England recently introduced a new £5 note with high-tech, anti-counterfeit features. But some animal rights activists in the Land of Brexit™ are swearing off the bill completely. Apparently the new notes are made using just a dash of animal fat.
As the Washington Post notes, the Bank of England confirmed on Monday that tiny amounts of animal tallow are used in the new money. The small beads of fat applied to the note reportedly help the currency slip into machines easier.
But vegans and other animal-friendly folks aren’t having it. They’re upset that the country’s new meat money makes handling bills an ethically compromising situation.
“Not cool at all,” one Twitter user complained. “I go to a lot of trouble to avoid animal products. Going to start refusing them.”
An online petition has already been launched on Change.org demanding that the Bank of England stop using animal fat in the production of the new notes. The petition has over 50,000 digital signatures already. But the country is unlikely to stop using animal fat. In fact, both the £10 note and the £20 note are scheduled to use the same production process by 2020.
Incidentally, beef tallow is precisely what made McDonald’s fries taste so good in the 1980s. It’s not just your imagination—Mickey D’s fries really did taste better when you were a kid. The fast food company stopped frying in delicious, delicious beef tallow in 1990 after outcry from vegetarians who were deceived into thinking they were animal-free.
It could not be confirmed by press time whether the new £5 note is delicious.