A story of tallow, rifles and banknotes.

Beef and mutton tallow (rendered beef or mutton fat) are causing problems for the British once again.

Back in 1857, the Indian Rebellion began as a mutiny among the sepoys of the army of the British East India Company. Hostilities started in the town of Meerut and quickly spread throughout central India.

The causes of the rebellion were complex but the final straw was a controversy over the ammunition for a new muzzle-loading Enfield rifle. The cartridge for the rifle consisted of a bullet and a tube of gunpowder pre-wrapped in paper. To load the new rifle, the sepoys had to bite off the end of the cartridge, pour the powder down the barrel and then ram down the wad of paper and the bullet. A rumour started that the paper cartridges were greased either with fat from pigs, which are regarded as unclean by Muslims, or from cows which are sacred to Hindus. 

On January 27, it was ordered that all cartridges were to be issued free from grease so that the sepoys could grease them themselves with an acceptable fat. The loading drill was also modified so that the cartridge could be opened by hand, and not bitten. This however, merely caused many sepoys to be convinced that the rumours must be true. The result was a very bloody affair indeed.

Moving forwards to 2016, it has come to light that the Bank of England’s new polymer banknotes contain tallow. The revelation has left vegans, vegetarians and some faith groups who have rules against consuming or using beef, feeling horrified.  

The Bank of England has said its supplier is working on “potential solutions” after more than 150,000 people signed a petition calling on them to remove the animal fat from their new bank notes.

Initially the Scottish Banks, the Clydesdale Bank, Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland, all said that their notes were free of animal products. However the manufacturer of the polymer, De La Rue, have now admitted that there is the potential for minute traces of animal derivative, equivalent to a maximum of 0.003% per banknote.

Oh dear, the curse of the tallow has struck again.