To say: M&S, it's not a "pesto wrap" without pesto!

[amoreoamicizia]

I grabbed a mozzarella and pesto wrap from M&S yesterday as a little treat (normally I don't buy preprepared stiff as I'm on a budget). Was excited to have a mozzarella and pesto as an option that wasn't yet another "cover all bases" vegan option (I like vegan food, that is another post- I'm sure you all know what I mean).

Anyway, it turns out the "mozzarella and pesto wrap" doesn't actually contain pesto at all, but rather a gloopy, unappetising "basil mayonnaise" concoction. I was so disappointed! 😐😒 Or did I get this wrong? What would you expect from a "pesto and mozzarella wrap"?

Other opticians are available

Just read the packet in future. 🤣

I'm with you OP. Have you tweeted them?

It says pesto on the packet. In the name. It doesn't say "pesto inspired"

It's not pesto without proper cheese so you and M&S are in the same terrible boat together.

How on earth have you come to that conclusion? 🤯

Quote me where I have said pesto ought not to have "proper cheese", please. 😑

It says pesto on the packet. In the name. It doesn't say "pesto inspired"

It says basil and mayo and the ingredients are also on the packet. Just read the packet. 🤓

@BarbaraWoodlouse The trouble is, the plethora of dietary requirements have caused words to lose their meaning.
'Milk' - scientifically defined as liquid produced by an animal's mammary glands. Yet 'plant milks' are sold openly everywhere.
Pepperoni and ham should contain pork, but a lot of halal places use another meat.
The latter is literally a cut of pork so any other type of ham makes no sense. But it exists.

How do you draw the line between 'acceptable' substitutes vs something completely different?

It's why I always read full ingredient lists on the rare occasions I buy food outside.

That conclusion comes from the fact that you think M&S are lying that basil mayo is pesto. You're correct. But you think pesto can be vegetarian, which means no parmigiano reggiano or even pecorino. Therefore what you wanted wasn't pesto either. Pesto only has 6 or 7 ingredients. You can't bugger around with one and still call it pesto.

It's a hill I will die on. <stubborn>

It's vegetarian. Neither parmigiano reggiano nor pecorino are. Therefore not proper pesto.

How is it not false advertising?

It says it contains pesto when it doesn't

Then it shouldn't say pesto on the front when it doesn't actually contain any pesto🙄

She read the packet and it said pesto. Why should she think that, of the four things on the front, only three of them were there?

You are being pretty weird about this.

Like I said, you are being pretty weird about this.

@SheilaFentiman @sunsetsandboardwalks The wording on the packet, to me looks similar to a lot of 'modified' foods.
The big heading is the flavour. The smaller ones are the modifications.
So it's 'pesto and mozzarella' but if they said basil mayo. It's obvious that the 'basil mayo' provides the 'pesto flavour'. In place of actual pesto.

Real pesto as @MrsTerryPratchett pointed out should contain any number of hard cheeses which aren't vegetarian.
The moment you use something else, even if it's a 'vegetarian cheese' it ceases to be pesto anyway.

There is vegetarian pecorino.

No. This is just so wrong. If it says it on it. It should be in it.

Bet you a million quid M&S aren't using proper, Italian vegetarian pecorino in their wraps.

Genuinely interested to know whether other people apart from that one person who posted earlier really like this? Apart from the misleading name, I felt the basil mayo was gloopy and incongruous and ruined it.

Calling something vegetarian pesto because it is made with veggie cheese is ok; same as calling something veggie sausages. It’s clear that veggie sausages don’t have meat and that veggie pesto is made with veggie cheese.

But it’s pretty irrelevant to the OP’s point anyway, which was about the label being misleading not whether pesto made with a different kind of hard cheese was “true” pesto.

They do sell vegetarian pesto though, so they do use and have access to vegetarian pecorino: https://www.ocado.com/products/m-s-green-pesto-513963011

so it’s not a complete stretch for them to use vegetarian pesto in their other products

I get what you're saying @TidyPoster but basil mayonnaise is absolutely nothing like pesto in flavour or texture.

I suspect M&S know that trying to sell a mozzarella and mayonnaise sandwich wouldn't go down very well and have been a bit cheeky with their advertising, tbh.

Here’s their Twitter ad for the product - notably no mention of basil
mayo OR pesto in the sexy little arrows 😀

x.com/marksandspencer/status/1310543981655318529?lang=en

Calling something vegetarian pesto because it is made with veggie cheese is ok; same as calling something veggie sausages. It’s clear that veggie sausages don’t have meat and that veggie pesto is made with veggie cheese.

My campaign, call thing what they are. So vegetarian pesto becomes 'basil paste with fewer glutamates (you know, those things that make savoury food taste good)' and veggie sausages become 'tubes of sadness' and so on.

I was vegetarian for years BTW, I'm just being facetious. Linda's sausage rolls were bloody delicious.