Welcome to Call to Decision
Subject: Aborted fetal cell lines used to produce flavor enhancers
To:
March 29, 2011 - ACTION ALERT
Biotech
company using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor
enhancers
(Largo, FL)
Children of God for Life is calling for a public boycott of
major food companies partnering with Senomyx, a biotech
company that produces artificial flavor enhancers using
aborted fetal cell lines to test their products.
In 2010, the
pro-life organization wrote to Senomyx CEO Kent Snyder,
pointing out that moral options for testing their food
additives could and should be used. But
when Senomyx ignored their letter, they wrote to the companies
Senomyx listed on their website as "collaborators"
warning them of public backlash and threatened boycott.
Food giants Pepsico, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, Solae
and Nestlé are the primary targets of the boycott.
Senomyx website
states: “The company's key flavor programs focus on the
discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor
ingredients that are intended to allow for the reduction of
MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products....Using
isolated human taste receptors, we created proprietary taste
receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or
electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the
receptor.”
Their
collaborators provide Senomyx research and development funding
plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor
ingredients.
“What they
don’t tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 –
human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted
baby to produce those receptors”, stated Debi Vinnedge,
Executive Director for Children of God for Life, a pro-life
watch dog group that has monitored the use of aborted fetal
material in medical and consumer products for years.
“They could
have easily chosen animal, insect, or other morally obtained
human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors”,
she added.
In writing to
their collaborators, it took three letters before Nestlé
finally admitted the truth about their relationship with
Senomyx, noting the cell line was “well established in
scientific research".
Both Pepsico and
Campbell Soup also responded.
Shockingly,
Pepsico wrote: “We hope you are reassured to learn that our
collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating
lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This
will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per
serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next
decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives.”
Campbell Soup
was more sensitive in their response: “Every effort is made
to use the finest ingredients and develop the greatest
selection of products, all at a great value. With this in
mind, it must be said that the trust we have cultivated and
developed over the years with our consumers is not worth
compromising to cut costs or increase profit margins."
While Campbell
didn’t state they would change their methods, their
response, gave Vinnedge hope.
“If enough
people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these
consumer products, it may convince Senomyx to change their
methods”, she noted. “Otherwise, we
will be buying Coca-Cola, Lipton soups and Hershey products!”