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?

Also many cheeses have animal rennet in which obviously renders it not vegetarian .
I often see a vegetarian Italian dish described on a menu with a V to signify fully vegetarian but also containing parmesan cheese which is not .

Of course Tuna isn't vegetarian!

If it has a face it's not vegetarian!
^ this 100%

Vegetarian is where you don’t eat meat or fish and pescatarian is where you eat fish but not meat, they must of ordered a meat free platter rather than a vegetarian one.

Anyone else now thinking of Silicon Valley and pesca-pescatarians?

So you’re happy to force your definitions onto other people? Why? Why are you happy playing purist politics? Do you think you’re making the world a better place?

Christ, no wonder this country is in the state it’s in, when food choices and the words to describe them are subject to this kind of policing. I should think you’re putting a lot of people off trying to be vegetarian when they realise then unless they subscribe 100% to your definition they’re going to be endlessly told they’re doing it wrong and so can’t use that word.

Anyway. Can’t be doing with this so I’ll leave you to your playground politics.

@WeepingWillowWeepingWino
I'm not even vegetarian, but if you eat animal products then you're not vegetarian.
Granted, you don't eat much meat/fish whatever, that's all good.
You're not full vegetarian though if you happily eat say gravy or pork gelatine.
As they're animal products.

Yeah, course you can make up your own definition of vegetarian. People will just come to their own conclusions.

"Hey - I'm going to eat rare steak every day but I'm vegetarian because I refuse to subscribe to the very widely accepted definition because I'm such a rare snowflake that I'm yooniqque. You're just being childish to say that I'm not a Real Vegetarian".

If you think fish is vegetarian, sea kelp

@SimonJT
I’m a vegan, I didn’t bother taking pack up to a recent work conference as we could select vegan on the dietary needs sheet. The vegan sandwiches had cesar sauce which contains both egg and anchovy.

That's disgusting, I hope you complained.
As someone who's not vegan but regularly orders the vegan option as I know I'm "safe" - (egg allergy and a dairy intolerance to boot) that kind of idiotic mistake could have made me seriously ill.
FFS, if that's true people seriously need educating.

If you think fish is vegetarian, sea kelp

Meat eaters always nab the veggie stuff anyway

FFS, just because a person eats meat, it doesn't mean that every single item of food that they eat has to contains meat.

Ignoring the tuna fuck up, which I'd love to hear the reasoning behind and the company's response when the OP complains, that buffet just sounds like normal food, that most people eat. It's not special vegetarian only food that meat eaters won't eat or are not allowed to touch. It's just food.

“That’s not really the point. I have a massive problem with people deciding for me and imposing their own life choices on to me.”

If you’re being given a free buffet lunch at a work event they are ‘imposing’ their choices on you. Whether to have quiche or pizza, spring rolls or onion bhaaji .

Do you honestly never have a cheese and pickle or egg and cress sandwich?

Cheese and Egg (and butter) won't go down well with the vegans either.

Exactly why my initial comment asked if you could still bring your own lunch along. I do eat those things, in fact today my lunch was meat free but that’s because I fancied beans on toast and not because some do gooder has decided I need to be vegetarian.

@alligatorsmile the Percy Pig sweets are vegan now.

Like pp I often go for the veggie option because I have allergies and I can be sure it has no fish in and therefore will be safe for me.

I'm a meat eater that eats the veggie food at buffets, because there's usually tuna, salmon or prawns scattered liberally across the meat options.

In fact, if you'd sent out info saying all food is veggie, I probably wouldn't have worried too much about telling you about my fish and shellfish allergy. (I only vomit and hallucinate, not go into anaphylaxis, so I'm not hyper vigilant like some have to be)

Sorry I havent read the thread (200 posts - cant face it). The UK Vegetarian Society control the V (vegetarian symbol). So every time anyone in professional catering uses the V symbol they should follow that Society's guidance and rules. They are the UK's experts in this matter. Tuna IS NOT Vegetarian. It is fucking fish. So please complain - for the veggies' sake. We are not vegan - so cheese, egg etc just lovely. Fish not.

So you’re happy to force your definitions onto other people? Why? Why are you happy playing purist politics? Do you think you’re making the world a better place?

No-one is forcing any definitions, that’s just what a vegetarian is.
I stopped eating meat, i now only eat it very rarely. I don’t call myself a veggie now -
As i’m not.

I'm not vegetarian and I also think that you shouldn't call yourself a vegetarian if you eat products from dead animals.
Animal being very easy to define in my book.

The right words are important to communicate.

If you don't mind eating some dead animals products, you can say you follow a general vegetarian diet, with exceptions for cheese and (animal based) gelatine, for example.

But by calling yourself a vegetarian you're paying a disservice to actual vegetarians and confusing everyone else.

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.

"I believe meat is murder, but fish is justifiable homicide."

• Jeremy Hardy

I find it a bit depressing when people post 'vegan platter would be just salad and hummus' or 'vegetarians just eat vegetables'.

Strictly speaking, yes vegetarian food is made from plants, but you wouldnt order a side of veg and be okay with getting a side of rice/pasta/bread/vegetarian sausage rolls would you. And why would a vegan platter have to be fruit and veg and hummus? Why cant it be vegan sausage sandwiches, hummus and roast veg sandwiches, crisps and dips, vegan quiche, onion and mushroom bajis, samosas I'm bored now but you get the picture. This has happened to me in a restaurant when I ordered a vegan starter described in a way I cant remember but appeared as a salad. I didn't order a salad.

Vegetarian or not the eating of Tuna should not to be allowed as they are on the endangered list, look at CITES.
Please don't.

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.

Yes, back in the age of ignorance over that type of stuff and nobody really had a clue what it was.
Nowadays we've got no excuse.
I say this as a 40 something year old so was definitely around then.
If you eat fish you were never really veggie regardless of what decade it was.