Food orders for work related events are to be vegan and vegetarian only

For the record I am an omnivore and eat meat, fish, dairy products and vegetables. However, I am shocked and disappointed at the bigoted prejudice and ignorance posted on this thread about vegetarian and vegan diets.

With the exception of allergies, intolerances and eating disorders can people not really cope with a buffet that might consist of:

egg mayonnaise sandwiches
cucumber sandwiches
cheese (+ pickle/tomato/other) sandwiches
quiche
pasta salad
pizza (with and without cheese)
salad,
felafels
samosas
potato wedges/chips?

No fake meat or dairy products in sight here.

Really? Can you not manage any of this without a ham sandwich? As others have experienced, there is never enough vegetarian food at buffets because meat eaters also like to eat vegetarian options.

Why is the default option thought of as fake meat? Are people really this ignorant about food? Are they so unable to think outside of the box of meat and two veg? See my list above.

Those of you being pedantic about food miles perhaps we should ditch bread and pastry because the UK imports high quality wheat to be processed into flour from Germany, France, and Canada. The wheat we produce is too poor a quality for anything other than animal feed.

If we are looking at food miles only then maybe the buffet should consist of hard boiled eggs, cheeses, salads and potato wedges/chips/jacket potatoes all of which could be sourced locally.

Honestly, some of the comments on here are ridiculous and those who stamp their feet and can't won’t eat food not containing any meat need to grow up and stop being so petty.

Salad is expensive, especially if you measure it in pounds per calorie, but basic cooking veg and pulses are cheap.

Perfectly reasonable, means the vegetarians will actually get to eat. In my experience you get about a quarter of the food being suitable for veggies and this is then scoffed by the omnivores along side the meat so the veggies miss out.

We absolutely can! The WHO and many other national institutions support a vegan diet at any age. Almost all paper do not need to eat any animal products.

No, and I apologise as I didn't note that you said injections.

Animals raised for food often get their B12 through their supplemental food, no injections required.

Healthy animals don’t need vitamin B12 injections. Are you a vet

Do people really go and get a B12 injection without knowing they need it?

Unless they have pernicious anemia, or are dangerously low, it's unlikely an injection would be required. An over the counter supplement should suffice.

@SoupDragon I'm not saying that "fakes" don't exist. I am saying that people seem to be under the misapprehension that they are the main part of a vegan diet.

And I stick to "carnivore focussed". Most meals eaten in the UK are meat/fish and something. They aren't nutritionally balanced without the meat element.

I love meat, I eat meat everyday, our butcher’s bill is around £70/80 a month!
Saying that, I’m happy to try vegetarian/vegan, but I can’t eat stuff that looks and tastes like meat but it’s not 🤣 quern stuff is revolting

Also I find a majority of vegetarian foods are mushrooms, tomato based sauces, cauliflower cheese, pasta, pizza, jacket potatoes, cheese sandwiches and other things I don’t like 🤣

Just a word of warning. I’m vegan, have been for years. Had my VitB12 and a terrible reaction lasting weeks. Be sure that you are actually low in it before having the jab. Vegan products are fortified with B12.

If that's all the meat you eat, you might need to keep an eye on your B12 levels.

Most food, in the UK at least, is very carnivore focussed

It isn't. It might be omnivore focussed though.

I don’t give any of my sheep vitamin B12 injections or antibiotics unless they are ill. Growth hormones are banned. HTH

You think people are making up the fake cheese, fake milk, "vegan chicken" etc that are all readily available in supermarkets? They are very clearly not making anything up.

Exactly this.

It always amazes me how many people just make up their own facts when it comes to this debate. Especially when you consider there a huge amount of information on the full life cycle impact of loads of foods is freely available online.

That's not to say there aren't other good reasons to support local producers mind you.

Incidentally, I often cater for vegetarians and vegans, and I have never bought the "fakes" some people appear to think constitutes a vegan/vegetarian diet. It's almost as if some people are making stuff up. Almost.

It genuinely does give me nightmares in terms of anxiety. When you run a training day and exec delegates pay thousands to be there and then have to go to pret and buy their own lunch it's mortifying. Its also awful for the staff who have put lots of effort into the day but just get bad feedback all about the food.

We've now taken to hiring an external venue because work refuses to cater suitably (i.e. have non vegan options)

Most aren't flown, as far as I'm aware.

Most are shipped. Which means that even things like bananas have a relatively low carbon footprint, compared to locally raised meat.

I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan. However, I do think it's good that people who are sometimes get a wider choice than a portobello mushroom. Most food, in the UK at least, is very carnivore focussed. Good for everyone to switch round occasionally. Well, nearly everyone. People with complex allergies will always, sadly, find mass catering a challenge.

I bet vegetarian burgers were more expensive though.

And that's what's being looked at here. The cost of vegetables compared to the cost of ultra processed vegan 'fakes'. Not the cost of the cheapest processed meat - one would hope that's not going to appear in a vegetarian buffet.

I didn't claim that to be the case.

But you can buy a kilo of carrots for 60p or less. 2 kilos of potatoes for £1.30. A lettuce for 70p. Tesco chicken pieces are £7.50 per kilo and the cheapest vegan cheese I saw, £11 per kilo.

There is no reason why a catered event can't have a good selection of vegetables, based on cost.

And you absolutely can get all your nutritional needs met from a vegetarian diet. And most from a vegan one. You'll need to watch your B12 intake - but us omnivores would need to do that too, if they didn't add the supplements to animals that are being bred for food.

Its been a while since I worked in a cafe but I remember being shocked that the salad was more expensive to buy than the burger it went on. The meat was very very cheap, chips very very cheap, if someone wanted salad instead we had to make sure it wasn't too big.

I came here to say this. Vegetable proteins are not grown in significant quantity in the uk, so most vegan/veggie foods are flown around the world to get to us. This is not eco-friendly at all. Insist the food served is all locally grown seasonal produce, with nothing imported, and see if they still want to do it.

Yes but they are not calorie dense and nutritionally complete. We can't live on veg alone, we are not rabbits.

Ime vegetables are one of the cheapest food sources available. Definitely cheaper than vegan 'cheese'!