SBT Veggie Society (30 Viewers)

Otis

Well-Known Member
I hate substitute meat pies to me they are an epic fail

Pieminster have a vegan pie which does not pretend to be a substitute product and it’s very good. It’s myshrooms, onions and red wine and same price as the meat version

It’s calked Kevin. Without looking it up can anyone work out why?
Yeah, get all that, but as I think I have already said before, I don't really like vegetables. I know, veggie who doesn't eat veg etc..

Not really a choice, fussy eater thing as my mum says I was the same even from a tiny baby.

Don't like cucumber, green beans, brocoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes (can have them in something, but not eat them by themselves in isolation), swede, beetroot, sprouts, kidney beans, turnip, radish. i would always refuse them as a baby and would be sick. When I was about 2-9 I lived off baked beans and soup.

I am a bit better now, but pretty much only like peppers, mushroom, sweetcorn, onion and olives. Don't believe we even ever had pepper or olives or mushrooms within our family home growing up, so they were new to me as a adult.

That's why I am all about the meat substitutes and you can see now just how difficult it was my becoming a vegetarian. Really, really tough, but it was a principled stance on my own behalf, as I felt I could no longer eat meat, having seen that documentary that upset me so much. I literally had nightmares for days afterwards.
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
I hate substitute meat pies to me they are an epic fail

Pieminster have a vegan pie which does not pretend to be a substitute product and it’s very good. It’s myshrooms, onions and red wine and same price as the meat version

It’s calked Kevin. Without looking it up can anyone work out why?
My wild guess is a cricket theme and Kevin Pie-tersen.
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Yeah, get all that, but as I think I have already said before, I don't really like vegetables. I know, veggie who doesn't eat veg etc..

Not really a choice, fussy eater thing as my mum says I was the same even from a tiny baby.

Don't like cucumber, green beans, brocoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes (can have them in something, but not eat them by themselves in isolation), swede, beetroot, sprouts, kidney beans, turnip, radish. i would always refuse them as a baby and would be sick. When I was about 2-9 I lived off baked beans and soup.

I am a bit better now, but pretty much only like peppers, mushroom, sweetcorn, onion and olives. Don't believe we even ever had pepper or olives or mushrooms within our family home growing up, so they were new to me as a adult.

That's why I am all about the meat substitutes and you can see now just how difficult it was my becoming a vegetarian. Really, really tough, but it was a principled stance on my own behalf, as I felt I could no longer eat meat, having seen that documentary that upset me so much. I literally had nightmares for days afterwards.
Oh, missed off cheese off that list too. I can only have cheese if it is in something and can never eat just cheese on its own unless it is something really, really mild. Something like brie. Cheddar makes me feel sick. Never ate cheese in anything until I was about 20 I think.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
You know you're getting old, Houch, when you start telling the same story you told us all before all over again. ;)
I know I've regaled this before Otis, but the story fitted the thread. ;-)
 

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
I hate substitute meat pies to me they are an epic fail

Pieminster have a vegan pie which does not pretend to be a substitute product and it’s very good. It’s myshrooms, onions and red wine and same price as the meat version

It’s calked Kevin. Without looking it up can anyone work out why?
I don't think anyone's bothered. Personally, I call my meat, Brian.
 

Blind-Faith

Well-Known Member
Get a grip the lot of you , get a bacon sarny down you!!!

You wanna be a veggie go out in the garden and find yourselves some nettles to chew on ;)
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Get a grip the lot of you , get a bacon sarny down you!!!

You wanna be a veggie go out in the garden and find yourselves some nettles to chew on ;)
That's absolutely and totally ridiculous!

........... Nettle soup is nice though. ;)

And besides, you can't stop the revolution! 7% of the population is now vegan. That's 3.5m people.
giphy.gif


Bottom line for me is, just let people be what they want to be. If they want to be carnivores, then fine. If they want to be vegans, let them.

Some definite benefits to the environment.

Still not sure I will become a full on vegan, but as I am a vegetarian who pretty much avoids dairy for the most part due to a bit of an intolerance, I am just about there anyway.
 

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
Especially those. Liz always rolls one up and has a shifty fag round the back of palace bikesheds.
.
I spotted her Maj with a nice spliff the other day!
.
Queen with Jamaican Woodbine in hat.jpg
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Now here's a question and maybe I am naive, but what do fellow vegetarians think of cross contamination and how much are they aware of it?

Never stood and waited for a Dominos pizza before, but yesterday I did, as we were at Fargo Village, so watched them make it.

For the first time I found out they have zero controls in place for their vegetarian pizzas with toppings. Literally zero.

Maybe everyone already knew this and like I say, I am being naive.

We ordered 4 pizzas. 3 meat, 1 veggie. The girl made all 4 pizzas and picked all the toppings with her bare hands and just went from topping container to topping container, therefore from meat to vegetable and then back again and she also made the veggie one last too.

I know it's not an exact science and if you go to Nando's they actually says on their menu that they try their best to ensure the vegetarian dishes are vegetarian, but that there may be a chance of contamination, but they try to avoid it. Fine. Take that all day long.

Domino's, with their policy, are 100% guaranteeing cross contamination with every single pizza that has a topping.

You go to Subway and they change gloves for every sandwich and have seperate scoops for each topping.

Is everyone aware of the way Domino's operate?

I am not at all a moaner and always accept that there is a very small possibility of cross contamination at restaurants etc, but as I say, at Domino's it is seemingly a 100% certainty unless you only have a Margherita and nothing else.

I see so many places seperate the veggie stuff from the meat stuff and use different fryers or ovens or storage containers etc.

If you are picking pieces of meat with your hands you will always get tiny little bits of chicken, or strands of ham or pork etc. come away from the meat and end up on your hands.

Never tasted meat on a Domino pizza, but have had a couple that have smelled meaty when I have opened the box.

Looks like I won't be eating at Domino's again. I never complain, but did yesterday and got my money back.

Don't mind if places try their best, but if they put zero effort in I am certain to never go back again.

Thoughts?
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I was in a pizza hut yesterday sat right by the serving hatch and noticed that they had two cutters. One with black handles and one with green handles, the green one obviously for veggie pizzas so no cross contamination. No problem for me but my wife is a vegan so we were wondering if they had a third cutter for vegan, which they didn’t. What the member of staff at the hatch did do though was take the opportunity of cutting a vegan pizza up to change the vegetarian cutter for a clean one so the first cut from the fresh cutter was on a vegan pizza so no cross contamination. Might have been time to change the cutter anyway so a coincidence but it seemed deliberate as he had already cut mine and then reread the order ticket before changing the cutter.

I would assume that most pizza outlets do the same to avoid cross contamination.
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
I was in a pizza hut yesterday sat right by the serving hatch and noticed that they had two cutters. One with black handles and one with green handles, the green one obviously for veggie pizzas so no cross contamination. No problem for me but my wife is a vegan so we were wondering if they had a third cutter for vegan, which they didn’t. What the member of staff at the hatch did do though was take the opportunity of cutting a vegan pizza up to change the vegetarian cutter for a clean one so the first cut from the fresh cutter was on a vegan pizza so no cross contamination. Might have been time to change the cutter anyway so a coincidence but it seemed deliberate as he had already cut mine and then reread the order ticket before changing the cutter.

I would assume that most pizza outlets do the same to avoid cross contamination.
Yeah, but that's the cutters. If they are grabbing chicken pieces with their bare hands to put on a chicken pizza and then grabbing mushroom to put on a veggie pizza and are not cleaning their hands or changing anything at all inbetween the two, they are contaminating the veggie pizza with meat.

Here's the Vegetarian Society guildlines.

Avoiding cross contamination
If you want to cater for vegetarians you need to make sure that the food that you offer them does not become contaminated with non-vegetarian ingredients or food. The main cross contamination points to watch out for are:

Frying and deep fat frying
view.image
Chips deep fried in oil that fish or meat has been deep fried in is not acceptable to vegetarians. Separate deep fat fryers should be used or, if that's not possible, the oil should be changed.

Fat filtration in large scale catering operations
Cleaning pipes need to be free from cross contamination of meat products.

Frying on hot plates
Care should be taken when frying on hot plates so that vegetarian products do not come into contact with meat products. If space permits, use of separate hot plates is preferable. It's also important to ensure that meat fat does not splatter onto non-meat products.

Grills and barbeques
Care should be taken when grilling or barbequing so that vegetarian products do not come into contact with meat products. If possible, use a separate grill or barbeque. If that's not possible then ensure there are distinctive sides to the grill/barbeque for vegetarian products and ensure that meat fat cannot splatter onto non-meat products.

Wok frying
Ensure separate woks are used for frying. It is not sufficient to wipe out the wok after stir-frying prawns for example. Separate woks should be used for non-meat products.

Cooking utensils
Separate cooking utensils should be used for cooking non-meat products. Make sure that you have different basting spoons/tongs/draining spoons/fish slices for meat-free products. Colour coding utensil handles is a good way of ensuring that they don't get mixed up.

Chopping boards
Industry guidelines already exist for the use of separate boards to prepare separate ingredients.

Serving utensils
Separate serving utensils should be used for non-meat products e.g. a separate spoon/tong is needed for serving roast potatoes cooked in vegetable oil. Colour coding the handles in green is a good way of remembering to use the correct utensil.


Fine if Domino want to operate in this way, but then surely it is misrepresentation to say that their Veggie Supreme pizza is suitable for vegetarians. It clearly is not and surely they could end up in court over it.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
Don't eat pizza, problem solved.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member

Otis

Well-Known Member
As an exercise I decided to write to Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Papa John and Domino's to ascertain their individual stances.

So far only had a reply from Pizza Express, but the difference is stark. Pizza Express use all different containers and different serving spoons and have rigid procedures in place in order to prevent cross contamination. They actually go the extra mile to try and ensure that it doesn't happen.

Stark contrast to Domino's who say they are too busy and haven't got time to try and avoid any cross contamination. Basically, can't be bothered.

Surprised no-one has died yet from one of their pizzas to be honest (probably have) due to such a situation arising. My wife has a Latvian friend who had a massive overreaction to pineapple and nearly died, so it shows just how careful you have to try and be.

If she ever went to Domino's now she would be getting a bit of pineapple, no matter what she ordered.

My missus when she came over 16 years ago had never ever had pineapple before in her life, so there can always be the issue of someone not being aware and I think that's what happened with this friend.

Obviously if she went for a pizza she would not be ordering pineapple, but she might well end up with a bit it for sure.

Can't believe Domino's can have such a shoddy and uncaring attitude and are putting profits above people's health and beliefs.

Shocking really. You go to Subway and see how careful they are (as long as they do indeed follow procedures, but then of course they make it right In front of your face and not behind some kitchen).

Will await the replies from Pizza Hut and Papa John.
 
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Otis

Well-Known Member
It says their stores are busy environments and there is a risk of cross contamination.

It's not a risk, it's a certainty. If they are picking out chicken, then ham, then pineapple, then mushroom, then onion, there WILL be cross contamination. They have said they don't wash hands in-between making each pizza.

By the end of each day the cross contamination must be huge.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
It's on their website. Basically says they are too busy and that's the way they do things. Not had an answer but the statement is there on their website.
Not overly fair to quote a website, when you've asked for clarification about what steps they take, and quoted pizza hut's response.

As far as I can see, they busy environment schtick isn't even for vegetarian, it's the catch-all that just about everybody gives if there are nuts and other products around, to ensure they don't get sued.

Better to wait and see what steps they take. Pizza Hut in *their* FAQs just say they have products suitable for vegetarians after all, so comparing like for like there's just as much a risk. I'd wait for an answer to a specific question if you want a fair comparison.
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Yep, that's what I intend doing.

The difference with Domino's is that I had a face to face conversation with the manager at Domino's and he word from word has said what their website says. I have had a double check. Verbal confirmation and now what their website says.

I think it is fair to compare Pizza Express and Domino's, because I have the Domino's stance and now have the Pizza Express stance.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
Yep, that's what I intend doing.

The difference with Domino's is that I had a face to face conversation with the manager at Domino's and he word from word has said what their website says. I have had a double check. Verbal confirmation and now what their website says.

I think it is fair to compare Pizza Express and Domino's, because I have the Domino's stance and now have the Pizza Express stance.
Then why bother writing to Domino's at all, if you don't want to hear what their head office says?
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Then why bother writing to Domino's at all, if you don't want to hear what their head office says?
I do want to hear what they have to say. That is why I wrote to them.

I wrote to them after speaking to the manager yesterday. This morning I did a bit more investigatiing and found their lack of control procedures on their website, so after I had already written to them. Of course I am very interested to hear what the head office has to say though.

The fact they already say on their website there will be cross contamination doesn't give me much hope, mind.

I like their pizzas, so of course am very interested in what they have to say.
 

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