Work sustainability policy dictating crap food

The employers can choose to offer what food they want or none but don’t dress it up as more sustainable if it isn’t.
Cheese - main ingredient milk.
Cathedral city plant based ingredients below - rice, coconut, bamboo fibre won’t be from uk.
It also make things more complex for people with allergies or health issues. Cheese sandwich on buffet - most people know if safe or not for them obviously pass if you are dairy intolerant. Plant cheese - lots pass as no idea what’s in it or choose to avoid processed fake food which results in food waste which goes against original aim.

The processes the original product goes through to make it taste like a bit of tandoori chicken/cheese is worse environmentally than meat/dairy production.

No it's not and this has been debunked ad nauseam.

Doesn't help with whether the person likes it or not mind you, but a work place is under no obligation to provide meat, or any food for that matter, to employees if it doesn't want to.

This happened at our work, the default has been changed to vegan food. I don't mind really because I like all food, but I did giggle at the one clever person who thought to put 'meat option required' in the dietary requirements part of the event MS Form and got a very nice meaty lunch provided just for him.

We have this at work in our department too. Annoyingly it isn't a company-wide policy, but a VP in our department has decided to impose it as she feels quite strongly about it. Therefore any food provided (which isn't often as they are quite stingy) is vegan, including milk for tea and coffee which is oat milk. Desserts/biscuits they just don't offer at all.

i had assumed OP meant that following a vegetarian diet made her ill.

I assumed that, too. These mysterious illnesses only seem to affect people who want to eat meat but feel guilty about it.

To be honest, yes, I think YABU to be 'angry' about this. Having an occasional meal that isn't your favourite food isn't taking choice away from you in any meaningful sense.

I worked in a place where many colleagues were vegetarian or vegan and a lot of the catering for events were at least vegetarian. I eat most things and some veggie options are great although I draw the line at fake meat, it makes me vomit. However many of the options at these events were pretty awful and the best food got noshed well before I got to it, it bred resentment in some of the staff.

I saw it as just one event and several of us, veggies and vegans included took in somethings we liked to eat for ourselves just in case the nice stuff ran out before we had a chance to get to it.

In my experience, it depends on when someone became veggie and for what reason.

One friend of mine has been veggie all her life for religious reasons. She would not want to eat meat substitutes.

Another friend turned veggie purely because she hated meat. She too would not want to eat meat substitutes.

Third friend who turned veggie for ethical reasons surrounding the killing of animals would happily eat meat substitutes.

You used to carry around emergency beef sandwiches in case you were presented with a free cheese sandwich?

i had assumed OP meant that following a vegetarian diet made her ill. One meal now and again won't kill anyone (unless it's laced with arsenic of course)

FWIW our canteen has one meat option per day and 3 veggie, at least one is vegan. When they announced it all the usual suspects got in a snit. Bottom line: more people than ever are eating in there, all the meals are good and we have a "salad/anti-pasti" bar that uses up leftovers well.

i have issues around the ultra processed vegan food.
Vegetarian is fine - i love cheese. I prefer organic.

But how often are you having these shindigs at work that it is worth worrying about? is it a real hardship just to have a bit of the veggie option now and again?

Strictly vegetarian and vegan offerings tend to be trickier in terms of allergy avoidance so I find them irksome. It makes providing full ingredient lists and asking about allergens in advance even more important. Labeling common allergens is not sufficient.

hide a peperami up your sleeve or take some grated steak to sprinkle over yours to stave off the vegetable induced nausea you poor lamb

YANBU

Take your own meat based foods each time?

Make your own sandwiches with beef you have cooked yourself, I used to when in similar situation.

I was on a virgin flight on their 40th birthday and afternoon tea box had a pink bagel and birthday cake. The cake was dire absolutely inedible and I don’t think I’ve had a cake I couldn’t eat before. It was vegan when I read label. Most of the food was wasted - whereas a portion of regular birthday cake would have been eaten by majority of customers. But no doubt it ticked boxes on paper but actually was edible and led to huge waste.

Good point re food miles. If the sustainability policy is online you could raise how catered food isn’t complying with policy as x and y were provided.

@Bjorkdiditlist is fine lots to eat if it’s veggie but lots of catering now make vegan by default so that removes egg and cheese so no cheese or egg sandwiches, no pizza, no quiche or frittata. What’s left is quite limited and often spicy or made up of multiple ingredients that it’s hard to assess if suitable for allergies.

Also, quorn, tofu and other fake meats ARE more environmentally friendly than meat. They all have a much lower carbon footprint. You are welcome to still find them revolting or whatever but you won’t win at work from a sustainability pov.

As a vegetarian I’ve been pleasantly surprised if there is something at a work buffet I actually find tasty. It’s never occurred to me to complain because I know my diet is “unusual” and there is normally something that caters to me even if it wouldn’t be something I’d pick myself.

Surely the same applies here? I’d get it if they only provided you with one sandwhich type but if you really can’t stomach egg, cheese, falafel or fake meat then it’s you who is unusual /fussy rather than the food letting you down?

I'm not veggie but easily can be as I like eggs and cheese and falafels etc a lot - I've rarely had anything vegan though at a buffet to enthuse about apart from crisps or a bit of cake -

It wouldn't be great for me as the only 'work meeting' type sandwiches I like are smoked salmon, tuna, prawn, egg, or chicken and bacon. So I'd just not eat anything.
Would they let you just bring in your own pack lunch? If not I'd just eat later on.
I think you could find out how the others feel. If lots of you aren't liking it then they may reconsider.
Fake chicken etc is revolting in my view. And far from healthy or environmentally sound. Maybe the catering just needs improving?
Could you set up a poll?

Exactly!

I also feel I've done my time at corporate events when the only thing left for me was the salad garnish!

take your own pork pies

Pre-COVID, our lunchtime training sessions would be catered with sandwiches. I didn't usually like the sandwiches available (too much mayonnaise, flavour combos not to my taste) so I just had lunch before/after or brought my own to the session. It's not my employer's job to cater to my personal preferences.

Post-COVID, they did away with catered lunches to reduce food waste.

I dont eat meat because I don't want to eat an animal. Eating fake meat means I get to enjoy along the lines of what I want to without eating an animal.