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.

Surely I don't have to choose a meat sandwich because I'm not actually vegetarian?

I eat meat about three times a week, certainly not for every meal.

However I wouldn't eat a gluten free sandwich or anything involving fake meat or fake cheese if you paid me.

I think it depends on how the buffet is set up - is it designed so that there is just enough of the restricted foods for those that need it or is it that they have made lots of something and just flagged that it happens to be suitable for a particular diet. If the first, then definitely wrong but the organizers probably should have made sure it was separate. If it is the second then I think it’s fine and it’s up to the organizers to make sure there is the right split to cater for everyone.

It's pure ignorance. Most events - especially if budget is tight - might over order food to cover some unexpected attendees but not usually for dietary requirements.

I'm sometimes curious to try vegan versions of things, especially diary, but not in that scenario. I might try and bag a vegan cupcake I've had my eye on but only at the end if it's going spare as I'm not vegan and I didn't ask for vegan options.

Vegetarian is usually ok since most places will provide a mix anyway but absolutely not vegan. gluten free, allergy specific etc.

I agree with you about gluten-free but standard vegetarian fare is what most people eat as part of their normal meat-eating diet so marking it as 'vegetarian' doesn't mean much.

Maybe there should be a 'special diet' table that is serviced, ie. catering staff there. That could contain any and all special diets. Other table could be packed with vegetarian and meat/fish options.

It's a very good point you raise.

I don't know that it's reasonable to compare a standard cheese sandwich to something like gluten free. Yes it's veggie but it's hardly specialist food that only vegetarians eat. If I was catering I would assume that some meat eaters might pick up a cheese sandwich.

Exactly this. I am an omnivore. If I go to a buffet, I will probably try a bit of everything, because I'm greedy and I love food. If there was a section labelled 'gluten-free, please leave for the people who have requested it', naturally I wouldn't touch that. But I'm not going to ignore the hummus because it happens to be vegan. The onus is on the people providing the buffet to make sure that there's enough for everybody and that they hold back supplies for people with food intolerances and allergies, or who've specially asked for e.g. vegan or kosher or halal food.

The organisers sent several call-outs for people with dietary needs to let them know ahead of time. Also it was pretty obvious that there were only a small amount of those items compared to the others. It doesn't matter if people wanted to eat from the special dietary requirements food as long as they let the organisers know. If only 10 people said they needed vegan items naturally the organisers aren't going to get more...but then on the day people just seem to think it looks tasty and take it anyway.

But the standard person eating at the buffet won’t know that there is anyone who is gluten free so if everyone avoids it then it won’t be eaten. I understand it is it’s something that normally contains gluten such as bread as that is clearly a replacement but for for naturally gluten free food then it won’t even occur to them and is probably designed for everyone.

I've been to quite a few events recently where all the food is vegetarian and sometimes vegan for ethical reasons, and that makes things a lot simpler! You then plate up specific plates for those people who have allergies or are gluten free, marked with their names.

I agree that the organisers could be more proactive but also I don't think it's rocket science that at a buffet with limited non-replenished items that you shouldn't eat from items you haven't requested.

Really?
Are people so unintelligent?

We invited friends to join us at a family get together. They had a family member visiting so i checked dietary requirements - none.
I catered for 3 vegetarians and 8 meat eaters.
Friends family member decoded she liked the vegetarian dish and helped herself to that. Fortunately I had made a bit extra.
My friends were as bemused as I.
Imo it's fomo. And incredibly selfish.

I’m not sure, folks don’t know if anyone is vegan or if the muffins are just out, they don’t know if it’s one person and 10 muffins, or 10 people and a muffin each, you could say well if you don’t indicate it you shouldn’t eat it, but often that can lead to waste.

I have been at plenty of events where veggie options are out, but genuinely no one is veggie , the host just picked some veggie options as they liked the look of them. I’ve catered work events and done the same. Many people who are carnivores eat veggie options.

so for me it’s on the host to clarify,

I agree, this is on the organisers. Either you do a bigger supply of things for dietary requirements or you bag/plate it up and label it with a name.

Why not wait to see if there's leftovers and then help yourself to those special dietary requirements items, so at least those people can have a chance to eat something first?

Yep this happened to me at a conference. I am veggie and it was table service but a load of meat eaters nicked the veggie option before the waiter got to me so I was left with no dinner at all. Pissed me off majorly.

Yanbu! This happened to me at a work meal (tapas)

1/3 of the people attending were veggie. Organisers had ordered 1/3 veggie and 2/3 meat and fish dishes.

The omnivores tucked into everything including the very tasty veggie dishes. Plus ate all the meat/fish obviously. The veggies were left with empty plates very quickly and went home hungry!

Yes, it was caused by the organisers not ordering enough veggie stuff. But imo the meat eaters should have applied consideration and left the veggie dishes until it was clear the vegetarians had enough food.

Would you find it acceptable for a vegetarian to eat a houmous and veg sandwich given they are not vegan and there is also an egg sandwich available?

Because as explained no one knows unless the host clarifies. They can simply put in a separate section and write the peoples names , instead of just veggie, and folks wouldn’t go near it.

Solution is for the organisers to invite the special diet people to queue up first and they get served first.

I think maybe YABU re. the vegan and vegetarian options. Nobody should feel they have to eat meat just because it's there; if they fancy the chickpea curry rather than the beef stew, it shouldn't be a problem. It's all just food. I think caterers need to factor that in when they're working out numbers.

When I've had to sort catering for work events, we've usually ended up going for either an entirely or most vegetarian range to maximise the amount of stuff that most people can eat. So if it's finger food/canapes we might have one meat, one fish and six vegetarian items.

Different with gluten-free/allergy stuff, though, I think... generally that's provided in a much more limited quantity and often it's almost the same as one of the other dishes anyway (eg if there's a pasta dish made with ordinary pasta and the same dish made with gluten-free pasta, it would BU to take the gluten-free one if you didn't need it).

Yes, that's the way to do it

I'm not vegan, but I'd expect to be allowed to eat felafel at a buffet if it's on offer. It's the caterer's responsibility to cater for the guests' needs

It's not usual for buffets to be composed of things which have been 'requested' so this seems like a problem with the organisation more than with the people eating.

The whole point of a buffet is to put out a selection of items for people to pick from based on their whims in the moment. If people have requested what they want/need in advance, then why put them on a buffet? Just give them to the people who requested them!

Again it’s on the host. Everyone knows full well if you lay everything out for folks to share they think that’s the deal, so the organisers should have said, we are only catering x, please only eat from the dishes you select.

This.

I eat meat but have been known to take a cheese sarnie from a buffet.