A number of vegans and vegetarians in the UK have protested against their dislike of the new five pound note because it contains traces of animal fat.

The Australian pioneer behind the polymer bank note was heard telling the Australian radio station 2GB that “It’s stupid. It’s absolutely stupid,” “There’s trivial amounts of it in there.”

Professor David Solomon says the polymer notes contain trivial amounts of tallow, an animal fat found in candles and soap. As a result the Bank of England is under intense pressure to remove or change the note.

More than 120,000 people have supported an online petition urging the Bank of England to cease using animal fat in the production of five pound notes .

“The new STG5 notes contain animal fat in the form of tallow. This is unacceptable to millions of vegans, vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in the UK,” the petition states.

“We demand that you cease to use animal products in the production of currency that we have to use.”

Professor Solomon said polymer notes were extremely hard to forge and had a lot more benefits for the consumer than previous paper notes.

“It picks up less drugs than paper notes and you don’t chop down trees,” he said. “It’s more hygenic than a paper note by a long way.”