To trick someone into eating vegan?

[Idonthatevegans]

Please read my question before getting into a debate about veganism. That isn't really what it is about. It has no impact on my life if someone is a vegan or not, do what you wish.

I got into a discussion with someone recently, and found out that people are often surprised when they find out that there was no meat in the beef pie/ spag bol etc she served. And she gets a kick of that fact they couldn't tell the difference. Honestly I couldn't really, not in something like a spag bol.

I have however, tried quorn a few times in my life, with AWFUL results. I am in the bathroom within 1 hour and very sick for a day after. A 100% vegan meal without meat substitutes ya I'm 100% ok with. But if someone says I made beef pie, I would take them at their word. If I knew the person was vegan I would probably enquire if it was real meat only because I know how awfully I react to it. But if I didn't know that person was a vegan I would take it at face value. Yes it happens every so often I get offered tea around a friends aunt who we popped into or something like that.

To me, a vegan passing of something as meat to people who don't know and can therefore make up their own mind is as bad as me putting chicken stock into veg soup and telling someone it is vegan friendly. Ya the vast majority in both cases won't know the difference in taste or after affect. But both people have been denied the option of having their own choice. One has been tricked into thinking they are eating meat, one has been tricked into thinking they are not. I know there are hugely different moral implications there but both have been tricked when they should not have been.

I really don't want to this to break into a vegan/ non vegan debate. That is all that I got back on my last chat. The person wouldn't actually answer my question about tricking someone, just kept on a barrage of info about how vegan is amazing and that anyone who eat meat was the devil incarnate.

BTW - it's not something I would often say I am allergic to as I usually take how food is called at their face value.

I simply want to know:

AIBU - she can call her pie beef pie, even if it is not beef pie.

YANBU - you should know what you are eating. If it's called beef pie well of course you would expect it to be beef pie

YANBU, I think it's really off that she gets a kick out of this and needs to be told that some people can become quite ill when eating meat substitutes.
I was vegan for around 8 months fully. I ended up with severe aneamia. I now have meat once or twice a week and the rest of the meals are vegan. I've never pretended to anyone that my meals have meat in them
if they haven't.

I think your friends a bit fucked up.

I also need to know if it’s meat or a meat substitute. I react very badly to Quorn and am allergic to an ingredient in other meat substitutes.
Love a decent non-meat pie, but she is wrong not to tell people.

I think that if you are making a meal for someone you should say exactly what it is, and if I went to someone's house they told me it was beef pie and then I found out it wasn't I would not be happy as they have lied to me. I'll eat pretty much anything so don't care what it is but just be honest fgs.

Your friend is an arsehole

Tricking people isn't really cricket is it? Unless you're a magician of course.

You never know what people are allergic to/intolerant of. Tricking someone into eating or drinking something when they think they’re having something else is stupid and wrong.

I actually had a vegan try this with me a few years ago.

I had to quiz him about what the food was made of due to an allergy and sensed something was wrong because he couldn't lie for shit.

Apparently he had simply wanted to prove I could be a vegan.

I asked him what his thoughts would have been if I used animal products and tricked him into eating them, it was completely different apparently.

Smug, arrogant, sanctimonious bastard, if I wanted to be vegan I would be.

My DD struggles to breathe if she eats Quorn and it gives me the shits so it’s really bad to try and pass it off as meat and vice versa

YANBU, misleading someone as to what they are eating is wrong. What she's doing is no different to her slipping bacon into a Jewish person's meal or tipping vodka into someone's drink when you know they're a recovering alcoholic.

YANBU and it's frankly weird when adults seem to get bizarre kicks out of sneaking food past people.

I know people say that people can’t tell the difference but you really really can. I eat plenty of veggie foods but veggie mince really lacks the depth of a proper meat bolognese

I think I'd ask if there was anything somebody couldn't eat before cooking for them. As a vegetarian I expect the same courtesy. I think lying about ingredients is deceitful and potentially dangerous.

Not telling people what they’re eating is a massive issue in terms of allergies and intolerances, and is actually illegal in restaurants now.

You are totally right OP. You can’t do a bait and switch thing with someone’s food.

The only thing I will say is that if you have food intolerances you should always ask because you never know what random stuff someone throws into a recipe. Beef pie could be full of beef but the person had an extra thing of Quorn so decided to throw that in. Obviously the person should tell you if there is anything unexpected in a dish but I don’t think people think about it that much.

I'm a vegan. Saying its a beef pie when its not is lying. But lots of people being heathy or on budgets or for their own reasons may mix beef mince with other things like soya mince.
So while she lied at that's not ok. If you are sensitive to certain things you need to declare it. What she gave you could have been a beef pie if she'd mixed a bit of beef into it, while using all the same other ingredients and only a tiny bit of beef. It would still have caused you the same effects.
So yes she shouldn't have called a beef pie if it had no beef, but you could still have been in trouble with a beef pie.

She's hardly Sweeney Todd...

Yanbu I like to know what I am eating and also if the diner had an allergic reaction.... your mate could be up on a manslaughter charge.

I like vegan food but not like quorn at all

I’ve lost track of the number of vegans who’ve posted here saying “it’s highly unusual to be allergic to meat substitutes” even though a huge number of posters are incredibly intolerant to them. I thin it justifies their position on being vegan in some way.

Quorn is revolting anyway but either way lying to someone to trick them into eating something they actively wouldn’t choose to just so you can get a kick out of it is fucked up. If someone did that to me I would feel compelled to covertly feed them a pie with beef, and meat stock, inside a lovely all butter pastry case and then laugh heartily when they declared it to be delicious.

It's not really the same as putting chicken stock in soup which you're claiming is vegan. I don't know anyone who has an ethical objection to eating vegan food. In fact I don't think it would be possible to construct one. It's more like serving up cheap cava as champagne and only owning up after everyone has said how nice it is.

I'm vegetarian and wouldn't be happy about this. Others have mentioned that it could have been beef mixed with quorn and still been "beef".

I am OK with small amounts of soy. Large amounts give me GI upset, but generally I don't tell people I have an allergy as a wee bit of soy won't hurt me and I wouldn't choose to eat a soy burger. I'd be pretty upset if someone tricked me into eating soy by telling me it was something else!

You should be honest with what you are serving to people in case of allergies. Admittedly I sneak veg into the (adult) kids meals because they are fussy but I know their lack of allergies!

I'd be surprised at someone who was being cooked for by a vegan thinking they're going to get meat.

As a vegan, trust me, you do not want people unused to cooking meat cooking it for you. Guaranteed food poisoning.

I just find this a little hard to believe it would come up.

But I would echo what another poster has said that if you have intolerances you should be mentioning them anyway.

A meat eater without intolerances is not really equivalent to 'tricking' a vegan into eating meat. Most non vegan people don't not eat vegetables due to ethical reasons.

It's just a really weird situation that I can't imagine happening organically.

The only thing I have experienced that has come close is when I've made vegan treats for work. Label them, but people ignore anyway. Lots of bitching about sausage rolls, but polished off my cupcakes pretty quick.

PS If you're allergic then it's really up to you to ask to know everything that's in a dish. It would be quite possible for something legitimately called beef pie to be crammed full of prime beef, but still have some Quorn in it.

People should be honest and upfront about what they are serving, though when vegans have prepared meals for me, I assume the food will be vegan.

I am confused about people who claim that they can't tell the difference between substitutes and meat. I haven't eaten meat in over ten years, and still feel mince substitutes lack any depth of flavour and the texture is off-putting. People are polite and simply won't say 'this is terrible, I think something is wrong here' even though they can tell the dish isn't right. The only thing to say when someone serves you a meal 'this is lovely, thank you very much'. And I think people confuse that politeness with their guests being genuinely fooled. I feel similar when people online say they serve their sugar free beetroot brownies and no-one can tell the difference.