I know "animal tallow" is animal fat & used in soaps / cosmetics, etc. but where *exactly* does it come from?

Question

How is it derived from the animal... and are the animals hurt or killed in the process?
Thank you.

People don't need to be rude/sarcastic. I love animals, and am actually thinking of volunteering for the ASPCA or joining PETA.

Regarding the tallow, I really wanted to understand where the fat came from. So I'm assuming it's directly under the hide. I wanted to know if the animals would be killed anyway, and this was sort of a by-product.

Anyway, thanks for the sincere (non-rude) answers I've gotten.
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Answer 1

Gee! Some of these answers really are over the top but I guess you didn't realize we have a problem in this section with *constant* harassment from meat eating trolls. Can you understand that asking vegetarians about meat would bother us? Please remember that we don't use products like tallow and find them quite disgusting!

Now to your question. Animal tallow normally refers only to the rendered fat from cattle. Pig fat is normally referred to as lard and bear fat??? Where'd that come into the equation???

Anyway, tallow is the white fat deposits you see marbling cuts of beef at the butchers shop (as an example). The commercial tallow you see in products is from the thick layer of fat that lies in a layer between the animals skin and flesh. In a human this would be the belly fat to help you understand its location in the animals body.

And yes, the animals have to be killed to 'harvest' it. If you are planning on becoming a veggie, products that contain it should be considered "off-limits".

Answer 2

Glycerin soaps do not contain animal fat, but neither does regular soap. I know what you mean, but when you add the lye (base oxidizer) the mixture undergoes a process called (I kid you not) soaponification. It is no longer animal fat, and the lye is no longer lye. BUTTTTTTTTTT that is the way NATURAL soap is made. Most soaps today use plant oils as they are far cheaper than animal fats. They are more stable, don't spoil like animal fat, make a more consistent product, and are easier to produce. If you went to the store and grabbed 15 different bars of soap off the shelf, it is highly unlikely you would get even one that used animal fat in its production process.

Answer 3

Tallow is derived from animal fat. Dead animal fat. Beef is usually considered the best. Pork is soft, and so is bear.

Put a pot of water on the stove. Put the fat cut up into cubes in the water. Bring to a boil. Continue boiling till all the fat is out of the tissue. Be very careful not to let the water boil out. Let this cool, then place in the refrigerator till the oil on top solidifies.

Remove the cake of fat from the water. Put this in a clean pot, and reheat very, very carefully. Maximum temperature should not go over 250-260 degrees. You are trying to remove all the moisture from the fat. The water will boil off leaving just the fat. Cool this again in the reefer as before. This time when you remove your cake, turn it over and scrape the impurities off it.
Again, in a clean pot repeat the last step again. Cooling again, and scraping again. Beef tallow can be used to make pemmican, candles, etc. Pork fat is called lard, and used in cooking.

Answer 4

Maybe the farmers use liposuction to extract the fat. It makes the animals feel better about themselves and provides a useful ingredient at the same time.

Ya gotta be kiddin' me, right? The previous answers are right. How else would tallow be made if it is animal fat. The fat under the hide w/ the meat?

Since you are concerned about it here are some sites that will help you:

To learn about and find cruelty free products (i.e. no animal testing, no animal based ingredients): http://www.caringconsumer.com/
This site has a list of animal ingredients (all the different names) so you can avoid them.

And www.cosmeticscop.com has a guide to/dictionary of ingredients used in make up, shampoo, soap, etc. Here's a direct link: http://www.cosmeticscop.com/learn/dictio...

Answer 5

scraps from meat processing plants and slaughterhouses, expired meat from retailers, euthanizations from animal shelters, and roadkill from the highway patrol are sent to rendering plants, where they are placed into vats and boiled at extremely high temperatures to create tallow, "meat and bone meal", and other powders and formulations that are then used in everything from soaps and cosmetics to animal feed, including dog food, and paving material for roadways and rubber tires. it is absolutely everywhere.

Answer 6

You could go to the PETA site for some very graphic images. But yes. Animals are killed. Pulled apart bit by bit while still living. Some of them are disembowled and skinned while still living.

First they are hauled up by a foot. One foot. Their throat is cut. So their heart pumps out as much blood as possible because blood in the meat makes it go bad faster. It takes 15 minutes for our heart to pump all our blood out.

They die slowly. Painfully. Piece by piece.

All because we think their body fat makes us pretty. Then we make fun of other cultures for their "superstitious" use of animal products such as drinking the gall of bears.

Answer 7

Here is a link of an article you might find interesting (it is kind of gross)
http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/writes/editorial/news/features/rendering_catsdogs.html

As I recall, various animal shelters send the euthanized animals to rendering plants.

Answer 8

It is extracted from animal fats. Yes, the animals have to be dead for their 'nutrients' to be boiled and treated chemically.
Sorry, but that's how it is. Hope this helps.

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Answer 9

It comes from 'rendering' fat of dead animals.

Answer 10

Yes, they are killed. I know its horrible, but what can you do? The animals are already dead... slaughtered for meat, so why not use the other body parts.