I consume (very) few animal products, mostly on ethical grounds, however, I have been wondering about gelatin, which may people shy away from. I am a consequentialist, I have no issue with the act of eating for instance meat, but I do not want to support practices that inflict suffering on animals, and that is why I (mostly) abstain from it.

My question concerns gelatin. As far as I know it is produced from the surplus of meat production by cooking bones, skin etc. However, I can not see that by buying products with gelatin would increase the number of animals kept in captivity? Hence, by asking the counterfactual, namely what would have happened if someone had not used those products, there seems to be no increase in suffering inflicted on animals, and thus it should not really be problematic to consume such products(on consequentialist grounds)?

I can see an obvious objection, namely that one should not support any animal exploiting industry, but to me this is not particularly forceful given my consequentialist attitude. I would also change my attitude were there animals kept solely for making gelatin, but I can not see how that is the case in todays industry. Are my reasoning sound, or am I making some mistake along the way?