A few years ago there was a medical scare among the public, where people were becoming paranoid that there was a connection between altoids and Mad Cow Disease and you could catch this disease by consuming altoids. It was not so much of altoids specifically but the gelatin in the altoids that had speculated concern with having contracted Mad Cow Disease. This whole thing started somewhere in England and this urban rumor that altoids carried Mad Cow Disease somehow spread throughout the world. People were taking this very seriously and a lot of people stopped eating altoids and anything with gelatin because they were scared they would contract this disease. I don't know…I mean I guess I would react paranoid to, but I really doubt that a altoid that is checked by the FDA would give anyone Mad Cow Disease.
The official name of Mad Cow Disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and it is linked to the fatal brain disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). BSE is a fatal disease that is seen in cattle and causes brain degeneration that has a spongy look to it. This is spread mainly from the practice of recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein that gets fed to other cattle and is therefore transmitted to the animal and makes it become ill. BSE is spread by consuming contaminated meat or other products from cattle. I believe that there is no connection between Altoids and Mad Cow Disease because after researching the subject I found no evidence and very little articles on the subject of how they both can be connected. People assume that Altoids will spread Mad Cow Disease because it contains gelatin and since gelatin is made from the bone and skin of cattle they think it is contaminated. There are however regulations on gelatin by the FDA that prohibit the use of brains and spinal cords of cows, which is how humans contract this disease, from countries where BSE is a high risk like in Britain, France, Switzerland, Portugal, ect. Also people assume since Altoids are from Great Britain that they are infected since the outbreak started there. The FDA has taken hold of the situation and came up with recommendations concerning gelatin use intended for human use. Some of the recommendations are to ensure that all parties in the distribution chain know the importers, manufacturers, species, and country source of all materials before processing gelatin for human use. Another one is that bones and hides from cattle that have any indication of neurological disease should not be used as raw material for the manufacture of gelatin.
The reason why this is such a detailed explanation of the Altoid Scare is that in my biology class last semester we talked about this, so I am familiar with the subject. I found it very interesting how people were so scared to eat a mint. Like this SMALL harmless mint would really carry such a scary disease.
http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm125182.htm
http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm125182.htm