Would you say anything?

[Thistledew]

I genuinely don't know what if anything I should do in this situation so will go with a majority vote.

I have a new work colleague who is originally from India. She is vegetarian according to the Indian tradition, which excludes eggs as well as meat and fish.

But she eats pasta, which, as far as I know, usually includes eggs.

I am not in the slightest bit bothered whether she chooses to eat eggs sometimes, every day or never, and I know that it is really none of my business.

However, she is generally very careful not to eat egg- for example always checking the ingredients list if someone brings in cake or biscuits to share. This makes me think that she may genuinely not know that pasta contains egg.

So, what would you do? Would you say anything? Should I assume she does know and has chosen to make an exception? If you were inadvertently breaking a personal taboo, would you rather have it pointed out to you or remain in ignorance?

Most pasta doesn't contain egg, its just wheat and water. If her English is pretty good, I'd assume she can read the ingredients on the packet and will be able to avoid anything which says "egg pasta", but if you think her English may be tripping her up you could always comment about avoiding egg pasta to be on the safe side.

dry pasta doesn't have egg in does it? But if it does, then yes, you should tell her.

Most crappy shop bought pasta has no egg

Still mention it though. What a good friend you are.

Generally only fresh pasta contains egg; the dried stuff in a packet doesn't. I would only say something if the person had an allergy, otherwise what she doesn't know won't hurt her.
Besides, she's an adult, so it's up to her to check what she eats.

I would rather you asked me if I knew. I'm veggie and also don't eat egg, but I eat dried pasta which doesn't have egg in it.

I am a very strict vegetarian, but I am less strict on egg, so for instance I never cook with egg, but if you had made something vegetarian and it had a little egg in it, I would eat it - say if you had made me a vegetarian lasagne and had used fresh pasta. However, I couldn't eat quiche/omlette etc... not even to save your feelings though - so I have to try really hard to remember to tell people I don't eat egg. I also occasionally choose to eat something out that I know probably/possibly has a little egg in it (vegetarian lasagna, pasta, cake).

So yes, I would want you to tell me if you thought I was doing something unknowingly.

Erm, I'd feel patronised and think you were calling me thick. But maybe that's just me

Thanks for all the comments. I thought that most pasta has egg in it because if you google 'pasta ingredients' you get loads of recipes with egg, but I have just looked at the packet of dried I have at home and egg is not listed as an ingredient. I might just see if I can drop it into conversation that it can be made with egg and leave it to her to decide what to do with the information.

Thistle, I used to be vegan and lots and lots of people were always saying to me, 'But doesn't bread/ beer/ carrots have egg/ cheese/ beef dripping in it?'

(Okay not really but you get the idea.)

Honestly I bet your colleague has checked this stuff. I think your idea of dropping it into the convo is good, but be aware that especially coming from a different cultural background, she may already get lots of people saying to her, 'Wow, I just don't know how you get by not eating x because it's made with y!'

It does get a little wearing after a time...

don't say anything cos it doesn't have eggs in it if its the normal dried one from shop, or like the pasta pots that u can buy from tesco lunch section and that kind of things
and she probably has checked if she is in the habit of checking
so it may come across a bit patronising, also it can be annoying when people do this like sometimes people randomly tell me foods are haram when they are actually not, and if you ask them why its like "oh i just heard" but it gets irritating after a while, as you just wana get on and eat your food, which you have already checked. if it genuinely did contain eggs though then yanbu to tell her