Where do you draw the line with the processed foods you eat? Vegetarians, will you eat in a restaurant that does not segregate vegetarian cookware from meat? Vegans, will you eat something with the label "manufactured in a facility/on equipment that also processes dairy"? It's occurred to me lately, partly because I really love wasabi peas on occasion, and just noticed that the label says it's processed on equipment that also does fish. Also, every few weeks I enjoy munching on a dark chocolate bar, but I have trouble justifying that $3 health-food candy to myself. I've found another one that's a whole lot cheaper, but says due to the processing facility it could possibly contain trace amounts of milk. What do you guys think? Am I being overly paranoid? Not enough?
I would only be concerned with the "Manufactured in a facility . . ." statements if I was deathly allergic to the item in question. I also eat in lots of restaurants that don't segregate their cookware. I'm in it for the animal rights, not for some false sense of purity, after all, and it's important to me to be able to demonstrate to people that it is not only possible to be Vegan, but that it is also relatively simple. Not being able to eat in 99.5% of restaurants does not demonstrate that Veganism is reasonable.
Good point about demonstrating veganism as reasonable! To be honest, I'm not that concerned with restaurants anyway (except as a curiosity) because we can never afford to eat out! :tongue: Good point also, about the allergies. I suppose that is why they put statements like that on the packaging, anyway. I'm not necessarily *allergic*, nor am I looking for some sense of "purity" as you said. I just feel so much better since I quit dairy, I don't want to accidentally ingest any, ya know?
it is economically infeasible to have segregated machinery in a processing plant. As long as the plant is kosher by a respected authority, I have faith that no animals are in my product, and if parve, no dairy either (that's when I check for egg bits).
To be fair, it's not like they use this equipment then go straight to the veggie food. It IS cleaned off. I feel that supporting a vegproduct on a shared machine tells the company that there is a market for a veg product and they may eventually see the potential for more veg customers. Also, most food is on shared equipment. Little Family Company X can't afford their big machines to produce _____veg product, so why not help them out instead of penalizing them? I cook at home and don't worry about it at home. I do not knowingly eat anything not vegan at any time (home or away) and I do ask questions. I feel that representing veg(etari)anism includes not being rude to servers, and showing people that YES, I have a life. I do not bash those that do not use shared equipment, but for ME, it isn't really feesable not to.
Pretty much ditto the others. It's a personal choice though, of course. So do whatever makes you comfortable.
Absolutely. I agree with all of you. And I actually have been eating those products I mentioned, just not all the time (they aren't really for all the time eating, anyway...). I was just curious whether other veg*ans would think it was disgusting or sacreligious or something. I have a harder time with the restaurant issue, honestly - with uncooked food like salad it doesn't bother me, but I get creeped out knowing that my meal was probably prepared in a dish/pan coated with meat grease. Just so you guys know though - I am NEVER rude to servers or restaurants. I solve this problem of mine, as I said before, by not eating out. It's been 3 months since I went to any sort of restaurant, be it sit-down or drive-through. And since transitioning to vegan it seems like eating out would be more of a hassle than cooking my own darn self. In any case, I didn't mean to come across as bitchy or unreasonable - sorry if any of you took it that way. I was just curious.
honey, what do you care about the vegan police? YOU have a life! Imagine Astrocat berating you on here because you were supporting the Evil MEat Empire!!!!!11!!!11!11 would you think: "get over yourself?" then let the vegan fundies and facsists push their blood pressure higher and know YOU are doing what works for YOU.
As long as the ingredients are ok I don't worry about a product being manufactured around things I don't want to eat. Even if it does some how find its way into the food, I doubt it is any amount worth thinking about. I rarely eat out so I have about forgotten how I would handle such a situation. I would probably go with ignorance is bliss for the most part.
I often find myself out with friends when we eat, and when when I'm with my omni or 'semiveg' (as the like to say pshhhh), I'd like to show them that being a vegan isn't just eating salads. I can choose a nice meal pieced together from the vegan options...salad... beans, rice, potato, whatever... The people that observe my diet are going to see me eating a full sized, healthy meal that actually tastes good. Hopefully they'll see veganism not as a limit to what they can eat, but as drumminmama says, vegan cuisine lol. It sucks that the cook uses the same spatula to flip my gardenburger as he does the meat. Kind of gross to me, but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that I can eat 100% vegan 100% of the time. I'm no purist, as somebody mentioned. Besides, what am I going to do when I'm in town and everybody wants to eat? Starve? Haha, on another note, my favorite restaurant is the grocery store. No cross contaminationt there. Avocados, bananas, tomatoes, peaches, plums.... mmmmmm
I've recently become quite aware of exactly what can happen if someone with legitimate sensitivities to a food labelled "prepared in a facility that also packages..." gets ahold of food from there. My son cannot have anything with gluten in it - and we've discovered the hard way, that those labels were put there for a reason. He got into some corn chips a month back that should have been GF, but we missed that exact label somehow. And to quote his teacher at church "the kid looks like he's possessed!" He didn't have anything with gluten in it... this was a reaction JUST from those "possible trace amounts." And I've gotta tell you, having seen that reaction made me re-think some of these food labels. How much milk AM I consuming when I see that label anyway? Since I am not an ethical vegetarian, (why does that always make me sound so evil?) I don't see a problem with consuming these foods myself. But if I were to choose to go vegan, I would seriously re-think that decision. I guess this is one of those areas that's got to come down to a personal choice for each of us, really. love, mom
I tried the "can your please clean the surface of the grill before you cook it", or at subways "can you please change your gloves". I am always polite but I have had so many people give me straight up attitude for asking, so I just don't ask anymore. It pisses me off, and then I do not enjoy my meal. My best friend even has an allergy to onions and one bit of juice could literally kill her. We were at subway and she told them she could die if they did not change their goves and the knife they used and they treated her like coomplete fuckin shit, and she was polite about it. There was one cook I worked with that asked me if I would like that and I was sooo overjoyed by it. A big fat meat and potatoes man too. So there are so good ones. I have been a waitress for 3 years and in my experience cooks will say fuck it and do what they want. Most cooks are very prone to being grochy, at least anywhere I worked. They would cuss at me over anything, so trying to ask them to change their gloves I might as well quit before they throw my ass out. Doing fine dining is the only time I ever saw respect for the customers prefereces
I use a lot of humor in the dining out situation: at Subway, i've gotten to know rthe manager who also works the line at lunch. If she hasn't said something to the bread station person I'll say something like,"hi, I'm the commie vegetarian. Would you mind changing gloves for my sandwich?" I also let people ahead of me in line who are OK with meat. Usually they'll laugh and comply. This locale has a secret tip jar, so I do tip. At the burger joint that has Garden burgers, I ask if the grill can get a really good scrape. They scrape about every four burgers anyway, I've noticed. If a restaurant will not SERVE the customer, I do not order and I do not return. I rarely have attitude problems, in Colorado, California or Texas. Even in Tennessee.
Your a wonderfully intelligent compassionate person, but have you worked in restaurants per say? I am very friendly, and get strong shit sometimes for asking for vegetarian friendly recipes, or servers just saying they did something to please me (and I can taste meat if it's in my food). I traveled all over the east coast. it's not just here. why have I had such bad experiences. I'm not a bitch
I think if a label stated that a product was manufacured in a factory with fish or meat I might be a little turned off, but that's not to say that I would turn it down everytime. Like previously mentioned, they do clean their machines and stuff. I typically don't eat out, so that's not really an issue for me. And when I do I don't make a fuss about stuff. I'm afraid if I say something to the waiter like "is the veggie burger cooked on the same pan as the hamburgers?" they'll spit in my food, or put meat juice in it or something. lol And even if my sandwich or something is made by hands that have touched meat it's not that big of a deal. It's not like I'm paying for the meat and thus supporting the nasty industry. Stuff happens.
As far as the eating out thing goes, I have to agree with you humblebee. I don't care much about processing plants, but don't dare cook me anything in a dish that's had meat in it if I can see it. Usually I have to put on my ignorance is bliss hat when I go out to eat and do a bit of the 'out of sight, out of mind' thing. It's hard because I just can't stand the thought of someone using the same utensils to cook/cut my food as they have to prepare someone's meat dish. In the same way I won't eat anything cooked on a BBQ and I have a wok at home that is strictly for vego stir fry! One of my vego friends is exactly the same and has raised her daughters as vegetarian. She takes her own griller to BBQ's to cook her vegie burgers on and her husband prepares his own meat with his own utensils. No moral/ethical reason for my vegetarianism by the way, although I am in no way supportive of the farming and killing of animals for food. We have plenty of food to sustain us without subjecting them to constant torture.
