[serf]

>To me, it seems pretty terrible for BK to advertise something which we all know of as "vegan food", and then not have it be vegan.

as someone who has had to be confined to celiac and vegan diets for health reasons, I think it's absolutely ridiculous that anyone would assume that any single ingredient in a meal that can be vegan, produces a vegan meal.

If we were to use the criteria of 'food that's known as X but isn't' as a way to judge whether or not we should sue restaurants, celiacs would be having a field day. Celiac-neutral ingredients are used throughout the food industry in ways that will harm celiac patients that are too ignorant to inquire about preparation and contamination.

I guess having been a part of that struggle made me realize that a) food preparation, as an industry, is exceedingly vague both about what you're receiving and how it was prepared, and b) that my food consumption is no one elses business, and that to make informed decisions about it requires personal legwork and investigation -- folks who want the industry to do it for them are going to have a real hard time of things.

[srl]

(I think you have a reasonable point, but I still disagree, so I'm gonna take one last whack at explaining why.)

I'm a idiot who should have read TFA before commenting --- because then I'd have been able to make a slightly stronger case. The burger was advertised as "0% beef". Now that, coupled with the "everybody knows the impossible burger is vegan", screams to me that it's a vegetarian meal.

The task of eating shouldn't be a hellish chore for people with reasonably common dietary restrictions. I don't know much about celiac disease, but my understanding is that a large part of it is "gluten = bad". If I see something advertised as "0% gluten", it should be safe to assume that it's celiac-safe!

Even disregarding the "0%" part, though... the news has been trumpeting the "impossible burger" for months now. Suppose there had been some "impossible bread" in the news, because it was specially invented to avoid needing gluten. Then, ordering an "impossible burger on impossible bread" from BK, I'd expect it to be gluten-free! Not because it happens to be made with a single gluten-free ingredient, but because the form of the advertising, in the context of the last year of news, would lead any reasonable person to the conclusion that yes, this burger was made with the intention to be gluten-free and vegetarian.

You're absolutely right that, if you have celiac disease, or strong moral dietary restrictions, and you take the attitude of "BK better get it right", then you're gonna have a bad time. But, to me, that's clearly wrong, and we should seek to change it.

[pas]

Vegan is not a food safety label, it's an ethical label. And "vegan" or "0% beef" with drops of animal molecules on the stove become the classical how many angels can dance on the tip of a needle problem.

Gluten-sensitive folks (Celiacs especially) don't trust anything that isn't shrinkwrapped in a sturdy package. It doesn't matter what the menu says, because life gets veeery messy compared to picking stuff up from supermarket shelves.

Plus, 0% is not 0.0000000%, it's one significant digit. Sure, on the other hand it should have been "0 + epsilon % beef", but ... there's probably some beef in the air too in burger fast food joints / restaurants.

[ianai]

Vegan is not a solely moral label. It’s a label like Kosher or any of the others. It signifies compliance with getting a product without any animal products. BK could and I’d argue should just make a note that even removing the cheese doesn’t make it a vegan sandwich. If they specify which ingredients or cooking processes invalidate it then they’ll still get the otherwise vegans who are willing to eat off shared equipment.

[pas]

Okay, so is there a Vegan Authority? Because for Kosher it's up to some rabbis. And there are rules for labels such as "Made in X" (usually something like value add must be at least 50% in X).

And so it might be that "vegan" means "no animals harmed during the making of this nor does the sale of this contribute to that", so you can eat animal meat after the animal naturally died and it's not in a factory, ugly farm setting.

Or it might mean that no meat or animal products added/used, except reasonable contamination. After all in lactose-free milk there's still some 0.09% lactose, etc.

Or whatever.

For example frying oil has a big impact on taste, so that might be important, because if it's contamination easily detected by humans then it means it should be contamination easily prevented.

Grills/stovetops? I have no idea, probably not much.

[ianai]

When I see this symbol I know I’m safe.

“””

The Certified Vegan Logo is a registered trademark, similar in nature to the kosher mark, for products that do not contain animal products or byproducts and that have not been tested on animals. The certified logo is easily visible to consumers interested in vegan products and helps vegans to shop without constantly consulting ingredient lists. It also helps companies recognize a growing vegan market, as well as bringing the word Vegan—and the lifestyle it represents—into the mainstream. (Please keep in mind, however, that the logo is not yet on every vegan product.) The Certified Vegan Logo is currently on thousands of products manufactured by over 1000 companies.

“””

https://vegan.org/certification/

[pas]

Thanks! Never heard of this never seen this logo. Does BK use/imply something like this?

[avisser]

Forget the patty. It's still a whopper. The default preparation comes with mayo.

I think people want it to be vegan. That doesn't make it so.

[joveian]

I can only guess that they did actually check everything else or the lawsuit would be thrown out immediately.

You say "do the legwork", but this isn't possible if companies are allowed to outright lie to you. Sure we keep a list of "known lies" like the mushroom D3 advertised as vegan that is just non-vegan D3 fed to mushrooms. But such deception should not be allowed or it will get much worse as the number of vegans increases. IMO, anyone who wants to ever be able to select products based on anything but a few common criteria should support a hard line on complete ingredient lists and accuracy in advertising.