Update (2010-02-09) : Tootsie Roll Halal Again
This is one of those rare occassion that I have first hand answer to my question from the company. I updated the wikipedia entry for Tootsie Roll too. They use whey that comes from Pig. Please read the detailed list of products with animal content below.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: sandrews
Date: Mon, Dec 12, 2005 at 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Request for info from tootsie.com
To: aliabbasrizvi@xxxx.comHere is the information you requested regarding animal based
ingredients in our products.NO BEEF OR PORK
Charms Zip’s
Charms Sour Pops
Charms Sweet pops
Charms Sweet & Sour Pops
Charms Squares
Charms Sour Balls
Andes Chocolate Covered mint patties
Andes
Cotton Candy
Mason Dots
Tropical Dots
Crows
Wild Berry Dots
Charleston Chews
Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered CherriesBEEF
Charms Blow Pops
PORK
Sugar Daddy
Sugar Babies
Tootsie Roll
Frooties
Flavor Roll
Tootsie Pops
Caramel Apple Pops
Junior Mints
Fruit SmoothieRed 40 – is FD&C Red 40, produced from chemicals via chemical reactions.
Hope this helps.On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 15:28:58 -0500, aliabbasrizvi wrote
> Name………………. Ali Rizvi
> Title………………
> Organization………..
> Address……………. ———————
> City………………. ———–
> State……………… WA
> Zip……………….. 98—
> Phone………………
> Fax………………..
> Email……………… @gmail.com
> Questions/Comments….. Hi there,
>
> I am a fan of tootsie roll and other products made by your company.
>
> Being a muslim I don’t consume any animal products as a matter of faith
and only consume halal and zabiha meat.
>
> A friend brought to my attention that Tootsie rolls have products derived
from animals (some of them like Milk is fine) so I wanted to know verify
directly from the source if this is the case.
>
> Please let me know as soon as possible of any and all ingredients that are
derived from animal sources in your products so that I can enjoy my favorite
dessert and clear the confusion with all my friends.
>
> Thanks
> Ali
Halal Consumerism 
I have had the same issue and emailed the company several times. I was told that there is no animal product in the tootsie rolls, however about a year ago a friend read on a package that they have a small about of animal fat. However again, I have checked and it does not say this now. Whey however is from milk. This website explains this http://www.evitamins.com/healthnotes.asp?ContentID=2933008
Whey indeed comes from the process of making milk into cheese. It all depends on what is used as catalyst to turn the milk into cheese. The substance is that is used to convert milk into cheese is enzymes. Enzymes can come from either plant or animal source.
When the enzymes come from Animal source it is usually rennet (which is an enzyme from the intestine of the animals used in the digestive system to digest milk).
If the rennet used is from pork (porcine whey) then there is no doubt in my mind that all the byproducts including whey and cheese will become not OK (haraam).
When I asked (some time ago, may be I should send a fresh query) tootsie response clearly stated that they used porcine whey and hence my conclusion of tootsie roll not being OK.
Allah know best!
Thanks you for your response, I emailed the company again and asked if their tootsie rolls contain porcine whey and this was her response.
Mechell, thank you for the follow-up. We have never had that wording on our packaging. The whey is microbial. It is not animal product
So I am not sure. I see you are from washington, me too! My email is above if you want me to send you any update info
If you want to hear a reader’s feedback 🙂 , I rate this article for four from five. Decent info, but I have to go to that damn yahoo to find the missed bits. Thanks, anyway!
I just ate some of the Junior Mints. And I checked the ingredients and it has gelatin! So now I am going to throw them away! Somewhere online it said there are vegetarian/vegan Junior mints, than have a substitute for gelatin called Agar only in the UK and Canada. But this is Canada, and it says Gelatin!
Anyways, thanks for the info, on which one of these are halal and haram and from what animal.
[…] I previously reported them using pork rennet to make the whey used in their products. Now they use microbial rennet and are now kosher certified. […]