"Ellie C" > wrote in message
>
>> Old dairy cows will end up in pet food or hamburgers, never a steak.
>
> I'm talking about France, not the US. Are you sure this is the case here
> or are you talking about the US?

Yes. Can't speak for other countries, but we have enough demand for other
meat products that we can have the luxury of giving tough old cows a lesser
place in the food chain.

>
> Nope. Can't find it at all, under any name. It simply does not exist in
> any French supermarket I have been to.

The sumbitches are hiding it from you.
http://www.itdg.org/docs/technical_i...ice/papain.pdf

World trade in papain

The principal producers of crude papain are Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda and Sri
Lanka. Most of the

spray dried papain comes from Zaire.

The principal importing countries are the United States, Japan, United
Kingdom, Belgium and

France. Almost all the best quality papain goes to the United States.

Crude papain is used, in Britain, in the brewing industry for chillproofing
beer and lager. However,

the increasing trend for additive free beers initiated by other European
countries is taking effect in

Britain and so this market for papain is declining. Another use for papain
is in the meat industry

for the tenderisation of meat and the production of meat tenderising
powders.