Is the cheese-making enzyme from baby cows safe?
Safety evaluation of the food enzyme rennet containing chymosin and pepsin A from calf abomasum
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
No new data was generated, yet the enzyme was declared safe.
Most people expect regulatory approvals to involve new studies, lab tests, or clinical trials. Here, EFSA relied entirely on historical use and existing literature—no experiments, no stats, no effect sizes.
Practical Takeaways
You can confidently consume traditional cheese made with calf rennet, knowing it’s been safely used for millennia and doesn’t remain active in the final product.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
No new data was generated, yet the enzyme was declared safe.
Most people expect regulatory approvals to involve new studies, lab tests, or clinical trials. Here, EFSA relied entirely on historical use and existing literature—no experiments, no stats, no effect sizes.
Practical Takeaways
You can confidently consume traditional cheese made with calf rennet, knowing it’s been safely used for millennia and doesn’t remain active in the final product.
Publication
Journal
EFSA Journal
Year
2022
Authors
C. Lambré, José Manuel Barat Baviera, C. Bolognesi, P. Cocconcelli, Riccardo Crebelli, D. Gott, K. Grob, E. Lampi, M. Mengelers, A. Mortensen, G. Rivière, I. Steffensen, C. Tlustos, Henk van Loveren, L. Vernis, Holger Zorn, L. Herman, M. Andryszkiewicz, Yi Liu, A. Chesson
Related Content
Claims (6)
For thousands of years, the key ingredient that turns milk into cheese has come from the stomachs of baby calves.
If we make food enzymes from animal parts like calf stomach that people have safely eaten for a long time, we don’t need to run extra safety tests because the starting material is already safe and the process doesn’t add anything dangerous.
Cheese made with traditional calf stomach enzymes is considered safe to eat because it's been used for a long time without causing problems, comes from healthy animals, and doesn't leave harmful stuff behind.
Eating foods with certain calf stomach enzymes (like chymosin and pepsin) probably won’t cause an allergic reaction, even if someone’s been exposed to them through breathing, because there’s no record of people getting sick from eating them.
The enzyme that helps milk turn into cheese works best at body temperature and stops working when it gets too hot, so it doesn’t stick around in the cheese you eat.