Joint KOSHER and HALAL Products Update: Crest Toothpaste and Pork Fat
One of my friends from MySpace.com told his father about my previous article, where I detailed an email I received, signed by two prominent rabbis, about how Crest toothpaste may be made with ingredients derived from pork fat.
His father went -- not to his phone, but directly to a Crest employee at a recent "Hygiene Extravaganza". Well that Crest employee went apparently to Bill Landrigan, of Procter & Gamble's Professional & Scientific Relations department. Here is P&G/Crest's newest official response:
I met you at the Hygiene Extravaganza at the Art Center last month. You had some concerns about animal by products in Crest Toothpaste. Here is information from our corporate office that will address your concerns.Crest Toothpaste Ingredients and Potential for Animal By-products
This is to provide you background on the ingredients in Crest toothpastes. Recently several dental professionals have inquired about the use of animal by-products in Crest Pro-Health toothpaste.
Bill Landrigan and our Regulatory group explain why there may be some confusion.
All Crest toothpastes being produced today are completely free of any materials derived from animals. In particular, you can be assured that this is not a concern for Crest Pro-Health Clean Mint or Crest Pro-Health Clean Cinnamon.
A number of years ago, the glycerin used in our Crest products came from either an animal or vegetable source. However, we have since changed our sourcing strategy so that all the glycerin is vegetable derived. All Crest Pro-Health has been produced since its launch in April 2006 uses this vegetable-based glycerin.
There is one other ingredient that is in a few Crest variants that had the potential for being animal derived. The ingredient is Polysorbate 80 (commonly known as Tween) which is an emulsifier. Polysorbate 80 is used in Scope Mouthwash. There are some Crest toothpaste variants that use a small amount of Scope in them; therefore, these Crest products have an even smaller amount of Polysorbate 80 in them. Like with glycerin, we have now switched to a source of Polysorbate 80 that is 100% vegetable derived.However, this switch has occurred more recently than the switch with glycerin. As a result, there may be some Crest products on the retail shelves that have small amounts of Polysorbate 80 in them which might have been animal derived.
Again, everything that is being produced today is free of any animal by-products. We cannot guarantee that if someone purchases an older tube of one of these Crest variants that they are 100% free of an! imal by-products.
The particular Crest variants that contain Polysorbate 80 are:
Crest Sensitivity Whitening Plus Scope
Crest Sensitivity Extra Whitening
Crest Plus Scope Liquid Gel
Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme Cinnamon Ice
Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme Mint Explosion
Crest Rejuvenating Effects Paste & Liquid Gel
Crest Tartar Control Whitening Plus Scope Cool Peppermint and Minty Fresh Liquid Gels
Crest Whitening Plus Scope pastes: Cool Peppermint, Minty Fresh Striped, Citrus SplashThese are the only Crest variants that may be in question (depending on the age of the product) with respect to guaranteeing no animal derived ingredients.
If a dental professional wants to be 100% certain when advising patients that there is no chance of getting any ingredients derived from animals in their Crest toothpaste, you should advise them to refrain from purchasing the above variants from a retail outlet for at least another year.
There are many other Crest variants that Professionals can confidently recommend, for example, Crest Pro-Health Clean Mint and Clean Cinnamon.
So there you have it. Wait until 2009 for purchasing the above brands/flavors. If you have any further questions, or require further verification, Bill Landrigan's contact information is available on the last page of this 34-page PDF.
