The concern and anger generated among British-Indian community and other religious groups and vegetarians after a new £5 note issued by the Bank of England emerged that it contained traces of animal fat.

The note came in circulation in September, this week the Bank of England revealed its controversial content while responding to a question on Twitter confirming that there was a “trace of tallow in the polymer pallets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes.”

The central bank said in a statement, that, “Tallow is derived from animal fats (suet) and is a substance that is also widely used in the manufacture of candles and soap.”

The notes were “unacceptable to millions of Hindus, vegans, vegetarians, Sikhs, Jains and others in the U.K,” reads the petition started by Doug Maw. “We demand that you cease to use animal products in the production of currency that we have to use.”

More than 90,000 people had signed the online petition calling for the bank to cease using animal product in its notes.

Poonam Joshi, founder of Indian Ladies UK, said that, “There is huge disappointment, shock and anger among our members specially who are vegetarians, Jains, Hindus and Sikhs. Thousands have already signed the petition.”

“This country is very stringent about mentioning everything on the label and yet it took 2 months for this finding to come to light,” she added.

The President of the Hindu Forum of Britain, Trupti Patel, said that, more than 300 Hindu organizations, expressed her surprise about the move. “Its very insensitive to do this. Currency is not a choice,” she said.

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Nandini