ok, i just ate a whole jar of roasted peanuts. i thought, 'hey, ok, just good ol' peanuts, nothin in them, all natural, right?' wrong. i looked at the ingrediants-gelatin! (im having a serious problem avoiding gelatin) my point is that maybe they should include a warning for vegetarians and vegans about 'hidden animals', they do it if something has milk or nuts in it (i realize some pple are allergic and thats why they do it) it doesnt have to be a huge sign on the front that says "WARNING: MAY CONTAIN PIG ANUS or anything, just like a little footnote by the ingrediants. does this sound like a good idea? or is this stupid?
You must be in the states! I am from California and I recently moved to England (about a year ago) and some of the differences between the two countries have left me a little outraged at some American policies - more than usual, I mean. They're supposed to better than everyone, right? Food manufacturers here are required to label their food (and menus) 'suitable for vegetarians' when they are just that. Isn't it wonderful? It makes life so much easier. I know there must be many more vegetarians in the U.S. just because of the sheer size of it but I also know that when I go back I will have to live with the fact that I am probably eating processed animal fat and cow hooves daily. Come live here. Or write to the FDA. Whatever.
i want to live in england! its not that hard to print three little words tho, is it? its because meat is such a HUGE industry in the states, they dont want to encourage vegetarianism or make it easy
uuuhhh,, it did say there were animals. IN THE INGREDIENTS LIST. Seriously, what more do you want? how would you go about getting it? Farmers Union has ben agitating for country of origin labels for meat, and they are fairly well funded (they are kind of the populist farm group- organic and alterna energy supporters) and they have been at it for at least six years with little luck. How would you create the desire in consumers for a heart and V or some such label? what would it look like? Go beyond the idea....
Beyond that, there are quite a few products now, that do say "vegan" or "vegetarian" on them, or even ones that says "Contains dairy and egg products" etc. Maybe not all of them, but then it is your responsibility to read ingredients before purchasing anything. Don't be fooled by the product and assume it's vegan, because it would surprise you how much crap has animal products in it. When you go grocery shopping, read all the labels before you buy anything, unless you already knew it was vegan from previous label reading. And different brands will have different ingredients along with different "forms" of the product... For example, there are certain flavors of Quaker oatmeal that are vegan, but most of the "to go" oatmeals are NOT vegan, even though they are the same flavor as the bagged stuff. Read through everything carefully, I usually do two or three times just to make sure, because sometimes I skip words when I read lol. Don't kick yourself for making a mistake, but certainly don't blame it on anyone else. Just make sure you read through the ingredients. The point of ingredient listing is so that people like vegans CAN be able to distinguish what they can and cant eat...take advantage of it. If you don't have the patience to learn about the ingredients or read through them, then you're going to have a hard time.
Yup, read the ingredients. People who have allergies that can kill them have to do it, so people who make choices can learn to do it too. Trust me, if they made a special note next to the ingredients listing everything that someone might be allergic to or would be offended by eating, the list would get so long it'd be worse than weeding through the ingredients! Finding nuts with animal products in 'em has got to be just awful. Don't kick yourself about it though, use it as a learning experience. Now you KNOW to double-check ingredients... and you know what you might be eating if you don't! love, mom
That does suck, sometimes you have to learn vigilance the hard way. Quite worrying really how much junk they manage to sneak it. I don't know if there's some huge cultural diffrence that dropped off somewhere in the Atlantic; but in Britian every item of packaged food that is vegetarian is labelled as such [vegan too if you're lucky]. Either the direct phrasing or some nifty symbol (V, leaf, 'vegetarian society approved' etc). The government/food industry is pretty good about allergy info like that [you get the ingredients then a supplimentary 'contains dairy/nuts/whatever' underneath]. Though you do have to recheck now and then in case they decide to 'improve' the recipe. Am not aware of how that all came about; but it obviously did, certainly has been around long as I can remember. So there's a chance.
simple economics can encourage companies to have demarcations of suitable for vegetarians (which will need to be vegan standards to be workable) write companies. Ask what the odd ingredient does for the product and let them know that you won't be buying it again. Do be nasty, just say 'If you have a product that does not have animal byproducts, including flavorings, I'd like to know about it' or some such. Between the kosher and veggie markets, companies who don't bother are losing money. And that's NOT why they are in business.
Drumminmama is write, I have emailed SEVERAL companies and/or restaurants asking about whether they have vegan options, if any, etc. They usually respond quickly, and helpfully. Don't be afraid to ask..
ok, yes, i do read ingrediants all the time. but if im in a rush, like late for work or something, i dont have time to read EVERY ingrediant lable. it would be so much easier to just look for a little symble or something. and just because it says 'contains milk' ect doesnt mean it doesnt contain meat. and yes, i know it says there are animals sometimes on the ingrediants list, im not stupid. but what about all of those weird chemicals- they could have animal parts in them. for the longest time i had no idea what was in geletin. i was eating marshmellos like crazy. also, they do it with organic food, so why not?
Hey I feel ya Lucy man I did that when I tryed being a vegetarian when I was 13.... So I decided to wait and educated my self . So I read diffrent books that tell you the diffrent names for Animal products and how to keep a balance diet ect ... On my 15th b-day I became a vegetarian because I was ready.... I knew what I was doing and I know what to eat and what not to eat. Now I am 17 turning 18 (in November) and i am still a vegetarian... I plain on going vegan soon. I read this book from peta you can get it at Barnes and Nobles ... Peta also sells it on there site ... It has everything you need for that and more ... its called caring consumer shopping guide . Also Making kind choices have all kinds of great information about that kind of stuff and more. I hope that helps you out *GOODLUCK!! Peace Katy
