What kind of place was this at? Anybody who's ever worked at anything like a bar/restaurant knows people not getting what they ordered happens about a dozen times a day. I think you'd have to invoke Hanlon on this one.
Or do you have reason to think it was targeted at you specifically because you are vegan? Please give us some more background info.
One thing was premade meals sold by a company which solely sold vegan meals... Until it didn't. They swapped one of the meal, keeping it looking identical, same name and all, but now made it with meat. Listed with meat on the new ingredients: but again, same meal they sold, all vegan previously, now all vegan expect for this one meal, made to look identical to the previously vegan meal.
Another one was very clearly meat at a non-vegan with vegan options place where I ate previously so I know how their meat replacement looks (and I also know what real meat looks/smell etc like and it was very clearly actual meat) put into a box marked as vegan. If it wasn't put into the vegan marked packaging, I would've thought it was just a mistake during packing, but I know they prepare vegan food in a different section of the kitchen and they have different grills for it etc.
Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but to me both of those feel like targetting vegans.
Both of those sound like easy to make, honest mistakes to me. People in kitchens are often over worked and under paid.
Remember Hanlon's razor. Cut them some slack.
How is changing the entire previously vegan only dish from a place previously doing vegan only dishes to a non-vegan one while ensuring it's indistinguishable from the outside unless one reads the ingredints a kitchen mistake?
it’s indistinguishable from the outside unless one reads the ingredints
Someone just didn't read the ingredients when fulfilling the order. If they only recently started doing non-vegan dishes, they probably are not used have to read the ingredient when fulfilling every order and assumed the package they grabbed was vegan.
Its probably good feedback to give that the packaging should make it clear a a glance what is/isn't vegan so customers can tell they received what they ordered, and would help people fulfilling orders to be more accurate/quick.
That is perplexing. Have you contacted them to ask them about this? If it is new ownership, for example, that'd probably help you understand what happened and whether or not you want to try eating there again
No, I didn't contact them. It's extremely clearly intentional to me and I merely won't give them money again.
I swung by to see a few more times and they still only sell meat-meat one, not even a vegan version and non-vegan version. I don't get why a vegan place would switch like this, but fuck them.
I’ve had issues recently with servers speaking English poorly and no Dutch (the local language) at all, and ordering was difficult. In the end we got dairy milk in cappuccino instead of oat in one instance, and regular bitterballen instead of vegan ones in another.
I chalk it up to poor language skills, poor familiarity with the menu, and poor cultural awareness of vegetarian/vegan issues as a thing to pay special attention to.
I've seen job ads for customer facing roles in Netherlands only requiring English and I was confused as to how that'd work. I am even more confused to learn they hire people who don't speak Dutch and barely if at all speak English. What's happening in Netherlands?
It’s fairly common to have English speaking servers, especially in large cities and student towns. That’s not really an issue. Even at significantly less than native proficiency, it usually works out.
The main problem here is that you need to know exactly what is on the menu so you can recognize the order, and you need to be aware of the variations so you can ask for clarification of you don’t get it the first time.
I’ve also found that in the Netherlands, “vegan” and “vegetarian” get swapped often. So I’ve gotten used to telling people I’m lactose intolerant as well as vegan.
I think I understand how you're feeling. It sounds like you experienced two fraudulent vegan meals from two separate sources you trusted very close together in time. It's disgusting, and wondering if there's something systemic going is human nature.
Outside of this, I haven't experienced or heard of any new forms of vegan malice. I do think these incidents are probably attributable to incompetence. Some non-vegans see vegan diets as more akin to food preferences than food allergies. I've worked in restaurants. It's a surprise more things don't go wrong.
I empathize with you, exchanging a vegan recipe for a meat-containing one with no change in packaging for a pre-packaged food item is utter BS. I think you should name that company and possibly contact them.
I would understand if these two companies have permanently lost your trust. I know I monitor my trust in different places I eat on an ongoing basis (usually takeout where I see some of the food prep). All-vegan places are great. In non-vegan places, some are very respectful of vegans and others aren't. I'm very watchful for cross-contamination that I can see, and I listen to my stomach afterwards for signs of ingesting something unwanted. If getting a safe meal is effortful or questionable, I won't go back; it's not worth it to me. I'm fortunate to live in a big multicultural city and can perhaps be more choosy because of it
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