The new five pound note contains animal fat - and vegan and vegetarians across the region are not happy about it.

The Bank of England were asked on Twitter whether they were suitable for those choosing to ditch meat and other animal products from their diet.

And what they tweeted back has created a storm of frustration among the veggie community.

In a response to many people asking the question, the Bank of England said: “There is a trace of tallow in the polymer pellets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes.”

Tallow is typically a substance rendered form animal fat, such as beef or mutton fat.

Now more than 15,000 angered veggie-lovers have signed a petition to stop the production of the notes containing the fat.

Vegan Darius Walker, 30, from the city centre, said: “In 2016 it’s really unnecessary to use animal products in bank notes. You don’t have a choice in one respect because it’s forced upon you. You have to live in the real world and lots of other everyday items have some trace back to animal products. It doesn’t make it right by any means but there are alternatives that could have been used.”

Fellow vegan Dan Grundy, 41, from Lancashire, and member of the High Carb Vegan Manchester group, was definitely against even touching the notes.

He said: “I won’t touch them and have refused to take the £5 note from shop keepers asking for change instead.

“Ethically, once again our vegan community has been overlooked and sidelined.

“It’s the same story though and not a surprise as the animal industry constantly finds ways to distribute its disgusting trade into everyday lives.”

There was some criticism from meat eaters saying they weren’t being asked to eat the notes - just use them.

But Dan explained that vegans do not consume or use items containing animal products.

On the Bank of England Twitter page, it features a picture of the new note, which has been in circulation for three months, stating, ‘Cleaner, safer, stronger’.

But Mike Rigby, a member of the Manchester Vegan and Vegetarian Group, said this was not the case.

He said he had been waiting around six weeks for a response from the money maker.

Mike said: “Given the years of consultation, research and development that went into this, I’m amazed that no affected groups, such as muslims or vegans, have piped up until now, when it’s far too late to do anything about it. Even if they switched the production tomorrow we’d be in the ridiculous situation of looking for certain ‘safe’ serial numbers to see which we were “allowed”.”

You can view the petition HERE