Food labelled as suitable for vegetarians

frying_pan_cat · 28 Apr 2014 at 18:04

I was shopping the other day and picked up a jar of pasta sauce. Now as my girlfriend is vegetarian I thought I'd just check if she can eat it so on seeing the 'suitable for vegetarians' logo I thought it would be OK. However when she looked at the list of ingredients (I stupidly trusted the suitable for vegetarians logo) she saw that it contained fish. This surprised me as I thought fish were animals, and therefore not eaten by vegetarians :rolleyes:

I've contacted the company asking how they can list it as suitable for vegetarians when it clearly isn't, but should I do anything else? I don't want to overreact but this sort of thing really matters to some people, such as my girlfriend, and the logo is supposed to be there to help them. I thought of contacting the FSA but would that be OTT?

Andre · 28 Apr 2014 at 18:12

Well I would be reporting it, as I am totally allergic to any fish/seafood!
It should be labelled as "Suitable for Piscatarians"

Some vegetarians will eat dairy products (myself included), not sure if there is a separate name for us or not though, but it is normally easy enough to tell whether it is dairy or not

Mr Jones · 28 Apr 2014 at 18:42

The Suitable for Vegetarian logo is not regulated. In fact, there isn't anything truly regulated - apart from Vegetarian Society's "Approved" logo.

https://www.vegsoc.org/foodlabelling

When in doubt, always check the ingredient dec than trusting some logo. Plenty of marketing logos out there, only truly regulated listing is the ingredient dec - where it is truly illegal if something is used and undeclared (according to food laws).

frying_pan_cat · 28 Apr 2014 at 18:57

Mr Jones said:
The Suitable for Vegetarian logo is not regulated. In fact, there isn't anything truly regulated - apart from Vegetarian Society's "Approved" logo.

https://www.vegsoc.org/foodlabelling

When in doubt, always check the ingredient dec than trusting some logo. Plenty of marketing logos out there, only truly regulated listing is the ingredient dec - where it is truly illegal if something is used and undeclared (according to food laws).

Fair enough. I did see a similar page but took the part that said

The term ‘vegetarian’ should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from or with the aid of products derived from animals that have died, have been slaughtered, or animals that die as a result of being eaten. Animals means farmed, wild or domestic animals, including for example, livestock poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea, amphibians, tunicates, echinoderms, molluscs and insects.

to mean it wasn't allowed to be used when it contained them.

I agree that it's always best to check the ingredients list and I really should have. The issue comes when things like e numbers are made with animal products and short of carrying a list of all such e numbers I kind of have to trust the logo when buying food she may eat.

glitch · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:01

frying_pan_cat said:
I thought I'd just check if she can eat it so on seeing the 'suitable for vegetarians' logo I thought it would be OK. However when she looked at the list of ingredients (I stupidly trusted the suitable for vegetarians logo) she saw that it contained fish.

Can you show us the label or perhaps name the product and/or the shop that produces it? Would be interesting to see what the labelling actually says.

I'm guessing it was something that contained anchovies?

Andre said:
Well I would be reporting it, as I am totally allergic to any fish/seafood!

You wouldn't get far reporting it for that as it appears to clearly state fish as an ingredient!

Andre said:
Some vegetarians will eat dairy products (myself included), not sure if there is a separate name for us or not though, but it is normally easy enough to tell whether it is dairy or not

I thought the 'name' for a vegetarian who eat dairy was, well, a vegetarian?

Vegans are the fussy ones, no?

Mr Jones said:
Plenty of marketing logos out there, only truly regulated listing is the ingredient dec - where it is truly illegal if something is used and undeclared (according to food laws).

And vice-versa.

Mr Jones · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:02

frying_pan_cat said:
I agree that it's always best to check the ingredients list and I really should have. The issue comes when things like e numbers are made with animal products and short of carrying a list of all such e numbers I kind of have to trust the logo when buying food she may eat.

Plenty of apps out there for that, after awhile, you'll learn what E number is what. There's been a growing trend of UK produced products naming rather than using E numbers as people see it too negatively.

e.g. E300 looks nasty on a packet of sweet, calling it Vitamin C is 'healthier'.

glitch said:
I thought the 'name' for a vegetarian who eat seafood was, well, a vegetarian?

Think they're called pescetarian

glitch · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:10

Mr Jones said:
Think they're called pescetarian

Sorry, being an idiot - have edited my post to reflect what I was meaning to say!

frying_pan_cat · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:17

glitch said:
Can you show us the label or perhaps name the product and/or the shop that produces it? Would be interesting to see what the labelling actually says.

You're right, it was a putanesca sauce, I know I should have realised but I thought it may just be made without anchovies as things like smokey bacon crisps often don't contain animal products (though I may be wrong about that, just remember hearing it somewhere).

I'll take a pic later when I get a chance (no at home right now). I'll refrain from naming it right now because as you say it did list fish in the ingredients so I'll give them a chance and see what they about it.

Mr Jones said:
Plenty of apps out there for that, after awhile, you'll learn what E number is what. There's been a growing trend of UK produced products naming rather than using E numbers as people see it too negatively.

e.g. E300 looks nasty on a packet of sweet, calling it Vitamin C is 'healthier'.

Fair enough, I'll download one. Do you have any particular recommendations of good ones or are they all of a muchness? It's a bit new to me as before I met her I wouldn't give it a second thought.

theNude · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:29

frying_pan_cat said:
I thought of contacting the FSA but would that be OTT?

I'm not sure the financial services authority are the right people to talk to about this.

frying_pan_cat · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:30

Food standards agency, I thought as it was about food that would be obvious

Mr Jones · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:37

frying_pan_cat said:
Fair enough, I'll download one. Do you have any particular recommendations of good ones or are they all of a muchness? It's a bit new to me as before I met her I wouldn't give it a second thought.

Sorry, unless you use Windows Phone - Food Additives is the app, I'll suggest a quick search at your OS's app store. Most of them should be basic, type Exxx(x) number in and you get a detailed description of the additive.

By the way, Gelatine is not an additive, so they will list it as name and if any shellfish is used, they have to declare allergies.

And don't make the mistake a load of Veggies make, 99% of Marshmallows are not veggie friendly

glitch · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:39

frying_pan_cat said:
You're right, it was a putanesca sauce, I know I should have realised but I thought it may just be made without anchovies as things like smokey bacon crisps often don't contain animal products (though I may be wrong about that, just remember hearing it somewhere).

I think you were perfectly entitled to assume it didn't contain fish due to the presence of the 'suitable for vegetarians' labelling.

And yes, you're quite correct in your assumptions about certain products containing meat flavouring that isn't derived from animal sources. IIRC, wasn't the only flavour of Walkers that a vegetarian couldn't eat something silly like Cheese & Onion up until recently?

frying_pan_cat said:
I'll take a pic later when I get a chance (no at home right now). I'll refrain from naming it right now because as you say it did list fish in the ingredients so I'll give them a chance and see what they about it.

That was more in regard to Andre's stance on the matter.

Without wishing to belittle vegetarianism, an allergy to something is a completely different kettle of fish (ahem) to a lifestyle choice. There's more chance of a problem arising from eating something one cannot eat rather than something one wishes not to and the ramifications for mislabeling in that instance are much more serious.

That said, I still think you have a perfectly legitimate cause for complaint. Whilst it's probably a simple labelling error and there is an argument for knowing what you're buying, there's also a bloody good reason for there not being a vegetarian label on the jar in the first place!

MofoKilla · 2 May 2014 at 22:11

vegetarians lol

Rexxar · 3 May 2014 at 13:19

Amazing the amount of people who think that vegetarians don't eat meat, but eat fish instead...

Agreed though, products should be clearly labelled and if i was vegetarian, bought that, and found it contained animal by-products, i would not be impressed

cheesyboy · 7 May 2014 at 10:25

Amazing how many restaurants have vegetarian dishes which contain Parmesan.

Gilly · 7 May 2014 at 10:51

cheesyboy said:
Amazing how many restaurants have vegetarian dishes which contain Parmesan.

Why would that be amazing? Parmesan doesn't need an animal to be slaughtered to be produced.

Still meets the requirements of over 99% of vegetarians.

Still rank, too.

cheesyboy · 7 May 2014 at 11:13

Gilly said:
Why would that be amazing? Parmesan doesn't need an animal to be slaughtered to be produced.

Still meets the requirements of over 99% of vegetarians.

Still rank, too.

In fact it does (need an animal to be slaughtered). Parmesan is a protected food so must be produced the traditional way to be labelled as such - that involves using animal rennet. Parmesan cannot be vegetarian by definition.

You can get Parmesan substitutes which are vegetarian, but they can't be called parmesan.

Rexxar · 7 May 2014 at 11:14

cheesyboy said:
In fact it does (need an animal to be slaughtered). Parmesan is a protected food so must be produced the traditional way to be labelled as such - that involves using animal rennet. Parmesan cannot be vegetarian by definition.

You can get Parmesan substitutes which are vegetarian, but they can't be called parmesan.

There's another cheese too that isn't suitable for vegetarians... Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, not forgetting a lot of sweets that have it in the labelling on the back

cheesyboy · 7 May 2014 at 11:17

Squidger said:
There's another cheese too that isn't suitable for vegetarians... Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, not forgetting a lot of sweets that have it in the labelling on the back

Not sure on the cheese (I would guess it would have to be another protected one - otherwise vegetarian rennet could be used), but sweets often contain gelatin - Jelly Babies, for example.

glitch · 7 May 2014 at 11:26

Squidger said:
There's another cheese too that isn't suitable for vegetarians... Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, not forgetting a lot of sweets that have it in the labelling on the back

Gorgonzola is one, isn't it? I think Grana Padano might be another, as are plenty of other PDO cheeses.

Bloody Italians and their delicious food!

Mind you, there's a lot more cheese which is made with animal rennet than there is that isn't. Loads of AOC French cheese, as an example.