To think it's selfish to eat from special dietary requirements when you have none?

[IndividualMini]

At a work conference, where a catered lunch is being offered. There are specific sections for dietary requirements with limited supplies eg vegan, gluten free, nut free, along with a larger section for ordinary non-vegetarian sandwiches with ordinary bread. The guy ahead of me takes something from every single section including the ordinary non-vegetarian section, so clearly is not a vegan with gluten allergies! Why do people do this? As someone with specific dietary requirements I've been left many times with very little to eat because others have eaten food without thinking about whether others might actually need it.

Maybe he doesn't really think about it. Just politely point it out to him

My DH has been in this situation quite a lot lately. It's a mix of not engaging their brains, ignorance and bad buffet layout.

People are absolute gannets where free food is provided. And don't even start me on the subject of people who refuse to respond to invitations and then show up so there's not enough food available.

Yes, maybe point it out to him or perhaps ask if anyone minds if you grab some of the vagn ones first as you cannot eat any of the othera.

Might also be worth feedback to your caterer that you need a bigger seelction of the vegan etc ones in future.

They’re probably thoughtless. I’ve been the person left with hardly anything to eat because everyone just wanted to ‘try’ a bit. It’s really annoying. Have a word with the conference organisers and see what they suggest, if there is a shortage.

I agree. I organised a buffet for close family and friends. The only thing I could eat was marked dairy free and there wasn’t much - enough for one person.

No one else was dairy free or had any intolerances. They ate all of it so I went hungry. Selfish

Yanbu. Yes it's selfish and entitled behaviour, thoughtless and grabby.

It is not news that plenty of people like this exist. Any decent events organiser knows this will happen and factors it in, providing multiple quantities of the special options on the assumption that most will be eaten by people who don't need them but think the things look nice and can't bear the idea of there being something that looks nice but isn't for them.

Surely if you're a vegan because you think it's more humane or better for the planet it's good if other people try vegan food too, even if only as part of their diet?

In this case though the buffet should be better marked, it should be clear that certain items are off limits for most and are reserved for certain groups of staff.

I don't think its necessarily selfish, thoughtless or greedy to assume that food on a buffet is available to them.

Can none of you use your voices and ask that the items for those with dietary requirements are kept for those who need them?

Do you not get a separate platter delivered so it is free from cross contamination anyway?

IME the good caterers plate up and clingfilm ;) one plate for each notified attendee with special dietary requirements, and/or get them to the food first! Like the way lots of airlines bring out the special meals first.

Yes, but many people are thick or oblivious to anyone or anything, they probably don't even realise (or engage their brain to think about other people ... just take a look at people driving or parking, that tells you everything). If you have additional days, maybe ask for the food to be separated

YANBU. I have this problem too. Idiots think that gluten free / vegetarian is a choice and see nothing wrong with helping themselves.

Was a big problem in lockdown when people who didn’t need it kept buying up all the gluten free pasta which made cooking for my fussy coeliac child so much harder.

Surely if you're a vegan because you think it's more humane or better for the planet it's good if other people try vegan food too, even if only as part of their diet?

Yes, but maybe not if the vegan has nothing to eat. 😅

In the conferences I've been to, the people who have special dietary requirements have their own sealed trays marked with their names. That works really well. It probably evolved from special diet people being left with nothing.

I too see the gannet-like behaviour, I don't know why some people behave as if they've never seen food before but it's apparently hard-wired into them to grab.

It's shitty behaviour. I was veggie for years and recently started to eat some things again. For me at a buffet like this you'd see me get vegan things, and maybe 1 or 2 meat things because I really struggle to eat meat at the moment so I'm mostly still eating veggie/vegan foods. So I'd probably be judged for that.

Where is the line though? Are meat eaters allowed to eat the vegetarian or vegan food?

I think either caterers need to make more of the ‘special’ food, or keep it totally separate.

they might just be taking what looks nice?

Missed that Paperbagsaremine has just made this point. Yes, exactly like that.

I don't necessarily think it's selfish, but thoughtless. If the special food is with the other food people may think it's freely available. Or not even look at the labels properly!
Or they may want to try it out of curiosity.
I know it's not exactly the same, but I often choose from the veggie options at buffets even though I eat meat, as I prefer the choices.

I think it's a good thing, because the caterers will think there is a bigger demand for this food and supply more next time. If it matters to you, speak up and ask to have first pick. And if it's all gone before you get there, ask for more to be brought out.

I’m not a strict vegetarian but don’t eat that much meat. I prefer it to be meat that I’ve chosen and cooked myself. When I eat out I’ll usually have the vegetarian option and only take vegetarian food from buffets with the possible exception of the odd sausage roll.

I used to organise a regular all staff event at work and ask people to RSVP and specify if they needed a veggie option to get an idea of numbers We always used to run out of the latter and have to get more because loads of people who hadn’t specified the veggie option were taking it anyway.

But the organisers ask people for their dietary requirements and cater accordingly. If only 10 people said they need gluten free items they aren't going to get a huge amount of those items, so naturally if people who don't need it start taking from them it's going to leave those people short. It's not rocket science, surely.

I think especially for the case of allergies it makes more sense for the food to be kept completely seperate mainly from a contamination risk POV.

but if im not a buffet I’m not going to purposely avoid something that is vegetarian/vegan if I fancy it. Such foods are part of my normal diet so why wouldn’t I pick them when out?

This, every buffet whether work or private the special diets are labelled and plated separately due to cross contamination risk.

It's unusual. Most people avoid vegan and gluten free if they're not having to.

We do buffets for events and it's amazing how often 50 people inc 5 vegan, 4 gluten/dairy free the dishes clearly labelled "vegan" and "free from" come back untouched. I can only assume that the people tend to bring their own stuff or not eat.

Gluten free bread doesn’t taste nearly as good as bread with gluten, so I don’t know why you’d choose it if you didn’t have to.

We had a gift of afternoon tea at a supposedly posh chain restaurant. The gluten free option featured rock hard bread, tasteless scones, a small pot of redcurrants and a smoothie.