London Restaurants Refuse to Accept Non-Vegan Money

Several restaurants in England are refusing to accept the new £5 banknotes after learning they contain tallow—an animal byproduct made with rendered beef or mutton fat. “To stay true to the cause, we will no longer be accepting new five pound notes,” Brixton vegan restaurant VegBar announced on Twitter last week. Similarly, vegan juice bar Not Just Juice in Gloucestershire has stopped accepting the notes. Owner Dan Fivey states, “I’ll be asking for animal-free money in the future, and using coins and cards and bank transfers.” Additionally, The National Council of Hindu Temples in the United Kingdom has issued an official statement that bans the use of the notes in the organization, stating that the tallow-laced currency is “a medium for communicating pain and suffering and we would not want to come into contact with it.” The Bank of England confirmed last week that the new £5 banknotes contain tallow due to a plastic polymer used by their supplier Innovia Security. A petition launched to remove the animal product from English currency—which the Bank of England promised to address—and currently has nearly 130,000 signatures.