Moebius01

That's the trick. There's no industry standard definition. You have vegetarians who eat no meat (but that would not include meat source products like stocks or fish oils). You have vegetarians who do indeed eat fish. You have vegans who will try to avoid anything to do with animals period.

As such, Delta's vegetarian meal selection may well be considered vegetarian under some of the many definitions of the lifestyle.

rylan

I'm kind of curious... what kind of ranch dressing would be made with fish products? Even soy products in ranch would be pretty surprising unless it is some lactose free ranch made with soy.

Out of curiousity I went to the grocery store and looked at various brand name ranch dressings, as well as some in the organic/natural aisle and didn't see any with fish in the ingredient list. They did have a note on the label of "Contains: Milk, Egg". However, some googling did say that some ranch dressings could contain "fish proteins" whatever that means.

If the label is correct and the 'Contains: Milk Fish Soy' does mean there really is a fish ingrediant in the dressing then that should not be served on a veg meal.

jimrpa

It's a shame that "good" isn't one of the meal choices!

clarence5ybr

Even a small amount of fish extract (e.g., anchovy paste) can give a significant umami kick, adding 'richness' to a dressing.

Most salad dressings are primarily an oil/acid mix. Soybean oil is quite commonly used as the oil for mass-produced dressings. For instance, soybean oil is the #1 ingredient in Kraft Garlic Ranch dressing, Kraft Ranch with Bacon dressing, and most likely a top ingredient in many premade dressings.

amanuensis

For most vegetarians, is it the incidental killing of the animal that makes them abstain, or is it the meat itself? What if cows were allowed to die of old age before they were turned into hamburger? Would eating a Big Mac be okay in that situation?

Opositive

One question: 25,000 potential responses. It all depends on the person and what's important to them.

For instance, my wife sticks to a mostly vegetarian diet but is not a Buddhist. Her reason is environmental.

Modern commercial farming can do significant environmental damage if not performed with proper environmental controls in place. Go Google "Chesapeake Bay chicken farms" to see just how bad things can get. The wife will not eat factory raised poultry for this reason but has little objection to truly free-range chicken (as opposed to the not-really-free-range chicken the FDA allows people to sell while calling it "free range").

There's also evidence that commercial meat production consumes a significantly greater amount of energy per unit of protein compared to other sources of food. It actually takes a lot of oil to get that steak to your plate in the US. It's an extremely inefficient way of feeding people in terms of energy and fossil fuel consumption/emissions.

Based on this environment reasoning my wife does find it acceptable to have meat under certain circumstances. For instance, we have friends who own a farm and raise a few head of cattle. The beef our friends eat comes from their own herd and is mostly grass fed so it's pretty energy neutral compared to supermarket meat. The wife is more than happy to accept a nice T-bone over at the friends house. I still stick to the grilled salmon when I'm there. Other people may reject the steak and the fish out of hand because they have a basic objection to livestock domestication and commercial fishing. Those people who object to livestock domestication might still still eat venison that was killed in the wild. Everybody has there own reasons for these things.

So, the answer to your questions is "it depends". Outside of strict religious proscriptions people have highly diverse reasons for being a vegetarian/vegan/lacto-ovo-veg/what-have-you. To me what's important is respecting those choices and honoring each person's wishes.

Cheers,
OPos.

tfox

My profile lists vegetarian, and I fly mostly in the morning, so I get different cereal than everyone else and a bagel instead of a muffin top (not sure why) and then they give me the same yogurt as everyone else. It's almost always a brand that contains gelatin--which is not vegetarian.

Monday my vegetarian no-dairy breakfast came with milk. I had asked for non-dairy hoping I'd get something other than cold cereal (maybe a banana)? No such luck.

I just don't expect much from airplane meals. I used to get all my upgrades at the gate, so didn't have a chance to even request a special meal (chicken or chicken usually).

tgtg

Out of curiosity, where do you have a profile that lists vegetarian. I have never been able to find such a thing on Delta and have to manually select vegetarian every time.

TIA,

-=tg=-

bkmn

FYI - the ingredient listing for naturally fresh ranch dressings:

https://www.naturallyfresh.com/foods...category=Ranch

Now you just have to figure out which variety of their dressing you were served....

houserulz77

And not one of those products contains fish. So if this is the supplier, then it is likely that an earlier assumption of fish just being legalese for the dressing being prepared with equipment that may touch fish is the case.

tgtg

In which case the product would still not be vegetarian.

How difficult is this concept?

-=tg=-

houserulz77

If you do not want to eat a product that was produced on equipment that at some point was used to make another product that has some ingredient you don't want to eat, then you can make your own food.

Those disclaimers are on there to keep the lawyers happy. It's not like they don't wash the equipment in between, and in some cases it refers to products made at the same plant.

If you go to a restaurant as a vegetarian and order a veggie burger, you can bet that at some point the chef had a big ole beef patty grillin' away on the same spot.

So don't quote my post and insult my intelligence without considering the way things work. If there is fish in the dressing, then Delta and there catering are in the wrong. If some caesar dressing was made in the same container 3 cleanings removed, and you can't handle that; then have an apple.

jimrpa

i'm sure everyone has a different answer. For me, while i find the process of animal slaughter to be pretty gross and disgusting, that's not what drove me to go veg. Quite simply, i had a horrible diet - i was eating total crap, few vegetables, etc. Going veg was simply a way I could force myself to eat veggies. My diet's improved and thus, my overall health has improved. YMWV

Moebius01

Probably about as difficult as the concept of defining vegetarian. Some definitions of the term would have no problem with that concept. It's about as confusing as the concept of yogurt being ok for vegetarians, but not if it contains gelatin.

nas6034

No one is insulting your intelligence but when Delta offers meals such as "Vegetarian (Pure)" you tell me what that means? Does that mean the following line, "Contains Milk FISH Soy" is ok? Does it mean that what the Delta agent told me where they say it does not contain any type of animal is wrong? Definitely NOT!
It did not say "May contains milk fish soy" nor did it says "Was processed in the same facility that processes milk fish soy". Thank you very much!

Plain and simple it said what I know it said as I discussed it with my companion and the flight attendant on duty.