CHEESE anyone?

I got this email from a friend:

Email #1

Sharing info on CHEESE which is used most in our local food operators & bakery (melalui ceramah Ust Badrul Amin) last Sunday @ UIA :

Susu memerlukan sejenis bahan yg diperolehi dari perut mamalia (lembu & khinzir) utk membolehkan ianya 'beku' - separa 'beku' dipanggil keju manakala 'beku' jadi 'whey powder'. Both ingredients are used widely in our daily food intake - pizza(s), cheese cakes, tart cheese or anything with cheese, cookies etc. The big Q - even if bahan dari perut 'lembu' being used to make the cheese - how do we know 'lembu' tu disembelih mengikut syariah Islam? How do we know the same 'lembu' being used in our food intake?

Unless, we (muslim) produced our own cheese - is there any in our local market? Pls share.

Email #2

Talking about cheese, as said by ustaz, memang betullah untuk bekukan cheese tu, they need bahan dari perut khinzir atau lembu. Masa di States dulu, I studied Human Nutrition and my Jewish Prof. memang every now and then masa tu kept reminding me to check cheese yang I beli untuk class commercial food production, cos dia jewish pun tak makan khinzir, I mesti pastikan dari ingredients cheese tu yg bahan pembekunya must be pepsinogen [lembu] dan bukan rennet [khinzir]. Kalau di States, 70% cheese guna rennet.

This email has been making the rounds since 2006 (tenggelam dan timbul semula tahun lepas 2008 dan tahun ni 2009 dan akan timbul semula selepas ini). So I have decided to act on it by not forwarding it unscrupulously and by giving my little CHEESE of advice. I consider this fardh al kifayah.

Question: how to react to a chain email of this kind? think first before you go on a forwarding rampage:
1. This email is an unsigned letter, no attribution, no perawi. It's not even written in a proper write-up manner, jumble up Malay and English alternately as if the writer/s are sure the readers are among those who are gullible enough to go for this purported threat against their aqida (and then hit the forward button).

2. The 1st email tried to use Ust Badrul Amin as the source of the info the writer heard from (meaning he/she is attributing this info to Ust Badrul Amin, an ex-UIA ass. professor - how convenient). But that is all, no further clarification, where exactly and when the talk or ceramah was held. Anybody can claim I heard so-and-so professor said this or that at this or that university.

3. The 2nd email also tried to attribute the info the writer got from an ustaz (very convenient again). The writer went on to claim that he studied Human Nutrition at the States (US) and that his/her Jewish Prof reminded him/her to check the cheese he/she buys for its class commercial food production (sic) and that the ingredients from the cheese must be from pepsinogen - a milk-coagulating enzyme.

Pepsinogen my foot! If this 2nd writer really studied Human Nutrition from the US then he is wasting public money for trying to con us into believing that both pesinogen and rennet are from a different source. Both pepsinogen and rennet are a milk-coagulating enzyme and are usually made from the inner lining of either an adult bovine or a calf's stomach. All these are a part of the crude preparation known as rennet, which was commercially used to curdle milk in preparation for cheese manufacture (read here). But now, rennet from calves to make the enzymes that are used in commercial production of cheese are rarely used. The rennet used now to produce the enzymes are from microbes such as yeast or other genetically modified micro-organisms.

Read this answer from JAKIM's website:

SUB KATEGORI: Halal haram barang gunaan
Aduan : Saya menerima banyak e-mail tentang produk cheese dari jenama Chesdale. Dalam kandungannya terdapat bahan "rennet". Saya rasa curiga sama ada rennet itu adalah dari khindzir atau lembu. Kerana di pack tersebut terdapat logo halal oleh New Zealand Islamic processed food management. Saya cuma nak tahu berapa pastinya rennet itu adalah dari lembu. Saya berharap encik dapat menolong saya untuk memastikan yang semua produk cheese yang ada di pasaran Malaysia adalah benar benar halal.
Tarikh Aduan : 07/09/2007 - 00:14:33

Jawapan : Salam, Rennet ialah enzim dari perut haiwan seperti lembu dan lain-lain yang digunakan dalam pembuatan keju dan hasilannya. JAKIM telah memastikan bahawa hanya sumber dan proses yang halal sahaja digunakan oleh semua pemegang sijil pengesahan halal JAKIM. Semua pemegang sijil pengesahan halal JAKIM telah menjalani pemeriksaan dan pemantauan yang ketat sebelum layak menerima sijil JAKIM. Cheesdale telah mendapat pengesahan halal dari Badan Islam Luar Negara yang diiktiraf JAKIM. Bagi mengetahui senarai Badan Islam Luar Negara yang mendapat pengiktirafan JAKIM, sila layari www.halal.gov.my Terima kasih dan harap maklum.

Read also this answer from www.halal.gov.my

This one is gathered from the PPIM website:

From: Mamot Wed Aug 19 2009, 05:24PM
Registered Member #13086
Joined: Wed Aug 19 2009, 05:11PM
Posts: 19
ASM,
Saya rasa terpanggil untuk merungkaikan kekeliruan yang timbul berkaitan rennet dan babi. Untuk pengetahuan tuan, rennet adalah enzim protease yang dirembeskan oleh perut abomasum anak lembu yang sedang menyusu. Pada masa ini hampir 90% rennet untuk tujuan pembuatan keju di hasilkan melalui teknologi kejuruteraan genetik sejak 1989 lagi. Ringkasnya rennet tersebut bukan dihasilkan oleh anak lembu lagi, tetapi oleh mikrob seperti yeast dan mikroorganisma lain yang telah diubah genetiknya untuk mengeluarkan enzim pengental susu tersebut. Rennet sedemikian dipanggil microbial rennet atau chymosin. Sekiranya difikirkan secara logik, adalah tidak bijak untuk membunuh anak lembu yang sedang menyusu hanya kerana nak makan keju. Perlu diingat, haiwan dewasa (lembu dewasa atau babi dewasa) tidak mengeluarkan rennet di dalam abomasum.

Sekian dimaklumkan.
School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology
Faculty of Science and Technology
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM-Bangi
SELANGOR
Tel : 017-8703282

Now this is what I meant by a credible source. You want to sent in a statement in your mail (doesn't matter from whom the original sender is from) -- please include your name and/or the original sender's name, address and a contact number to prove that you or they are the person/s who wrote and sent the mail. This is to proof or clarify that you or they wrote the statement yourself/themselves if in case someone wants to know its validity or to have more info on it.

I rest my case for now.

My verdict: Non-credible, wasting other people's time and mine too!