FACTFILE: VEGETARIAN

Hayley and Emily

Definition:

There are many different ways of defining ‘vegetarians’, however the overall meaning of this lifestyle choice is that they avoid eating meat and stick to purely plant based foods. For example, they eat foods such as “grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits with, or without, the use of dairy products and eggs”. The reasoning behind this eating preference can be very varied as people have different views and beliefs. Some people can choose to become a vegetarian due to religion, lifestyle choice or ethical reasons.• Lacto-vegetarians – don’t eat eggs, however they do eat dairy products and most also eat honey. • Ovo-vegetarians – choose not to eat dairy but do eat eggs and also eat honey.• Lacto-ovo-vegetarians – eat both eggs and dairy, however most avoid honey. • Vegans – Only eat plant based foods whilst choosing to avoid dairy eggs and honey.• Semi-vegetarian – only eat fish and chicken and avoid all other meat products. • Pesci-vegetarian – only eat fish.

Demographics:

When creating a product, demographics need to be considered and are a crucial stage in production of the product as they allow the producer to understand who they are aiming it at and who will be interested by their product. It can also help them to style their product around the audience as they are given an insight in to who will be wanting to buy the product. After researching the percentage of vegetarians in other countries we found a very mixed and varied result as the main reasoning behind this lifestyle was all different depending on the country. For example;• In China there is an estimated 4-5 percent that are vegetarian, showing the low percentage in this country which in comparison to a much higher 31% from India shows the small quantity of vegetarians in China.• 10% of Italy’s population are vegetarians which seems to be quite average as this percentage is shared with Sweden. • There is a tiny minority of New Zealand’s population that are vegetarians as there is only 1-2%, this is similar to the small percentage of 5% in Australia and 4% in Canada.

Reasons:

There are a variety of reasons that people choose to become vegetarians as they each have their own opinions and beliefs that can be the reason behind them choosing this lifestyle. It can be down to a number of reasons some of which include religious beliefs, ethic reasons and lifestyle choice. For example many people have chosen to become a vegetarian down to ; • Not liking harm to animals and also for environmental reasons• To create a healthy lifestyle for themselves as they may not like the idea of what meat can do as it can be the cause of certain cancers if excessive amounts are consumed. • The way the meat is handled as it has been found that packing plants are “extremely unsanitary”.• Ethical/philosophical reasons, as some people believe that the “cruelty of the meat industry is inexcusable”. • Others choose to be vegetarian as they have•Political reasoning’s as they believe that if “resources were diverted from meat production, then there would be enough food to feed everyone on earth”. • Another very common reason for people turning vegetarian would be due to religion/spiritual beliefs as some think that eating meat brings bad karma.• Lastly psychological reasons are also responsible for the vegetarian lifestyle choice as some believe meat is simply unappealing to them and they can become aware of what they are eating and the potential diseases they can hold.

Companies:

One of the main companies operating today that is focused on healthy, vegetarian, dairy free and vegan foods is ‘Graze’, it is focused on producing low calorie products that are sometimes based on those that live a vegetarian lifestyle. They have created an easy to us website that separates the different foods in to sections, for example they have a ‘non-vegan’ section that includes all the things vegans should avoid. Frekkeh Foods is another company that provides vegetarian foods for vegetarians, they work with U.S organic farmers to produce a good source of fibre and protein for their buyers. These companies specialise in the vegetarian market and aim to please their consumers by producing high quality vegetarian cuisine, and ensure that all of their products are completely suitable for vegetarians and that none will cause offense. Quorn was launched in 1985, and is the leading meat free food brand for the UK and Ireland. It substitutes meat with an extract taken from fungus that makes it suitable for vegetarians, however due to the ingredients including eggs and milk this makes it inappropriate for vegans. Linda McCartney foods, also specialise in foods suitable for both vegetarians and vegans, it was created in 1991 and then went on to sell to Heinz in 2000. It was then sold again to the Hain Celestial Group in 2006, it sells to the UK, Ireland and Australia and the products consist of fresh/frozen vegetarian and vegan pies, sausages, burgers and pasta. Innocent is another example of a company that aims to produce products suitable for vegetarians as they make smoothies, veg pots and juices. The majority of the products are vegetarian, however a few have been found to contain things such as ‘fish sauce’ in the curry pots they sell which is not suitable for vegetarians.

Companies:

Quorn do a selection of different products that are all suitable for vegetarians as they substitute the meat with chemicals. These include BBQ Chicken Style Bites, Cheese and Leek Quorn Escalopes, Quorn Burgers, Quorn Sausages, Chicken Style Kievs, Quorn Goujons, Pepperoni Style Slices, Meat Free Cornish Pasty and a whole range more of different products. The Linda McCartney Group also has a range of products suitable for vegetarians. These include Sweet Potato, Spinach & Quinoa Kievs, Vegetarian Sausage & Vegetable Hot Pot, Fish Free Scampi, Lentil and Vegetable Cottage Pie, Vegetarian Burgers, Lasagne, Red Onion and Rosemary Sausages and many more. Innocent’s products are focused more on drinks and smoothies but they do produce a few food pots as well. For example, they have veg pots in a range of different flavours which include, Thai Coconut Curry, Indian Madras, Indian Lentil Sambar, Caribbean, Pearl Barley and Veg and Mexican Chipotle Chilli. They also have a range of noodles and these have a few flavours which include, Thai Tom Yum, Japanese Udon, Malaysian Rengdang and Vietnamese Curry. Then the rest of their products consist of a variety of smoothies and juices.

Non vegetarian products:

There are many things that vegetarians are not able to eat due to some of the ingredients that are actually in some foods, there are very surprising foods that are included in this list of foods that aren’t allowed to be eaten. The amount of food that can be eaten by vegetarians is slightly limited due to the ingredients that are included in the majority of foods. This step in our production is going to be essential as we are going to have to check our chosen recipe, and also check with the vegetarian society website to ensure that we do not include any ingredients that cannot be eaten by vegetarians or possibly vegans if we choose to select a recipe with a vegan lifestyle in mind. This stage has to be looked at as we have to check the specific ingredients instead of being vague as many vegetarians choose the avoid eating dairy, meaning that cheese is strictly off the menu for them. However there are certain cheeses they are allowed to eat due to the ingredients all being slightly different as they cannot eat any cheese that includes the ingredient ‘rennet’. other examples of food vegetarians cannot eat include;• The flesh from an animal• Gelatin, which includes things such as marshmallows, Rowntree fruit pastilles, most haribo’s sugar free mento’s, however mint mento’s are seen as acceptable.

Non vegetarian products:

• Food colouring is seen as something they cannot consume as E120 which is found in food colouring has been made from the cochineal beetle which is killed for the making of this product.• Fanta, mousse, frosted cereal and also tablet capsules all contain gelatine in them which means that they are not suitable for vegetarians. Tango and all fizzy drinks have fish gelatine in them and this isn’t suitable for vegetarians either. Pesto is also not suitable for vegetarians, this is because pesto has Parmesan within it and Parmesan is made with rennet which isn’t vegetarian friendly and there is no Parmesan cheese that is suitable for vegetarians so products that include Parmesan are definitely not suitable for vegetarians. • Guinness and other beers (even wines) aren’t suitable for vegetarians as they have an ingredient called isinglass in it which is technically a form of collagen which comes from the swimbladders of fish. An alternative beer that would be vegetarian friendly is Irish Moss and this is a beer that is being increasingly used in microbreweries. • Many low fat yoghurts (especially Muller-Light yoghurts) have the ingredient gelatine in them which means they aren't suitable for vegetarians and Muller are trying to find an alternative vegetarian product. But Muller Rice and Fruit Corners are currently gelatine-free. • Walkers cheese and onion crisps are a product that are suitable for vegetarians, where as their mature cheddar crisps aren’t.

Bibliography:

https://www.vegsoc.org/definition#http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/vegetarian.htmlhttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8749.phphttps://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=753http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8496/easiest-peanut-butter-fudge.aspx?o_is=Hub_TopRecipe_3https://www.graze.com/uk/products/filter/a/non-veganhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country#Italyhttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_become_vegetarianhttp://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111006002122AAVUswChttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_vegetarians_not_eat?#slide=15