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 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.

I said I didn’t know any vegetarians who would be ok with those things I listed, i didn’t say there are no vegetarians that would be ok with them, so not sure why you felt the need to quote me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And of course you eating mozzarella sticks increases the demand for animal products.

My cousin is veggie but isn't anywhere near as strict with cross contamination. She won't eat anything that came from a dead animal, so no gelatine etc, but she's not bothered if her mum used the same knife to cut her food after theirs, obviously she prefers it to not be cross contaminated but won't kick off about it as she understands that being veggie is her decision and sometimes mistakes are made, so eating out isn't an issue for her. She just doesn't want to consume it herself but the trace amounts from cross contamination don't bother her.

@Wearywithteens

“She made us sausage rolls and chicken salad sandwiches grin Didn't have the heart to tell her so I just cracked on and ate them! The only meat I've knowingly eaten in 20 odd years.”

Nope sorry - you are NOT a vegetarian if you’d eat two of the worst kinds of meat just to be polite

Depends tbh. If she has eaten no meat since then yes she is a vegetarian again now.

Personally there is no way I could force myself to eat meat even to be polite though.🤮

@BadTattoosAndSmellLikeBooze

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.

I said I didn’t know any vegetarians who would be ok with those things I listed, i didn’t say there are no vegetarians that would be ok with them, so not sure why you felt the need to quote me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And of course you eating mozzarella sticks increases the demand for animal products.

Ok, if you don't want people to reply to you on an open discussion forum, maybe put a little note at the bottom of your post to let everyone know.
I'll try not to do it again though.

A couple of years ago one of my best friends had just had a baby and I went to hers for lunch. She absolutely insisted on making the food, but was obviously frazzled, and totally forgot I was veggie. She made us sausage rolls and chicken salad sandwiches grin Didn't have the heart to tell her so I just cracked on and ate them! The only meat I've knowingly eaten in 20 odd years.

I don’t believe that. At a push, to be polite, surely you’d have taken the chicken off the sandwiches discreetly, or maybe said you were not feeling very hungry.
A relative of mine who is very anti vegetarian/vegan always claims she knows vegetarians/vegans who have done things like this. I don’t believe her either.

Anyone bothered about "cross-contamination" due to same baking tray etc is not bothered about the ethical considerations - more about their own personal squeamishness.

are there "worse" kinds of meat?

I mean you are either vegetarian or you're not

Ok, if you don't want people to reply to you on an open discussion forum, maybe put a little note at the bottom of your post to let everyone know. I'll try not to do it again though.

Lol. You know very well that you said it in a ‘you’re wrong because I’m fine with it’ sort of way. I just said my vegetarian friends wouldn’t in direct reply to the OP, of course there will be other vegetarians with different standards.

I’m quite interested in how you think eating mozzarella sticks doesn’t increase demand for animal products though. That’s very interesting. 🤣

@Wearywithteens

“Ihatemyseleffordoingthis are there "worse" kinds of meat? I mean you are either vegetarian or you're not”

Agree with your point - I never understand this ‘I won’t eat horse but I’ll eat beef’ crap. Meat is meat but from a quality and animal welfare point of view - cheap sausages and cheap chicken have got to be up there amongst the worst. (And yes I know she might not have used cheap ones I’m just making the point).

What exactly is your point?

@Wearywithteens

If you'd reject food someone with postnatal depression and a sick baby had just gone to the effort to make you, then you're a monster.

The only thing on your list that I probably do occasionally is eat chips that might have been cooked in something non vegetarian. I've never asked the chip shop what they cook in

Personally, I think the first 2-3 (gelatine, beef fat chips, and possibly sharing a deep fryer as raw meat is put in) are reasonable, the other are excessive unless he's preparing all his own food - being a vegetarian is to avoid eating meat, not to avoid being in contact with it in any setting, particularly if you are expecting someone else to cater for you.

Until he leaves home he needs to learn to deal with e.g. having a veggie pie in the same oven as a meat pie. On the meat pie above veggie pie - I assume you mean in a tray, not just on the rack? In which case I also wouldn't mind. It strikes me as pretty OCD to be honest and until he has his own kitchen I wouldn't let him make a fuss about this, ditto sharing shopping bags etc. You have to draw the line somewhere and for me that would either be he has to do all his own shopping and cooking or he calms down a bit.

If you'd reject food someone with postnatal depression and a sick baby had just gone to the effort to make you, then you're a monster.

No, not a monster. A friend having PND wouldn’t make me suddenly eat meat or dairy. I’d have either gently said something or just said I wasn’t hungry.

I've never asked the chip shop what they cook in

Both our local chip shops have a sign saying they use vegetable oil.

I have pnd. Really really bad. No way I'd expect for example my Muslim friends to drink alcohol to appease me. No different with being vegetarian.
If you eat meat. You're not vegetarian. Incidentally Hitler was this kind of vegetarian. You know, the kind that are meat. People love to point it out but he was literally the shittest veggie you could be. Foie gras etc.
Me and husband both vegan. I don't do contamination and have a no animal products kitchen. DH will eat veggie food cooked on a BBQ with meat. Neither of us eat meat, as if we did we wouldn't be veggie.

"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."

OP - what is the motivation for his vegetarianism? if it is an ethical or environmental position you could suggest he looks at this:
indavertent traces do not mean it is not vegetarian

I expect he just has a touch of the zeal of the newly converted.

Vegetarians who won't eat food cooked in the same oven/same tray as meat are basically just fussy tbh. I don't think people shoud ever be forced to eat things they don't like - but it is a preference, not an ethical position or a very pragmatic one.

Vegetarians who won't eat food cooked in the same oven/same tray as meat are basically just fussy tbh.
Nah my stomach is not a graveyard.

I've been veggie for 20 years, slowly moving towards vegan.

I don't eat gelatine or anything cooked in animal fat. I wouldn't really consider someone vegetarian if they did eat gelatine, but I still think it's good if they're reducing consumption.

I wouldn't eat something cooked in the same oil as meat.

The pie ones - I would try to avoid, but if I was at someone's house and they served veggie pie that was under a meat pie in the oven, I would still eat it. Whereas if e.g. they served up something cooked in animal fat, I would rather go hungry.

@TheBuffster - "My stomach is not a graveyard" implies that you think that is a moral choice: it isn't, it's just a preference.

Well I
Let's imagine I eat dogs. I invite you round and cook your food on a tray with my Labrador steaks.
Truthfully are you going to eat it?
Dead dog. Nummies.
Vegetarians can't win can we. If we are strict we're militant and if we're not we're hypocrites.

I'm a pretty flexible vegie. I don't eat meat at home, and when I go to a restaurant (ha) I wouldn't order meat.

However, if I go to someone's house and they cook something meat free for me, I don't question how it was cooked/with what utensils, and if for some reason they didn't cook me something vegetarian, I would just eat what was put in front of me.

I would definitely eat chips from the chip shop no matter what they were cooked in (mainly because I live in France now and DREAM about a British chippie dinner).

If I eat sweets I tend to go for vegan ones mainly because I prefer them, but if they weren't available and I really fancied something, I would eat whatever was on offer.

I sound like a pretty crap vegetarian 😂