The Vegan Thread

@dancing james True, true. Although a problem with this is that these large companies are peddling vegan alternatives seen by many as the only alternative. A lot of them are inherently unhealthy. Arguably they are a poor gateway into veganism when compared to learning to cook meals from scratch, for example.

I'm in no way saying that any substitute product from a big company is bad and no one should use them (I use them myself). But given the choice between buying something from a company that processes meat and dairy, or a company that does not, then the choice for me is clear. Money talks.

@ltc 100%. More people eating vegan food is a win. But is it really a win if they mostly consume McDonalds. Who knows, haha.

I guess one good thing is that veganism is slowly becoming a much more widely accepted concept as well as losing its extremist connotations. We have big companies to thank partly for this.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jun/08/watchdog-bans-vegan-friendly-uk-tv-ad-violence-towards-animals

How dare you make me think where my food comes from

People who pay to have animals killed in offended by seeing killed animals shocker.

I like making bread. I’ve been using these Lidl dried yeast sachets lately, which I’ve a couple of years old now, but I noticed this weekend they aren’t actually stated as vegan. It’s just dried yeast and sorbitan monostearate (e491 emulsifier), which I gather is usually plant based fat, although derived but can be animal based.
However, I’ve noticed the new sachets from Lidl all now say “Vegan” on them. Is this likely to have always been vegan and they’ve just repackaged it? Am I being pedantic here? Loads of vegans must make their own bread.

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Don't know for sure but recon it's always been vegan and now just repackaged. Have noticed a general trend to slap the vegan label on more stuff

Yeah that’s what I thought. Realistically I imagine a lot of manufacturers have the same source for e491 anyway, the just haven’t all labelled their products as vegan yet.

A long time ago, ( I left in 1990), I worked for a German company who made such materials as sorbitan monostearate. Through the '80s the Body Shop effect meant that 'every' consumer wanted vegetable based emulsifiers. This caused the suppliers of the raw materials to have separate streams, and it was possible to issue certificates of conformity, stating 100% vegetable origin.

This century we have seen distributors of farm produce seek to avoid separation, mainly to force GM Soya into human foodchains, even if only eaten by livestock.

It is likely that the supplier of the SMS in the Lidl Yeast can use certified vegetable only raw materials and I would like to think that Lidl are enforcing this.

slap the vegan label on more stuff

its a marketing term to big corp innit

I think there is a benefit to labelling things as vegan though even if they were before the label was there to point it out. Even in here there's been conversations about whether certain things that look to be vegan from the ingredients are actually vegan because they don't specifically say, or they say they're vegetarian at most.

Might it be useful to change the name of this thread to The Vegan and Plant Based Food Thread to make it more searchable?

Great idea.

@Velocio would you consider doing this please?

I agree. Labelling stuff as vegan can only be an advantage, even for simple stuff like yeast, in the same way as nuts have had “may contain nuts” on their packets for years now.

The nuts thing is a bit different though, isn’t it? I’ve always been under the impression that’s there for legal reasons so that anyone who suffers an allergic reaction due to cross contamination from a non-listed allergen/ingredient can’t seek to sue.

Also, if it’s a pack of peanuts that says ‘may contain nuts’ then that’s totally fine as peanuts are actually not nuts; they are a legume and fall under a different allergen classification.

Kind regards,

A peanut allergy sufferer ;)

You’re no doubt correct about the nuts thing, my bad. My point is it doesn’t hurt for manufacturers to label “vegan” on even the simplest of products, with just one or two ingredients, to enable vegans to better navigate the food minefield. And as alluded to earlier, help them sell more products.

Done

Just label everything not animal derived 'Vegan' - e.g. potatoes .
Promotional and a gentle nudge to those that "don't eat that vegan shit" .

I wasn’t sure if there were plant based exclusionary radical vegans who might be offended by their thread being visited by part time interlopers like myself.

Done

FFS, how am I meant to feel superior to part timers dabbling in "plant based" shit now?

classic pberv

Keep away from my tofu.

there's already a vegan / veggie FOOD thread :https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/217408/

Plant based means vegan doesn’t it..? (for people that don’t want to say they’re vegan or eating vegan) Vegetarians will be eating milk n eggs etc. ie not plant based or vegans

i assumed plant based means for some people that they base their diet around plant food but still eat eggs and cheese now and again.

aiui plant based means vegan friendly... and is mostly an alternative way for people to market products to non vegans without scaring them off with the word ‘vegan’

I would not consider a dish with cheese or eggs in it to be a ‘plant based’ meal. But maybe I’m wrong!

you are correct.

I also assumed plant based people are people who eat vegan but not prescribe to the ethics of veganism so much as 'vegans' who are 100% committed by definition to vegansm as a lifestyle - not just food.

I think it’s complicated by some because you could be sold a burger with ‘plant based patty’ but with a regular slice of cheese in it, pretty sure I’ve seen that before.