To think tuna is not vegetarian!

[TheTitOfTheIceberg]

A member of my team has been involved in arranging a small event at work, which was taking place today. I'm on leave but dropped her a quick text to see how it was going, and also asked her to let me know particularly what she thought of the lunch provided/any delegate feedback about it as it was the first time we've used these particular caterers. Company policy is now to order vegetarian options only as standard.

She has just replied "lunch was fine - samosas, spring rolls, quiches (leek & cheese, broccoli), dips with raw veg crudites, sandwiches/wraps (salad, cheese, tuna mayo, egg & tomato) and lots of fruit".

Tuna?? On a vegetarian platter? AIBU to think the catering company has dropped a bollock here?

From the op lunch was fine - samosas, spring rolls, quiches (leek & cheese, broccoli), dips with raw veg crudites, sandwiches/wraps (salad, cheese, tuna mayo, egg & tomato) and lots of fruit".

Your theoretical allergy person could eat all that except the tuna and egg sandwiches and the quiche.

Back in the 1980s the word pescatarian didn't exist.So yes we 'vegetarians' often age fish.Nobody was unhappy for us to call selves vegetarians while sometimes eating fish.

As a vegetarian schoolgirl in the 80s I knew that veggies didn't eat fish. So I'd have been unhappy for you to call yourself a vegetarian

No

So you didn’t understand what “taking allergy requirements into account” meant then?

wombat And as I said upthread, had anyone reported those allergies we would have fed that back (no pun intended) to the caterers to ensure suitable alternatives, and used another firm if they had been unable to accommodate the necessary changes.

I’m back in the office today so I’ll be giving the catering company a call later to flag up the tuna issue and suggest they either rename that particular platter to reflect its contents, or remove tuna from anything they’re labelling as vegetarian.

Tuna MAYO is in no way suitable for an egg allergy.

Did you miss the but about the tomato allergy?

For some reason most vegan/veggie/flexi seem to have a fixation that all people can eat everything that is non-meat, so whatever they offer is fine. Alas that is not the case, knowing someone who is allergic to tomatoes & egg because of how common these foods are used it makes finding food for them v hard. Luckily they can eat rice and potatoes and meat.

The "sustainability" bit is bullshit. Just some twatty vegetarian in the office who has found a way to impose their choices onto everyone.

Surely the spat that’s arisen on this thread is exactly why “flexitarian” can be a useful label. You can use it as code for “I’ll have the vegetarian options please, but don’t worry too much about using separate spoons for serving, and if you haven’t got veggie “Parmesan” or Worcester sauce in then that’s OK.”

That isn't what flexitarian means. It means "I'll order the veggie option if I feel like it or the meat option if I feel like it." You know, just like billions of others who don't feel the need to apply a label to their diet!

Did you miss the but about the tomato allergy?

No. Samosas and spring rolls don’t usually contain tomato. Neither do dips. Tomato’s make very unusual crudités.

*rogue apostrophe inserted by idiot phone above

No, I think the point is exactly as BarbaraofSeville put it. Obviously if you have an allergy there will be some restrictions, but that’s just as likely to happen in a meat dish - quiche Lorraine, pasta bolognese, tomato salsa dip, Scotch egg, steak served with a grilled tomato, gammon and egg - any of those and many many more would be off limits to your friend. Unless there are specific allergy constraints - which you would expect to be communicated anyway and therefore alternatives could/would be provided in a situation where lunch was being prepared by a third party - there is nothing inherently inedible about vegetarian food if you happen to eat meat. A person with no allergies or intolerances would not be unable to eat a vegetarian lunch because that particular meal doesn’t contain meat, in the way a vegetarian would be unable to eat a meal where every dish contained meat or fish.

I wouldn't be using that caterer again if they don't know tuna isn't vegetarian- shows a high level of ignorance given the industry they're in.

Except it's not, someone who is allergic to eggs & tomatoes for instance would really struggle with that provided lunch.

For instance off limits would be the quiche, many of he sandwiches, leaving pretty much the cheese and tuna sandwiches.

The OP didn’t have any guests with egg or tomato allergies so the buffet was just fine.

Just like if I serve a roast and cook the potatoes in goose fat it’s fine when I know there are no vegetarians coming for dinner.

A lunch doesn’t have to be suitable for hypothetical allergies, just allergies of people actually attending.

Not sure how tomato salsa dip crept into a list of meat dishes...must just be because I really fancy some right now!

Another fuss about nothing.

Midnite I doubt we have any vegetarians here with the clout to single-handedly push something like this through the 837 separate committees required to get something agreed as policy, but that’s a whole different argument!

I hadn't remembered that tuna was endangered and buy it for my son. Are there any tins of tuna that are ethically okay?

Well it’s not really “nothing”, is it derxa? You have the risk of a potential scenario where someone doesn’t declare a serious fish allergy because they are reassured there’s no need to by our stated vegetarian-only policy. You have the (admittedly slight, but nevertheless there) reputational risk to my organisation if we’re stating something which appears to be inherently untrue. And you have a catering firm potentially risking cross contamination.

I wouldn’t trust a firm providing tuna as a vegetarian option not to have used things with “hidden” meat in, like non-vegetarian cheese

The "sustainability" bit is bullshit. Just some twatty vegetarian in the office who has found a way to impose their choices onto everyone.
So true!
I would point out though that there will be far more allergens in a vegetarian lunch. DS really struggled at a veggie wedding we went to as although they took account of his nut allergy most things were covered in seeds he couldnt eat either.
The problem with allergies people only thing nuts are the serious allergy

A lunch that would cater for anyone at all with all potential allergies would be a bit challenging. I think plain baked potatoes and steamed rice seasoned with salt would be safest.

It doesn’t really matter why the lunch was vegetarian, it’s shockingly bad form for a catering company to then send fish.

It’s completely not what the OPs company ordered and is well worthy of a complaint.

Plus with all the allergies publicity recently with Pret I wouldn’t use a catering company again that don’t even know a basic like that as there would be no way you could ever trust their ingredient or allergy information in the future. Which is dangerous for their future clients.

But the low carbing salt fearing orthorexics on here would be unable to eat that Anton

Because potatoes and rice are basically sugar and salt is deadly poison.

Fuck it. Give them water.