House Foods Ends Animal Experiments After PETA Appeal

Tofu Company Establishes New Policy Against Force-Feeding, Killing, and Dismembering Animals

For Immediate Release:
May 18, 2017

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Just weeks after PETA asked House Foods to stop conducting experiments on animals, the tofu company put an end to its long-standing practice of force-feeding and injecting mice with chemicals in order to make health claims about its products.

House Foods’ animal tests date back to 1996. In one of its recent studies, experimenters fed mice curcumin, injected them with a chemical that induces symptoms mimicking Parkinson’s disease, killed them, and cut out their brains. In another, experimenters fed mice who had been genetically modified to be obese and diabetic a high-fat diet that also included the plant fenugreek, starved them, killed them, and took their blood and liver.

“After learning from PETA that experiments on animals are cruel, not required by law, and irrelevant to humans, House Foods executives quickly agreed to ban these archaic studies,” says PETA scientist Dr. Frances Cheng. “PETA applauds the tofu company for embracing modern, animal-free research tools.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—notes that there are numerous published human studies on the same ingredients that were used in House Food’s animal tests and that superior, animal-free research methods are readily available.

The California-based House Foods America, whose parent company is headquartered in Japan, joins a growing list of companies—including Ito En, Barilla, Kikkoman, The Coca-Cola Company, Lipton, POM Wonderful LLC, and many others—that have agreed to eliminate animal tests after discussions with PETA.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.