If you're vegetarian are you bothered by any of these?

[Knitwit99]

I don't eat meat but I do eat animal in other things so I don't count myself as vegetarian. If I can easily avoid meat I do, I would pick the veggie Percy Pigs if they were right beside the gelatine ones, but if someone offered me a Percy Pig I would just eat it without bothering to check. That tiny amount of gelatine would not bother me at all.

DS14 is vegetarian and the opposite extreme.

If you consider yourself to be vegetarian do you eat-

Non-vegetarian marshmallows and sweets containing gelatine

Chips from the chip shop cooked in beef fat

Deep fried food eg mozzarella sticks that are fried in the same vegetable oil as meat products like chicken nuggets

A veggie pie cooked on the same tray as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been cooked in the oven underneath a meat pie on a metal baking tray

A veggie pie that has been anywhere in the same oven as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been carried home in the same shopping bag as a meat pie (each pie cold and wrapped in a separate paper bag)

I've had mixed responses from people irl. One lifelong vegetarian said he doesn't care if a chip shop cooks its chips in beef fat or not because any animal dna has been fried into oblivion. I was really surprised by that.

Another who used to have a massive bag of haribo in her drawer at work, she figured the animals were dead anyway so she might as well save their gelatine from going to waste.

DS will absolutely not eat anything with any animal by-product in and ties himself in knots trying to avoid any meat being anywhere near his veg. Eating out is difficult because he can't be sure his vegetarian food hasn't been cooked right beside meat.

To my mind a small splash of animal fat on my food is not going to matter but I guess to him it really matters. I'm curious about where other people are on the spectrum.

This is not about me trying to persuade him to think differently, I'm just genuinely curious. I do also think he gives himself a whole lot more stress than he needs to but maybe not. I respect his choices (mostly, I think the chances of meat juice dripping through a solid metal tray onto his food are pretty low and don't have much patience with that one)

I wouldn't eat gelatine.

Vegetarian since early 80’s

Vegan for past 5 years as is mrs sunnydayhere. All children have flown the nest. 2/3 adult children are fully vegan. The other is vegetarian/near vegan.

We don’t knowingly buy anything with animal products in. So no gelatine in sweets, vegan wine + beer.

No dairy products - which rules out a number of things - even some plain chocolate.

New shoes - non leather. Vegan is hard as some use animal glue or don’t say. We’ve still some old leather shoes.

Don’t eat eggs or honey - but would sympathise with someone who grows their own.

Bike saddle - replaced leather Brooks one with their non leather version - nearly as good.

Car - chose a car with cloth seats, steering wheel is, I think, faux leather as is some of the trim. Insulation/seat stuffing is recycled wool.

Chip shop - minimal cross contamination. Because we both follow our ‘funny diet’ (according to my Mum) there is no risk of meaty drips on vegan food etc.

Our friends/mums whilst they don't quite get it go along with it.

I’m not preachy or militant about it but if someone has a go at me I’d give as good as I got.

I don’t consume any dead animal products, I also don’t eat dairy.

The only example I would be happy with are the wrapped pies in the carrier bag.

If you consider yourself to be vegetarian do you eat-

Non-vegetarian marshmallows and sweets containing gelatine
Gelatine isn't vegetarian, so nope

Chips from the chip shop cooked in beef fat nope! The taste would gross me out

Deep fried food eg mozzarella sticks that are fried in the same vegetable oil as meat products like chicken nuggets
I'd not ask specifically in a restaurant but wouldnt do this myself

A veggie pie cooked on the same tray as a meat pie wouldn't mind

A veggie pie that has been cooked in the oven underneath a meat pie on a metal baking tray wouldnt mind

A veggie pie that has been anywhere in the same oven as a meat pie wouldn't mind

A veggie pie that has been carried home in the same shopping bag as a meat pie (each pie cold and wrapped in a separate paper bag) wouldn't mind
I just dont consume animal flesh products if I can at all help it

I was vegetarian for 20 years (I'm not anymore) and no I wouldn't have eaten anything that contained any sort of non-vegetarian ingredient or anything where vegetarian food was cooked in something non-veg (like same spoon used to stir both). But obviously you never really know how something is cooked in someone else's house or in a restaurant, no matter what they say, so I'm sure I did inadvertently. I think as a parent I would want you to generally respect that because it's easy to avoid.

I wouldn't have been bothered about things being cooked in the same oven (probably not the same tray) as long as there was no obvious splash and splattering (so probably depends what it is). Things in the same bag probably wouldn't bother me, but depends what it is. Leaky raw chicken, no, I'd want that bagged separately. And certainly when dh came to visit me when we were dating and wanted to cook meat in my house, there were specific rules about what he could buy and what he could cook and where it could be stored - my house, my rules, and he was fine with that and would happily cook and clean up after any meat meals.

I think I would be fine supporting the not mixing of non-veg and veg food as long as the vegetarian took the responsibility for it. So fine to not cook in the same oven, but vegetarian has to cook their own food (possibly at a different time) if they are only comfortable with that, if you only have one oven. Same with shopping, fine to keep things separate, but they should take some responsibility then for doing some of the shopping and making sure things are separated. I think at the moment, that's quite tricky because you can't shop as a family and lots of shopping is delivered anyway.

DS is veggie. He won't eat cheese made with animal rennet or sweets made with animal gelatine. He won't buy leather or silk new but still uses gloves, belts, scarves etc given to him before he became veggie.

@Wearywithteens

“ComtesseDeSpair I don’t know any vegetarians or vegans who would be upset at having their food cooked with the same utensils as meat or cooked in the same oven, though. Most would avoid food cooked in the same oil or on the same baking tray wherever possible, but everyone I know is pretty pragmatic and would eat something that had accidentally been “contaminated” with animal products rather than ruin a dinner party by insisting they couldn’t eat the food because their food had touched meat.”

Sorry but I would be upset if someone stirred my veggie curry with a spoon that had been in a chicken curry. I wouldn’t eat it. And I have complained at buffet tables where they put the ham sandwiches on the same plate as the cheese. A proper veggie won’t want any meat contamination inadvertent or otherwise.

Unless you only eat at vegetarian restaurants then you will have eaten food that has been cross contaminated with meat.

Personally I don't eat meat because I don't want my money to go towards that industry. Eating a veggie curry that has been stirred with a spoon that has also also stirred the chicken curry doesn't conflict with that.

I'm not vegetarian but I think the oven thing is interesting. Pies are probably ok but I wouldn't put anything in for a strict vegetarian at the same time as a roast for example, because there is spatter. It does go everywhere and I know because I once put granola in at the same time as a joint of pork... it did not go well. The granola tasted porky and very sadly went in the bin!

I when i read this Me, I've been vegetarian for over 30 years, since being a child. I'd not knowingly ingest any dead animal. So no gelatine.

Does this individual eat live animals then so much emotive language

None of them ok except these IMO:

A veggie pie cooked on the same tray as a meat pie - but only if they’re both in separate tinfoil trays, if they are loose and leaking in to each other, then no

A veggie pie that has been anywhere in the same oven as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been carried home in the same shopping bag as a meat pie (each pie cold and wrapped in a separate paper bag)

I used to be really strict about that but I'm not anymore. Which is why I don't call myself a vegetarian, although I don't eat meat.

Bottom two are fine. Don't mind same utensils as long as they're washed very well in between. I'm not vegan but don't wear leather/ avoid most dairy / only eat eggs from the farm down the road so maybe fussiest than most vegetarians. Agree teenagers tend to be very rigid and idealistic about it but that's not a bad thing

I don’t know any vegetarians that would be ok with these things:

Non-vegetarian marshmallows and sweets containing gelatine

Chips from the chip shop cooked in beef fat

Deep fried food eg mozzarella sticks that are fried in the same vegetable oil as meat products like chicken nuggets

A veggie pie cooked on the same tray as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been cooked in the oven underneath a meat pie on a metal baking tray

When I was vegetarian I would have been ok with these things as are the vegetarians I know:

A veggie pie that has been anywhere in the same oven as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been carried home in the same shopping bag as a meat pie (each pie cold and wrapped in a separate paper bag)

@HappyNewYear2021

I when i read this Me, I've been vegetarian for over 30 years, since being a child. I'd not knowingly ingest any dead animal. So no gelatine.

Does this individual eat live animals then so much emotive language

Surely what they mean is that they won't eat any product that the animal had to die to produce, eg meat or gelatine. But eggs and milk are fine because the animals aren't killed to produce them.

Thats how I understand it anyway.

I'm not surprised you've had mixed responses in real life, cos everyone's different!

My choice not to eat animal products is mostly, although not entirely, based on the ethics of killing animals I don't need to. I avoid doing anything that would increase demand for animal products. So I don't eat gelatine. I do miss Haribo starmix!

Food cooked in/next to/under/carried with meat, etc. doesn't bother me in the slightest because those other foods are being cooked for other people anyway. Me eating a pie cooked in the same oven as the meat doesn't change anything.

I don’t know any vegetarians that would be ok with these things:

Deep fried food eg mozzarella sticks that are fried in the same vegetable oil as meat products like chicken nuggets

A veggie pie cooked on the same tray as a meat pie

A veggie pie that has been cooked in the oven underneath a meat pie on a metal baking tray

I would be fine with that and I know plenty of other veggies who would. As I said in my reply above, me eating those mozzarella sticks or veggie pies isn't increasing the demand for animal products in any way so it's fine by me.

@Knitwit99

I remember being a lot more rigid as a newly vegetarian teen

I suspect this is what it is really, hopefully he'll relax a bit over time. Pragmatic is not a word that describes him, he's all about the theory and being 100% correct at all times.

As a teen I was an utter pain in the butt! I would make subway workers change gloves, they hated me . I'm a lot more chilled now, mainly because I'm not bringing my DS up veggie so I have to cook meat! I still get annoyed at being lectured by people who've been vegans for about three minutes when I've been veggie for 25 years though!

My mum and dad were pretty accommodating , and I can't give up being veggie as I think my dad would be quite judgy about it .

he's all about being 100% correct at all times

Sounds like 100% of teenagers to be honest!

The word pescatarian didn't exist when I started calling myself 'vegetarian'. Lots of people my age had same problem, we used the most useful word that existed & didn't know it would become reserved for purer-eaters. For the 17 years I thought it was ok to call myself vegetarian, I wouldn't have fretted about the things OP listed.

This is just my experience but I actually think vegans tend to be more relaxed about cross contact than vegetarians are. I am honestly not saying this to offend anyone nor am I saying either approach is the right way but I am just saying it is something I have noticed. Logically you would think vegans would be more strict about it but ime it's not the case.

I do think that if cross contact is something that really bothers you then the only way you can get around that is by never eating out or only eating at veggie places. I worked in hospitality for years and we simply didn't have the space or equipment to keep veggie stuff and meat stuff away from each other at all times. So yes there was often quite a bit of veggie stuff that was 'contaminated' with meat. This was the case in several different kitchens over a period of years.

Just becase more places are being honest about cross contact in their kitchen now (Burger King, Nando's) doesn't mean it is not something that has never happened before or doesn't happen in places who aren't more honest. Cross contact will happen in all places that serve and cook meat. It's near on impossible for it not to happen.

If you are vegetarian or vegan and not worried about cross-contamination, then you are not vegetarian or vegan! Case closed. Call yourself something else.

Restaurants who knowingly cross-contaminate are leaving themselves open to legal action. A product cannot be advertised as vegetarian or vegan if it is cooked in the same area.

If you are vegetarian or vegan and not worried about cross-contamination, then you are not vegetarian or vegan! Case closed. Call yourself something else.

Oh get off your high horse.

Even PETA say that veggies/vegans shouldn't worry about cross contact because it's all about reducing demand for animal products and meat rather than being perfect and pure.

Restaurants who knowingly cross-contaminate are leaving themselves open to legal action.

A lot of places don't have a choice because they only have limited space and cooking appliances.

A product cannot be advertised as vegetarian or vegan if it is cooked in the same area.

Source?

I've been vegetarian my whole life & a dairy free vegetarian for the last 20 years.

I don't eat anything containing any meat or animal by products like gelatine etc. I also only buy things for me that are vegan as I only eat the eggs from my aunts hens. If there isn't a suitable option I don't eat (there's always something).

I also don't wear leather, wouldn't eat chips fried in beef fat, wouldn't want my veggie pie next to & possibly contaminated with any meat juices and was rather it wasn't cooked in the oven at the same time if possible. I don't mind if vegetarian things are next to my vegan things & will still eat something if it is listed as 'may contain milk' as it's due to cross contamination but not if it actually contains it.

My DC are standard vegetarian & are the same (except for milk etc) say no thanks to haribo, don't wear leather etc.