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

Yup. I'm a coeliac and also can't tolerate fruit and veg. This would be impossible for me.

I think it's really ableist. I'm a disabled person with numerous, serious bowel conditions and I have to eat a very strict low-residue diet, as my body cannot tolerate fibre. I can't even have some of the low residue foods, because they make me so ill. I'm also a coeliac.

Meat is one of the only foods I can eat that causes me less issues than anything else. I live on meat and rice, and now and again, plain potato. If they enforced this in my workplace, I'd have to go hungry (which also affects me).

Actually, it’s possible I would - I’m allergic to alliums and they seem to be in almost all vegetarian and vegan food (some people even put them in egg sandwiches).

I don’t think ultra processed fake things are the answer though.

Sounds sensible to me. The days of meat being the default are numbered, I think.

In the past most vegans have been people who are well versed in cooking and eating healthy food and it has largely been a market ignored by the processed food industry as it wasn't a large enough market to be profitable.

As more people decide to change to veganism so the big food manufacturers have pricked up their ears and started to make profitable UP food for this new market. It's not as healthy and is full of the type of trans fats etc that in the past vegans did their best to avoid.

@Thementalloadisreal
Vegan cheese is another one everyone gets worked up about, people behaving like cheddar is some kind of pure health food but a cheese spread made from almonds is poison.

Yes, for some it literally is.

If they are paying, not unreasonable

If you are paying, unreasonable

Ooh I wonder if posting on MN uses carbon

Of course it does. MN will use a lot of storage, which takes power to run in huge air conditioned datacentres. Servers running the databases will be in big datacentres. Every time you use the Internet, you're using networks that go through routers and other networking kit, again, mostly stored in big datacentres. Every bit of kit is using power, not to mention all the metals and plastic involved in creating that kit. You might use wireless within your house, but it still needs a router/modem, and once you leave thst, it will be copper or fibre cables. IT uses huge amounts of resources in materials, power and HVAC, and everyone of us here contributes to it.

As someone who has never been able to eat the company-supplied dinners, I am indifferent. I can't eat vegetarian food for medical reasons but I couldn't eat the previous offerings either. What I dislike is the obligation that an employee will eat their evening meal at a company event with no way to get a meal that the employee can eat. Having to carry around all my meals, on public transport with heavy ice packs, etc, and things that can be eaten cold, gets to be burdensome.

Although fruit and veg is naturally gluten free, most veggie/vegan buffet food is full of wheat and barley. To be fair a lot of meat stuff may be too. But it's simplistic to say everyone can eat the veggie options. I spent my young adult life restricted to jacket potato and tomato pasta when eating out as few places did veggie options and i really dislike meat to the point it makes me feel sick. I then got diagnosed with coeliac just as the big plant based food trend arrived, so back to bland and unexciting options in most cases (eating out that is).

That’s not what previous poster said. The cows weren’t imported but their feed probably was. Do you think cows in Scotland live outside all year round and eat only grass? You’d not get much meat of them!

It's not hard to not eat meat for one event. Just get over it

Just so I'm clear....
Food that you're not paying for at an event that presumably you are paid to attend is not to your liking?
Are you being forced to eat it?
Are you being prevented from leaving or bringing your own?

I went to a vegan catered conference. Loads of vegan cheese mayo and dairy. it made me really ill. My stomach was so bad so I now actually have say I can’t eat it and everyone assumes I am just being difficult. I had indigestion for about 3 days. All for vegan but proper vegan not crap ultra processed vegan.

The cows were bred/raised in Scotland, so there was no importation, until local education authorities etc decided to go meat free, so then the beef had to be exported out. So then they imported the ingredients for what was offered instead. Seasonal home produced food is the way to go.

I wouldn’t care unless they were stipulating you couldn’t buy your own meat based lunch. If they are paying for it, they can dictate. If I want to buy a ham sandwich I’d be pissed if they tried to stop me eating it.

Most people, vegetarians and vegans, included don’t really like the over processed vegan options and so I’ve noticed that restaurants are gradually shifting away from the awful fake meats etc.

I also think that companies are going to stop the meat & vegan only options and start re-introducing vegetarian options because people complain. I know they are processed but I’m thinking of the cauldron sausages the other day, look how fast they had to bring the vegetarian ones back.

Seems sensible. Reduced waste and costs

I avoid UPF.

Perhaps free meals should be stopped then, and you can buy your own meal.

I have IBS and can't eat onion or garlic. Almost all processed vegan and vegetarian food has either onion or garlic or both in it to give it some flavour. I'd be pissed off.

I don't think I've ever seen these ultra processed meat substitute offered as part of a vegan buffet. I'm not vegetarian but when faced with a business spread, I go for the veg options ahead of all the processed ham, pastrami, sausage, bacon, cheese.

I’ve worked i. The environmental sector for years so meat free has been commonplace at events for as long as I can recall. Vegan is normally vegetable pasties or falafel/hummus and veg wrap type things. Jackfruit on occasion. I’ve never seen fake meat or cheese, it’s too expensive and a lot of vegans don’t like it.
Sonin surprised at you having so many bad vegan options shoved in your face it’s become the bane of your life. Still, if the same thing happens to the OP they can have the vegetarian option instead.

The meat sandwiches you get at a function will be just as bad for you and as overly processed as the veggie and vegan. The meat and the bread and the sauce will be shit. Sorry, but I’m not buying this argument at all. If you have to avoid UPFs as a matter of health then you need to avoid the meat catered crap too because the stuff that goes into them (and yes, they’re the same as Tesco sandwiches) is all just shit if it comes from an shit company. So if the vegan offering is shit, the neat offering will be shit too. They don’t make nice meat and shit cheese in these things.