【1981 Archives】

Vegetarian981 Archivesvegan communities in the UK are in tumult over the revelation that the new plastic polymer £5 note contains animal fat in the form of tallow.

Tallow is a substance made of animal fat derived from beef or mutton (or even pork) which was traditionally used as the base for soaps and candles.

A petition gathering more than 100,000 signatures had demanded the Bank of England to "cease to use animal products in the production of currency that we have to use".

The Bank confirmed the use of tallow in the base substrate of the fiver in a Twitter conversation:

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After the backlash, the Bank said in a statement that the issue "has just come to light" and an external company which supplies the banknote substrate, Innovia, is "working intensively with its supply chain and will keep the bank informed on progress towards potential solutions."

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The new beef-fat infused notes are not only problematic for vegetarians who don't want to handle them, they also pose a problem for those wanting to eat them.

Yes, you heard that right. Eat them.

There is actually a surprising number of notes eaten or chewed, according to figures released by the Bank of England. This eye-catching fact was first spotted by Bloomberg.

The figures show that in the last year alone £128,000 has been destroyed by being chewed or eaten:

Since 2003, a total of nearly £1.5 million worth of UK cash met the same fate. And it's getting worse. Look at the figures for 2003 to 2006:

And then from 2013 to 2015:

Mashablehas reached out to the Bank of England requesting further context on how exactly the bank notes end up being chewed or eaten. They did not immediately respond.