One of my vegetarian friends posted something on fb: 8 Foods you didn’t know contained meat (of course, the title is a bit misleading).

Anyhoo, one of the things says that the added Vit D comes from sheep stomachs. How?

Sorry… Lanolin. Why is there vit D in lanolin and how does it get extracted?

“Cholecalciferol is produced industrially for use in vitamin supplements and to fortify foods by the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep’s wool. Paraphrasing a more detailed explanation , cholesterol is extracted from wool grease and wool wax alcohols obtained from the cleaning of wool after shearing. The cholesterol undergoes a four step process to make 7-dehydrocholesterol, the same compound that is stored in the skin of animals. The 7-dehydrocholesterol is then irradiated with ultra violet light. Some unwanted isomers are formed during irradiation. These are removed by various techniques, leaving a resin which melts at about room temperature and usually has a potency of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 International Units per gram.

In foods where animal products are not desired, an alternative compound is ergocalciferol (also known as vitamin D2) derived from the fungal sterol ergosterol.”

wiki

Ta.

poikilotherm said:

“Cholecalciferol is produced industrially for use in vitamin supplements and to fortify foods by the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep’s wool. Paraphrasing a more detailed explanation , cholesterol is extracted from wool grease and wool wax alcohols obtained from the cleaning of wool after shearing. The cholesterol undergoes a four step process to make 7-dehydrocholesterol, the same compound that is stored in the skin of animals. The 7-dehydrocholesterol is then irradiated with ultra violet light. Some unwanted isomers are formed during irradiation. These are removed by various techniques, leaving a resin which melts at about room temperature and usually has a potency of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 International Units per gram.

In foods where animal products are not desired, an alternative compound is ergocalciferol (also known as vitamin D2) derived from the fungal sterol ergosterol.”

wiki

I wonder how they get rid of the toxins? As I understand it, wool washings contain quite a lot of toxins that have been applied to the sheep to stop fly strike etc.

morrie said:

poikilotherm said:

“Cholecalciferol is produced industrially for use in vitamin supplements and to fortify foods by the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep’s wool. Paraphrasing a more detailed explanation , cholesterol is extracted from wool grease and wool wax alcohols obtained from the cleaning of wool after shearing. The cholesterol undergoes a four step process to make 7-dehydrocholesterol, the same compound that is stored in the skin of animals. The 7-dehydrocholesterol is then irradiated with ultra violet light. Some unwanted isomers are formed during irradiation. These are removed by various techniques, leaving a resin which melts at about room temperature and usually has a potency of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 International Units per gram.

In foods where animal products are not desired, an alternative compound is ergocalciferol (also known as vitamin D2) derived from the fungal sterol ergosterol.”

wiki

I wonder how they get rid of the toxins? As I understand it, wool washings contain quite a lot of toxins that have been applied to the sheep to stop fly strike etc.

Pigman would know, there are rules etc about when/how often/concentration of what can be applied before shearing etc. to make it acceptable. It gets tested along the line somewhere supposedly.