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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To trick someone into eating vegan?

205 replies

Idonthatevegans · 09/11/2021 15:24

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

OP posts:
Marimaur · 09/11/2021 22:13

Yanbu, you should know what you’re eating.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 09/11/2021 22:16

Yes, giving people a meal made with vegetables/ non processed ingredients without specifically mentioning it is one thing. So if you say “please try my favourite curry” without saying “oh it’s vegan” might be OK.

Giving people something like quorn , that contains allergens - and saying it is something else- is a whole other thing. That’s dangerous and your friend shouldn’t do it.

Bumblenums1234 · 09/11/2021 22:26

I eat a lot of vegan meals but would be really pissed off if someone served me one thing and said it was something else.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 09/11/2021 22:31

It's as bad as meateaters who enjoy telling vegans that there's no meat in the vegetable casserole but made a point of putting chicken stock into it.

You need to be able to trust food - which you can't with people like that.

scarpa · 10/11/2021 14:37

I dunno, I'm on the fence.

If someone I knew was vegan served me a 'beef pie', I'd assume it was a beef substitute. Probably wouldn't even ask, as I'd assume they wouldn't buy meat so it'd be the vegan version.

If I didn't know they were vegan, I still don't think I'd be fussed either way, but I would think it was odd that they didn't say it and even odder that they were pleased with themselves for hiding it.

I think generally people assume by default something is not vegan unless otherwise stated, so it's weird that she presented something with no context as beef pie when most people would have no issue with that being a vegan beef pie. Maybe we shouldn't assume meat eating is the default, but while that's largely the case, I think your friend should be a bit clearer!

Also, lots of people don't get on well with some of the common vegan meat substitute ingredients - I can't eat seitan, I've never noticed a sensitivity to gluten before but after eating a seitan 'chicken' sandwich, which has a mega high gluten content, I was really poorly. So for that reason, people should probably be upfront about it too - if you're expecting beef and know you're okay with it, you won't think to mention a sensitivity to seitan, cos you think it's beef!

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