Posted by Todd (65.187.231.105) on January 04, 2002 at 18:13:38:
In Reply to: Knowledge ,,continued posted by trip on January 04, 2002 at 11:41:44:
Most forms of make up, including lipstick, mascara and base, are based on tallow. Tallow, which reminds us of candles and once meant precisely that, is a nice word for the waxy remnant produced through rendering.
What, you ask, is rendering? Well, it's one of those little-known industries. Restaurants produce grease - from the fryers at McDonalds to grill scrapings, etc. Butcher shops and supermarkets generate lots of scraps, including expired product. Farmers need a way to dispose of deceased cows, pigs, etc. This is where the renderers come in. They pick up all this stuff and process it in plants you really don't want to visit.
Through grinding, boiling, steaming and a couple of other processes, they render all this stuff down to two products - tallow and bone meal. The bone meal mostly goes into pet foods while most of the tallow is consumed by the cosmetics industry.
If you are ever offered the opportunity to ride on an offal truck (thats the one that visits farmers and picks up their "donations"), I strongly advise you to say "No thanks".
And yes, this entire post is TMI.
shut up, don (picking up jonny's slack)
KTSSU,
T