Ok, Gelatin has pig which is called pork. Tell me why they might put gelatin in marshmellows. See description.!
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You can only make good mallows for gelatine! Egg white can be used to make a foam, but the result is certainly not chewy or firm.
Gelatine is used, because when it is added to sugar syrup, it acts in the same way that soap does - it makes the syrup foam. If you make the syrup foam with gelatine just above its setting temperature then you can make a gellied foam - which is what a mallow is.
Gelatine also sets at room temperature - and it sets slowly which means you can whip it as it sets. Make vegetarian mallows (from agar or pectin for example) and you will need a foaming agent to help with the whip, the mass will set hot and fast, and the bubbles wll shrink during cooling leaving a mess!
You can use any type of gelatine for mallows, but pork based gelatines seem to foam more. So the manufacturers get more mallows per pound of syrup! Beef mallows are often made in the UK and if you make the mallows by depositing them in starch (like other fruit gums) then you get really nice soft tender mallows (in the UK these are made now by tangerine confectonery), much nicer than the usual extruded rubbery mallows often seen.
If you wish, you can make Kosher mallows from Kosher fish gelatine (and no, it does not taste or smell of fish!).
The reason that pork gelatine makes a mallow with a higher foam is down to the way it was made in the factory. Pork (and fish) gelatine is made via an acid process and beef gelatines ae made via an alkali process.
The reason to the foam differences is due to electrical charge differences and the shapes of the two types of gelatine.
Most beef gelatines by the way are made from clean beef skin, not made into suede leather. It costs a lot more to make gelatine from bones and they are generally used for photographic paper.
Gelatin is added to marshmallows to firm up the marshmallow.
Marshmallows are basically egg whites and confectioners sugar.
gelitine creates the soft spongey texture, not all gelitine is pork, but there is no telling. you can make your own at home with a vegitarian gelitine sub called agar agar, it is made from seaweed. you can find it in asian stores and specialty shops