Choosing The Best Beef Gelatin: The Complete Guide To Gelatin

Gelatin is a versatile food with numerous benefits. It has, by far, been the product that we have been asked to carry the most. Although we would have sold a ton of it, we never carried it, and I want to share with you why that is, but first, some background and basics.

What is gelatin made of?

Gelatin is a protein made from the collagen of various foods, including skin, hides, bones, tendons, and ligaments. It is not a complete protein, as it lacks the essential amino acid tryptophan.

Benefits of Gelatin

Gelatin is a food with numerous benefits. It supports happy hair, skin, and nails, as well as healthy joints. Gelatin is a rich source of amino acids, particularly glycine, proline, and lysine, all of which play crucial roles in maintaining a healthy gut and digestive system.

How is gelatin made

Most gelatin is made in the same way, with a few variables that differ. Here are the basics.

The first step is pre-treatment. This is where the raw materials are separated from the minerals and fat. This is done in one of two ways.

• The first is via an alkaline process for bovine connective tissues. The material is treated with an alkaline solution and left to sit for several weeks, which alters the collagen's structure. This makes the collagen soluble in water, allowing it to be separated from the rest of the raw material. 

• The second is via an acid process. This is typically done when a company seeks to produce gelatin from non-connective tissues. This involves soaking the material in an acidic solution, typically hydrochloric acid, for a specified period. This removes minerals and bacteria, and helps the collagen break down into gelatin.

After pre-treatment, the raw materials are mixed with hot water and put through a multi-stage extraction process. Different water temperatures can be used to affect the strength of the gelatin. This is also known as the bloom value.

After extraction, the next step is purification. Separators are used to remove any remaining impurities, such as fats and fibers. The solution is then filtered, and the remaining minerals and acids are removed.

Next, the solution is concentrated via evaporation. Then it is sterilized, cooled, dried, and milled into a powder.

Gelatin versus collagen

Many people ask what the difference is between gelatin and collagen. 

Gelatin needs to be further broken down into peptides in the digestive system, whereas collagen peptides are already in this form. Collagen peptides are more readily absorbed than gelatin for this reason.

Collagen peptides will dissolve in cold and hot liquids, but gelatin will only dissolve in hot liquids. Gelatin has thickening and gelling properties, while collagen peptides do not.

Collagen peptides are best suited for smoothies, drinks, and other beverages that you do not want to thicken. Gelatin is best for making gummies, desserts, cooking, and baked goods.

Foods Rich in Gelatin

Foods rich in gelatin are those that generally need to be cooked for a long period of time to extract the collagen and form gelatin. These include foods such as oxtail, tripe, intestines, snouts, feet, bones (for bone broth), and cheeks, among others. The long, slow cooking methods help break down the collagen into gelatin. Gelatin is what causes a good stock to become jiggly when refrigerated.

How to use powdered gelatin

Gelatin powder can be added to lots of foods and recipes. Before using, you will need to “bloom” it by soaking it in cold water, then dissolving it into a hot liquid or melting it before adding to recipes.

The recommended dosage for benefits is generally around ten to fifteen grams per day, or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.

Those with histamine-related issues should avoid using gelatin powders. Many gelatin powders may contain small amounts of sulphites, as some may be left over from the manufacturing process. This amount can vary significantly from company to company. Good gelatin will not have more than a trace amount. If you are very sensitive to sulphites, you may want to avoid gelatin powder.

Gelatin should be stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and moisture.

Gelatin Recipes

There are lots of easy ways to get more gelatin in your diet. Here are some of our favorites.

Bone Broth

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef bones

  • 2 chicken feet, optional, but ups the gelatin content.

• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions:

• If you are using raw bones, especially beef bones, it improves flavor to roast them in the oven first. Place them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes at 350°F.

• Place the bones in a large stockpot.

• Pour cool filtered water and the vinegar over the bones. Let it sit at room temperature for thirty minutes.

• Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 24 hours.

• Strain and let it cool.

• Store in freezer-safe glass jars in the freezer.

  • Storing bone broth in single-serving jars is a great way to have it readily available whenever you need it.

Fluffy Marshmallows

Ingredients:

• 60 mL water

• 125 mL water

• 1.5 Tablespoons of gelatin

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• ⅛ teaspoon of salt

• ½ a cup of powdered coconut sugar

Instructions:

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• Pour 60 mL of water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin

• Allow it to sit for five minutes to bloom.

• In a small saucepan, add 125 ml of water, vanilla extract, and salt. Pour the coconut sugar into the center of the saucepan, but do not stir. 

• Turn the heat on high and bring the liquid to just below a simmer. You don’t need to boil it; get it hot enough for the sugar to dissolve.

• As soon as you see bubbles on the edges and the sugar has melted, turn off the heat.

• Pour the mixture into the bowl, on top of the bloomed gelatin.

• Use a hand mixer and mix until the mixture is light, fluffy, and thick, for approximately three to five minutes.

• Pour the mixture into the lined baking tray and smooth it out evenly.

• Refrigerate until set (around 1.5 to 2 hours)

• Cut into squares and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

• Enjoy!

Homemade marshmallows are so delicious!

Yummy Gummies!

Mango Gummies

• 1/2 cup pureed mango (fresh or frozen)

• 1-2 tbsp Cacao fruit nectar (tastes fruity, not chocolately, despite the name)

• 1/2 cup coconut water or water

• 30 grams of gelatin powder 

Raspberry Gummies

• 1/2 cup raspberry puree, defrosted from frozen to room temperature

• 1/2 cup coconut water or water

• 2 tbsp Cacao fruit nectar

• 30 grams of gelatin powder

Blueberry Apple Gummies

• 1/2 cup blueberries puree, defrosted from frozen to room temperature

• 1/2 cup of apple juice

• 1-2 tbsp Cacao fruit nectar

• 30 grams of gelatin powder

Instructions:

• Puree the fruit with the desired liquid and cacao fruit nectar.

• Place the pureed fruit into a small saucepan. If your little one is sensitive to texture, you can strain the pureed fruit. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over it and let it sit for 5 minutes to allow the gelatin to bloom. Whisk over low to medium heat until the gelatin is dissolved. Do not let it boil.

• Pour the mixture into moulds and place them in the fridge to set for 1 to 2 hours, or until firm to the touch.

• Remove from moulds and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

It's tough not to eat the whole batch at once.

Where does gelatin come from?

Gelatin sold in the US comes from a variety of sources.

• The vast majority comes from conventionally raised pigs.

• The next largest source is conventionally raised cattle, with the majority originating from the US and South America. 

• Many companies sell gelatin made from grass-fed cattle raised in South America.

• Minimal amounts come from other countries around the world.

Gelatin Ethical Issues

There are several ethical issues associated with gelatin products, which is why we have not stocked it in the past.

In the US, conventionally raised pigs are raised in horrific conditions, fed literal garbage, and produce massive amounts of pollution and waste. Obviously, we wanted no part of this. There are not enough truly pasture-raised pigs in the US to produce enough gelatin to really supply enough of it for the large amounts needed for commercial use. I would recommend a very high level of skepticism towards any company claiming they are selling porcine gelatin from pasture-raised pigs. We looked into several products claiming to be made from pastured pigs, and a whole lot of companies were lying about it, or their definition of pastured was quite a bit different than what most people would consider pastured. Keeping pigs confined and giving them access to a tiny patch of outdoor space is not pasture-raised in our eyes. 

Conventionally raised cattle come with their own set of problems, and I think most people are more than aware of what they are. We don’t need to delve too deeply into that.

What I want to delve into most deeply is gelatin sourced from South America, including those companies that claim to obtain grass-fed gelatin from there.

Cattle ranching in South America, particularly in Brazil, is marred by numerous ethical concerns. It is basically impossible to source ethically produced gelatin and collagen from South America at this time, and I’m going to explain why.

The vast majority of grass-fed gelatin sold in the US is produced from South American cattle, with most coming from Brazil. Some companies will buy the raw materials from there, refine them in another country, and hide their true origin. For example, they will say produced in Germany, leaving out that the initial starter material came from Brazil.

Brazilian cattle farming comes at a very high cost. It is the leading cause of rainforest deforestation. The Amazon rainforest is often referred to as the lungs of the Earth. It’s not worth losing over beef and gelatin that can be farmed and produced elsewhere without environmental and ethical concerns.

In just the last six years alone, over 800 million trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest to make way for beef production. The hides from this are used to produce the vast majority of grass-fed beef gelatin products on the market. While the Amazon Rainforest is heavily protected on paper, in reality, that paper is not worth much.

Between August 1, 2018, and July 31, 2021, more than 34,000 square km (8.4 million acres) disappeared from the Brazilian Amazon. That’s an area larger than the entire nation of Belgium and a 52 percent increase compared to the previous three years.

The primary driver of this is cattle and, in particular, cattle laundering.

In a cattle laundering scheme, ranchers move cattle from “dirty” ranches, which contribute to deforestation, to ranches that are “clean,” with no recent forest loss. By the time those cattle arrive at slaughterhouses, the path they’ve taken is obscured, as is the damage they’ve caused.

What’s astonishing is that much of this laundering is happening out in the open; investigations largely rely on public records in Brazil, and their findings have circulated for years. Meat from laundered cows is almost certainly now sold around the world. And like that, the Amazon continues to fall.

As much as 90 percent of all forest that’s been cleared in the Brazilian Amazon is now covered in pasture, most of which is for cattle.

It is not possible to source ethically produced gelatin from Brazil due to the hidden and corrupt nature of the process. Any company claiming to be is either not being honest or is fooled by fake paperwork and good marketing.

JBS is the leading supplier of gelatin from Brazil. JBS has had more scandals than you can shake a stick at, from insider trading to bribery, the usage of slave labor, and the sale of rotten meat. They mix ingredients from many different farms together, as do nearly all the other large suppliers, so it can be nearly impossible to know which farms they came from or the practices of those farms.

“The investigation also uncovered footage of a Temer aide carrying a suitcase containing nearly $150,000, allegedly handed over by JBS. Ricardo Saud, a JBS executive, subsequently testified the company had bribed 1,829 candidates from across the political spectrum, spending almost $250m.”

Who doesn’t walk around with a suitcase full of money? That’s not suspicious at all.

The company has also come under fire over “dirty meat.” In 2017, JBS was caught up in an industry-wide scandal; police claimed inspectors had been bribed to allow the sale of rotten beef, falsified export and other documents, and had deliberately failed to properly inspect meat plants.

In 2017, an investigation by the Guardian and Repórter Brasil found JBS had bought beef from a farm that was under investigation by Brazilian prosecutors for using workers in conditions described as being like “modern-day slavery.” Documents said police had found men forced to live in conditions described as inhumane and degrading, with inadequate shelter, toilets or drinking water.

This is the behavior that many people unknowingly support by buying gelatin produced in South America. The problem is that most companies are not transparent and conceal the origin of their collagen, its production process, and the identity of the manufacturer.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Guardian, ITV and O Joio e O Trigo has found that tens of thousands of cattle raised on farms damaging tropical forests were processed at abattoirs connected to international collagen and gelatin supply chains.

Some companies claim that they are just buying the by-products of the Brazilian cattle industry, so they are not contributing to the problem. This argument is a giant steaming pile of horseshit.

Bovine collagen (which gelatin is made from) is a so-called by-product of the cattle industry. But “by-product” is a misleading term, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, an advocacy group headquartered in London. “​​I wouldn't call any of them by-products. The margins for the meat industry are quite narrow, so all of the saleable parts of the animal are built into the business model,” Rick Jacobsen, commodity policy manager at the EIA, said.

Non-meat products account for just under a half a slaughtered cow's weight and can generate up to a quarter of meatpackers’ incomes, according to estimates by Bain & Co, a market research group. By far the most valuable “by-products” are the cattle hides used to make leather and collagen.

The immense violence caused by the expansion of cattle ranching in the Brazilian Rainforest against the native peoples there is horrific.

“No cattle ranching expansion in the Amazon can take place without violence,” said Bruno Malheiro, a geographer and professor at the Federal University of Southern and Southeastern Pará.

For Kátia Silene Akrãtikatêjê, the first woman to become a leader of the Gavião people, it’s like living on an island. Her people feel “surrounded, suffocated”, she told TBIJ. The Mãe Maria reserve is the only territory in hundreds of miles that still resembles the imposing Amazon rainforest.

Malheiro calls it “a process of territorial confinement”. For the Gavião, maintaining the forest where they hunt, fish, farm and collect seeds comes with threats, attempted invasions and arson.

In September last year, an entire village was burned down. A school, dozens of houses and a patch of forest were reduced to ashes. The fire was no accident, they say, and the community still lives in fear.

“[The farmers] destroy what is theirs, and invade what is ours. I can’t understand why they destroy everything,” the Indigenous leader said.

According to José Batista Afonso, a lawyer and land rights defender working with Pastoral Land Commission in Marabá, the region offers a glimpse of what the whole Amazon could look like if ranching continues to expand unchecked.

Brazil’s Piripkura Tribe has suffered horribly from beef production. Many of their people have been killed in massacres, and more than 12,000 hectares of their land has already been destroyed.

In addition, slave labor runs rampant in the Brazilian cattle industry.

Workers on various beef farms in Brazil have been found toiling in “slavery-like conditions,” according to a report from Brazilian investigative agency Repórter Brasil, the Guardian reported.

On some operations, workers were paid around $11 a day and were kept in shacks without running water, electricity, and toilets. Since 1995, 55,000 workers have been rescued from similar situations during government audits, according to the Guardian. The farms engaging in this activity often supply multinational meat processors, the investigative report found, including JBS and Minerva.

Now you can see why we have never and will never sell collagen peptides, gelatin, and beef organ supplements from South America.

For the sake of our planet and the Native peoples in the Amazon, please boycott all beef products from South America and especially Brazil. Does this mean there are no good cattle ranches in South America? No, of course not. It simply means that it is nearly impossible to know which farms the products have come from when you receive them.

Gelatin Adulteration

Gelatin adulteration has been going on a long time. Most gelatin adulteration is done for economic reasons.

The first type is when cheaper forms of gelatin, such as porcine, is substituted for beef, donkey, or deer gelatin, but the label still claims to be the more expensive form of gelatin. For those keeping Kosher or Halal, this can be especially problematic.

The second form is the more concerning one. This is where gelatin is made from leather making waste. This can be contaminated with hazardous forms of chromium, lead, and chemicals used in leather-making, which are highly toxic.

There are several different types of testing that companies can use to detect gelatin adulteration. However, since most gelatin is sold at a very low price and the tests can be expensive, most companies don't conduct adulteration testing.

How to choose the best beef gelatin powder

So what should you look for in a beef gelatin powder?

The first is that it should be made from grass-fed cattle. I don’t mean confined cattle that are fed hay and spend only a tiny amount of time; I mean cattle that spend their days wandering around lush pastures. 

The second is the source. Look for gelatin that is made from Australian cattle. Australia has some of the strictest regulations on cattle farming and some of the best traceability laws for beef ingredients used in supplements. Each carton of beef must have a process date and a barcode that links it to a particular animal with known credentials (Bull, Cow, Veal, Steer, and more), including the details of the farm from which the animal originated.  Every animal has an ear tag identifier when it’s born, which allows the regulator, the Australian Government, to track every movement of that animal. Food safety, quality, and regulations are far more stringent and well-enforced in Australia than they are in the US. 

The cattle should:

• Not be given antibiotics, hormones, Bovaer, Rumin8, and other synthetic feed additives. 

• Graze freely on wide-open pastures that are not sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, including Glyphosate, and eat a wide variety of different grasses.

The gelatin should be tested for heavy metals, pesticide and herbicide residues, and microbial contamination.

Third-party tested Beef Gelatin

We are frequently asked about third-party testing, not just of gelatin, but of many other supplements as well. Check out our blog to see if third-party testing is a good measure of quality control, or if it’s just a marketing gimmick.

Thankfully Nourished Australian Beef Gelatin

Finding an ethical gelatin has been a multi-year process, marked by considerable frustration. It’s tough to spend countless hours hitting wall after wall searching for something, while being gaslit by companies and asked every day if we had a good source of gelatin to recommend.

Thankfully Nourished Beef Gelatin is produced in Australia from grass-fed cattle and is free from antibiotics, hormones (including rBGH), Bovaer, Rumin8, and Glyphosate. It is third-party tested for heavy metals, pesticide/herbicide residue, and microbial contamination. Click the button below to view the test results.

Gelatin third-party test results.

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The cattle graze on unsprayed pastures, eating a variety of grasses over an extensive range of pasture. There is no slave labor involved, and land is not cleared to make room for pasture. Australia naturally contains vast amounts of pasture land that is not suitable for row crop farming, making it ideal for grazing cattle, which, when properly managed, helps to improve the land. 

Thankfully Nourished believes that not only should their products be incredible, but they should work to make the world a better place. All the products in their range are uncomplicated whole foods, sourced from the highest-quality ingredients. They partner with A21 in their goal to prevent and end human trafficking; with Samaritan's Purse in their worldwide humanitarian aid efforts; and with Mission Without Borders in their family sponsorship program, helping families build their way out of poverty. 

We are thrilled to partner with Thankfully Nourished, a company that shares our values, to offer you the most incredible beef gelatin with all the benefits and none of the ethical concerns.

Thankfully Nourished Australian Beef Gelatin

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Gelatin questions and support

If you have questions about our gelatin, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, and we would be happy to answer your questions!