Elvira, "Mistress of the Dark," offers halloween advice on scary candy ingredients:

Quick—think of a word that rhymes with "gelatin."

Odds are you thought of "skeleton," which makes perfect sense, if you think about what the ghoulish concoction called "gelatin" really is—animal bones, along with hooves, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, all bubbled together in a huge cauldron. The coagulated goo is then added to candy, marshmallows, and, of course, that wiggly, jiggly cafeteria staple, Jell-O.

Mad Cow Disease Drives Candy Lovers Crazy
Earlier this year, candy fans got a scare when it was revealed that Mamba candies were made with gelatin from Poland—a hot spot for mad cow disease. Mad cow disease sounds like something out of a B horror flick, but it’s scary for real. It’s caused by grinding up leftover bits of dead sheep and cows and feeding them to other cows, then people who eat meat and animal products infected with mad cow disease can get the deadly new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or nvCJD, which turns their brains into a sponge. Click here for more information about mad cow disease.

Mamba makers pulled a switcheroo, swapping the beef gelatin for starch. Fear of mad cow disease has caused millions to recoil in terror from steaks and burgers—but many don’t think twice about scarfing Skittles and Starburst. Maybe they should—as experts fear mad cow disease may get passed along in gelatin.