilk
were vegetarian, we were informed that the product was not vegan. The
representative first stated that it contained lanolin. When we asked what
the lanolin was for, he responded that it was in Vitamin D used to fortify
the milk. "The lanolin is from wool fat," he said.

In Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, the authors point out
that Vitamin D can be from animal and plant sources. Vitamin D2 is derived
from plants like some mushrooms, certain seaweeds, and yeast.
"Ergocalciferol, commonly referred to as vitamin D2, is commercially
produced from yeasts by irradiation," the authors say.

"When a fortified food or supplement label says 'vitamin D3 or
"cholecalciferol,' that means the origin was animal (generally fish, but
sometimes from sheep wool, hides or other animal parts such as cattle
brains). Often milk or margarine, which may be thought of as vegetarian
products, will contain vitamin D3 of animal origin. We have even found
supplements that are labeled 'vegetarian,' yet contain Vitamin D3; upon
further inquiry, the suppliers were surprised to realize that the Vitamin D
used was of animal origin. Occasionally a soymilk can be found that uses D3
instead of D2, though most have chosen the D2 (plant) form and clearly list
D2 on the nutrition panel."

To make the product more attractive and tasty, the manufacturer has added
color and natural and artificial flavor as well as sugar and salt. The label
does not indicate the source of the color or flavors. Information about
color and flavors are proprietary and does not have to be revealed by the
company. Nowhere on the label does one see the words "organic" or "non-GMO."

In contrast one can purchase Westsoy 100% Organic Non Dairy Soy Beverage
that has only two items on its ingredients list: FILTERED WATER AND WHOLE
ORGANIC SOYBEANS.

Uncowed by the dairy industry that has tried to prevent producers of rice
and soy beverages from using the word "milk" in their products, 8th
Continent is calling their product "soymilk." In 2000 the National Milk
Producers Federation wrote to the FDA claiming that soymilk is mislabeled.
"The law says you don't got milk if it doesn"t come from a cow," said a
spokesman for the milk producers group.

Packaged in 8 oz. and 32 oz. blue plastic bottles, 8th Continent soymilk
comes in three flavors. The original (plain) version contains 3 grams of fat
(none saturated), no cholesterol, 170 mg sodium, 8 g of carbohydrates, 7 g
of protein, 6 g of sugar, and1 g of dietary fiber.

The vanilla flavor is higher in sugar (10 g) and carbohydrates (11 g). The
chocolate beverage adds much more sugar (21 g), more carbohydrates (23 g),
more sodium (190 mg), and a small amount of saturated fat.

The small size sells for $1 while the quart size is $2.

Ingredients in the original flavor are listed below:
SOYMILK (WATER, SOY PROTEIN, SOYBEAN OIL, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SUGAR,
POTASSIUM CITRATE, COLOR ADDED, CELLULOSE GEL, SOY LECITHIN, DIPOTASSIUM
PHOSPHATE, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE, SALT, XANTHAN GUM, NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL
FLAVOR, VITAMIN A (PALMITATE), VITAMIN B12, VITAMIN D, VITAMIN B2
(RIBOFLAVIN) CONTAINS SOY INGREDIENTS