I was flicking around the television stations yesterday morning (I’ve not been feeling particularly well the last few days, and I could just about muster the energy to find the TV remote). I settled on Saturday morning Kitchen on BBC2, and duly watched various nice items get cooked up, taunting my illness somewhat. Following that was “Ever wondered about food?“, which I quite like for it’s more detailed examination of particular food.
Something came up during the programme which surprised me. The programme was on Mushrooms, and featured a short segment on Quorn, a staple ingredient for many vegetarians. We strive to eat something “vegetarian” once or twice a week, and it often includes Quorn, so it was interesting to learn about the history of the product. I’d assumed it had been around for a while, but it’s only been marketed since 1990.
What surprised me most however was the product requires egg whites in the process. This started me thinking about what constitutes vegetarianism. Quorn is endorsed by the British Vegetarian Society, who only endorse such products made with ethical - ie. free-range - eggs. Chickens of course don’t need to be fertilised in order to lay eggs; they’re encouraged more by light patterns and will happily go about laying unfertilised eggs.
It’s because they’re unfertilised, and therefore will not go on to become animals that they’re considered acceptable to eat by many vegetarians, and therefore it’s acceptable to such vegetarians to eat/use products that include egg (which to their relief means beer and wine is permissible: egg derived products are used in the clarification process).
Dairy products are the delimiter for Vegans of course, who take objection to dairy produce. In relation to eggs, it’s for reasons such as the selected killing of male chickens, and female egg-layers after a certain period of time (they become less “productive” after a year or so. Many other reasons here!). I’ve never quite understood fish eating veggies, but assume it’s more to do with farming practice.
Just so it’s clear: I am quite happy in my omnivore habits, but do strive to buy organic and ethical products (which I imagine vegetarians may feel is a contradiction). The main reason simply being that I think it tastes a lot better, but also want to ensure I’m not promoting the unnecessary cruelty that is often involved in buying “cheap” food (cheap at what cost?). I also stay clear of processed food where possible, for the same reasons. Whilst I’ve considered becoming a vegetarian a few times, I just enjoy eating meat too much. So I take an ethical standing, and aim to eat healthier (including plenty of fish and vegetarian focused food).
Returning to my original point, Quorn includes eggs, but eggs that are unfertilised and consequently considered dairy produce. Therefore no animals are killed in the production process, which is the main distinction. So it’s properly vegetarian by the commonly accepted definition of a vegetarian (don’t eat animals).
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