That the term ‘non-vegetarian’ often puzzles many non-Indians offers a clue to the relative food habits of this country vis a vis others. To be anything other than vegetarian is expressed in as a negative here; in the West, till very recently, even fish and eggs were deemed vegetarian by virtue of not being meat. In this context, information about the composition of the casings of the pills most people, here and elsewhere in the world, gulp every day would evoke very differing concerns. That there are vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian options for those bright edible plasticky capsules will surely cause consternation in circles where a distinction was never presumed in the first place, just like in the case of cheese.It is apt that mad cow disease prevention protocols, which ‘outed’ many other perceived vegetarian items such as lozenges and breakfast cereals, and their subsequent ‘vegetarianisation’, prompted this revelation too. And it is just as well that the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is expected to decide between plant-derived cellulose and gelatin today. If the pharma companies are left to decide which type of casing they will use, it may prove to be a bitter pill for vegetarians to swallow. Unless, of course, even medicines are brought under the purview of those red and green dots.