After a recall by a rival company because of dangerous levels of cyanogenic glycosides (cyanide) the Queensland Health Authority tested 'at least two' locally produced brands of Vege Chips and found that they contained 'questionable levels of naturally occurring cyanide' and health authorities issued a caution, particularly for children and stated that further testing was needed.

Contamination of Vege Chips, that followers are told not to eat them, and unethical business practices has been known to members and former members since the company was founded in the 90s.

Ajita's Vege Chips is owned by Australian School of Meditation, which is a branch of the Science of Identity Foundation. They are sold widely in schools and actively promote themselves as a healthier alternative for kids.

The first media report on this new development since the recall is here : [cultofbutler.com]

[cultofbutler.com] immediately issued a press release within hours of the story breaking in the Sydney Morning Herald detailing how concerns raised for a year about the ingredients and other issues related to SoI Vege Chips have been ignored.

Vege Chips Health Authorities Ignored Warnings

The Queensland Health warning concerning levels of cyanogenic glycosides in Vege Chips, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (26.1.08), has come as no suprise to Australian cult activists who have spent over a year attempting to have Ajita's Vege Chip Company investigated.

A series of complaints and requests for investigation beginning in February 2007, related to the ingredients, manufacture and marketing of Vege Chips, which is a tax exempt trustee for the Australian School of Meditation, were simply ignored.

Cult activist Cara James, former member of Australian School of Meditation, a branch of the Science of Identity Foundation said "We have been hoping that people will consider boycotting Vege Chips and other cult owned businesses based on their unsubstantiated claims of health benefits, exploitation of employees and funding which goes directly to operating a destructive cult.

That Vege Chips are not healthy is not a secret within Science of Identity, no followers, not even those who work at the factory will eat them. I have been hearing concerns since I started creating a web prescence for awareness of SoI in October 2006 from former followers and employees of the company that the chips are contaminated and have been known by The Vege Chip Company to be unhealthy for quite a few years through their own product tests.

SoI is a system of belief that accepts that any practice in business is acceptable to God, whether

harmful or unethical, based on the Hindu text Bhagavad-Gita. Followers laugh about bringing people to God, who they believe is Krishna, by selling them chips. They make them as 'prashadam' - food which has been offered to Krishna on an altar, which makes eating them offensive to Muslims, Orthodox Jews and other religions, and yet they sought and received Halaal Accreditation.

Former employees were contacting me and saying that water which had been used to wash their gurus feet, which is consumed by his followers, considered to be purifying. was going into the chips. I was getting reports from former employees and other followers that they had been told that the chips had been tested privately in America and that guru had issued the instruction to "leave them for the karmis" (non-believers).

I approached Fair Trading and consumer advocates, health authorites, food standards, everyone I could think of numerous times and they just didn't want to hear it. I asked if they could test the products for contaminates, I had witnesses who were prepared to talk to them but were afraid of repurcussions for themselves and friends and relatives still in the cult if they went public by themselves. They came to me for help and I couldn't get anyone to pay attention. If anyone believed me they would come back and say that there was nothing they could do and send me somewhere else.

I just got the runaround. Some authorities told me outright that Vege Chips must be protected because of their relationship to a religion, or that they did not want to get involved because it would look like persecution. It is sp difficult for people to accept the reality of cults, how they go about running their businesses. The fact that Vege Chips only employs followers keeps everything quiet and helps maintain control over them at the same time."

A spokesperson for Queensland Health specified that care should be take with consumption, particularly by children. As noted on The Vege Chip Company's website they are a leading promoter of a healthier alternative snack in Australian schools.

[chriskcon.com]

"After a recall by a rival company because of dangerous levels of cyanogenic glycosides (cyanide) the Queensland Health Authority tested 'at least two' locally produced brands of Vege Chips and found that they contained 'questionable levels of naturally occurring cyanide' and health authorities issued a caution, particularly for children and stated that further testing was needed."

Finding 'questionable levels' and issuing a caution without requiring further testing does seem to imply that the cyanide levels were consistent with those expected for cassava products. I think if I had a choice, I would not base my diet solely on Vege Chips. In some regions of the world, where cassava is the main source of food, long-term cyanide exposure is a real health problem, and effective preparation practices have to be followed, which they are. I do believe we have some discretion as to how much of a snack food we will consume.

Yes, cassava is known for its problematic nature, just as eating a few cups of ground apple seeds would be problematic. Do we need to idiot-proof every substance on the planet? People who use cassava presumably know how to prepare it. So yeah, either the cyanide levels were, or were not, above acceptable levels.

If the real issue with Vege Chips is the way it runs its business, then I think that needs to be investigated. If there truly is footwater in the chips, then that too needs to be outed. (I also think Cara James could be held for libel over that one.. I hope not)

Why am I having trouble with the cyanide headlines? Because it can too easily be dismissed as sensationalism, and like the boy who cried "wolf" the real issues will also be swept aside as just more sensationalism.

I really don't think that a warning by Queensland state health authorities could be viewed as sensationalism. The media went quite wide with the story in Australia, it was on the TV news and picked up by Associated Press in the newspapers, which means that it was syndicated far and wide. Not much else to say really except that they have cyanide in them.

[news.smh.com.au]

Ironically The Vege Chip Company is owned by a cult that spends a lot of time and money trying to manipulate health issues such as flouride in drinking water and lobbying for a healthy hawaii, when their own products are not to a very healthy standard. The cult also owns Healing Noni, which also makes bogus health claims and is a product which has been widely reviled and exposed in the media, but is still available.

[cultofbutler.com]

The key fact here is that Cassava is indeed known to have naturally occurring cyanide, but it is noted that in countries where it is a diet staple that the cooking processes are shown to break this down preventing the dangerous levels found in Vege Chips. Vege Chips are made quickly and don't involve a great deal of cooking, so the same rule clearly does not apply.

Science of Identity won't sue Cara because they are scared of her and they would have to prove that what she said was libellous, specifically not true, and that will never happen because it simply is. She said long before this happened that devotees do not eat Vege Chips.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2008 05:10AM by SoI Kills.