Actually it’s pretty well supported by evidence. I made sure it wasn’t yet another hoax from NaturalNews.com.
In 2014 the Dutch television programme Keuringsdienst van Waarde visited two factories in China where human hair is turned into L-cysteine. Mother Jones did a story on it in 2010…
One researcher at Watson Inc., a company that specializes in dough conditioners, told me he insists on duck-feather cysteine, but added that he knows plenty of companies that don’t.
But yes it’s use has apparently dropped considerably.
Cereal maker Kellogg’s told me it no longer uses L-cys in Pop-Tarts, and that its formula specifics are proprietary in any case.
As the BBC reports…
Ten to 15 years ago human hair was a main source of L-cysteine. Producers, mainly based in China, extracted it from hair clippings from salons, even strands collected from hairbrushes.
But as people became more aware of what was in their food, they simply didn’t like the thought of human hair having anything to do with what they ate. More Chinese people also started perming their hair, which made extracting the amino acid more difficult.
[…]
Now L-cysteine comes mainly from chicken and duck feathers, which can be collected in larger quantities than hair. In recent years it has also started to be manufactured synthetically.
