Vegan Menus May Be Hurting the Vegan Movement. Here’s How to Fix It

From vegnews.com

By Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

What feels like a win for vegans may actually be keeping plant-based food from the people most likely to try it. New research points to a better approach

We've all been there. We walk into a restaurant, and the first thing we ask is: “Do you have vegan options on your menu?” The server says, “Absolutely we do! In fact, we have a separate vegan menu just for you.”

You’re thrilled. You feel special. You feel seen.

But what feels like a thoughtful accommodation is actually a velvet rope—one that keeps the general public out.

After three decades of advocating for animals and exploring the power of language to do that as effectively as possible, I’ve come to a conclusion that might surprise you: We should not advocate for vegan-only menus.

While our goal may be to normalize the consumption of plants and to move toward a more compassionate world, research shows that the way restaurants market vegan options inadvertently leads to fewer people choosing plant-based dishes over animal flesh and fluids.

And before you get your broccoli in a bunch, I’m not saying we should never use the word “vegan.” I am saying that we need to look at what research shows is most effective for influencing what people actually choose to order from a menu if we actually want to change behaviour.

Many restaurants see the value in accommodating vegans as well as non-vegans, but having a chef who knows how to make delicious plant-based fare is just one ingredient in the recipe. If we want these items to actually sell to more than just a minority of diners, we have to look at how they are marketed to the general public.

Canva

Why separate menus act as a barrier

We tend to think that a separate menu is a convenience, but in the world of social psychology, it’s a wall.

When a restaurant hands out a vegan menu, it may make vegans feel special, but if a diner doesn’t identify as “vegan,” they won’t even look at that list—let alone ask for it.

This effectively removes the plant-based options from the consideration of 95 percent of customers. Isolation ensures that only the already converted ever see the options, which is the opposite of normalization.

I don’t want to live in an exclusive vegan club; I want people who don’t identify as “vegan” to eat plants and not animals. The more we make it seem like eating plant-based foods is exclusive to vegans, the more we are sabotaging the very thing we care about.

Canva

Integration is the key to normalization

The most effective thing a restaurant can do is stop segregating the plant-based options. Incorporating plant-based items directly into the main menu—placing the plant-based burger right next to the beef burger—ensures it is seen by 100 percent of the customers and removes the “otherness” of the dish.

If we want the items to sell, they need to be in the line of sight of every person opening the menu.

When the food is integrated, it just becomes part of the menu. Period. It sends the message that these dishes are for everyone, not just a subset of people. To be clear, the default should be that every dish is integrated and those free of animal products are clearly marked. If a restaurant wants to offer an additional vegan menu as a supplement, that’s fine—as long as it’s a supplement, not the only place those dishes live.

But visibility is only half the battle. For these items to actually move, the marketing—what the dishes are called—has to be as attractive as the placement (and taste, of course).

Canva

The “vegan” deterrent

While I understand wanting to demystify the word “vegan,” the fact is, labelling a dish as “vegan” can actually lead to lower sales among non-vegans. Research shows that for many people, the word “vegan” triggers a “deprivation” mindset—they think about what is missing (meat, dairy, eggs) rather than what is actually there.

To the general public, “vegan” is often seen as a restrictive, “members-only” label. By using descriptions like “plant-based” in the fine print—or a small, unobtrusive symbol like a leaf or a “V”—we trust that the dish can stand on its own merits without triggering that psychological barrier that the word “vegan” can invoke.

It turns out that descriptors related to taste, texture, and enjoyment are what actually drive sales. When a menu uses words like “decadent,” “smoky,” “rich,” “creamy,” or “crispy,” it’s selling an experience just as much as it’s selling the food itself.

The name of a dish is the best chance a restaurant has to grab someone’s attention. Think about it: a customer is far more likely to choose “Zesty Chili Citrus Roasted Asparagus” over plain “Roasted Asparagus.” They’ll choose “Tangy Ginger Broccoli and Smoky Shiitake Mushrooms” long before they’ll order a side of “Broccoli and Mushrooms.”

Even titling a plant-based burger “Impossible Burger” or “Beyond Burger” is much more effective than calling it a “Vegan Burger” or “Veggie Burger.” If it’s not a commercial patty, the restaurant can call it something exciting like “Smoky Grilled Grain Burger” or “Mexican Chipotle Bean Burger.”

This is exactly what we should be encouraging restaurants to do: move toward a world where plant-based food is simply seen as the most delicious thing on the menu.

Jakob Layman

(More) suggestions for restaurants

Once plant-based items are on the menu and marketed correctly, restaurants can further increase sales by using a psychological tool social psychologists have understood for a long time: our ingrained desire to conform to societal standards. You can actually change a person’s behaviour simply by highlighting that other people have already changed theirs. It’s social peer pressure for good!

As I discuss in my book, The Joyful Vegan: How to Stay Vegan in a World That Wants You to Eat Meat, Dairy, and Eggs, a study led by researchers at Stanford University proved exactly how effective this is. They worked with a burger restaurant to add a simple, unobtrusive message to the menu: “Our Meatless Burgers Are on the Rise.” On the credit card machine, they added: “We’ve noticed customers are starting to choose more meatless dishes.”

These two small interventions resulted in a significant increase in the sales of meatless dishes. It works because when a behaviour is presented as a rising societal norm, our brains are wired to want to join in.

Finally, we should encourage restaurants to look at the “how” and the “what” of their plant-based offerings. Studies show that the way food is plated actually enhances the perceived flavour. If a dish looks like a masterpiece, it sells like one. And aside from plant-based burgers and nuggets, restaurants shouldn’t rely too heavily on seitan or tofu. For many non-vegans, these unfamiliar ingredients still carry negative associations. Using familiar, hearty plants—mushrooms, grains, beans, and roasted vegetables—lowers the barrier to entry.

These are small changes in tactics, but they could have a massive impact. By focusing on flavour and social norms instead of restrictive labels, we stop making plant-based food a novelty and start making it the main event.

https://vegnews.com/vegan-menus-are-hurting-the-vegan-movement 

7 popular ingredients you may think are vegan, but are not

By Eleanor Harrison 

As a long-time vegan, I’ve gotten used to scanning ingredient labels to make sure whatever I’m eating is free of milk, eggs, and other animal products. But lately I’ve been reading articles from The Spruce Eats and The Edgy Veg touting “unexpectedly vegan” products (Oreos are a big one) and suggesting that a vegan diet is more expansive than you’d think.

Sadly, most of these articles are mistaken. Animal-based ingredients sneak into many products most people consider safe because it’s hard to tell if they’re animal-based. Not vegan? Wine, coffee sweetened with sugar, and M&Ms.

Navigating the vegan aisle at the grocery store can be tricky since some animal-based ingredients can hide in otherwise vegan products. (Photo Source: Laura James via Pexels)

I know, the idea of poring over nutrition labels while people push past you in a grocery store can seem ridiculous. I mean, letting slip a few non-vegan products now and then is okay by me. But if you’re doing what you can to stick to an animal-free diet, the following list of sneaky non-vegan ingredients might be helpful.

GELATINE

Gelatine is widely-known but can still be tricky to avoid. Made from the skin, tendons, ligaments and/or bones of cows, pigs, or other animals, it’s used in a variety of cosmetic as well as in food products, as a coating for medications, and even in photographic film. There are some excellent vegan alternatives. Agar agar is a popular one that lives up to the hype. Derived from red algae, it’s slightly firmer than gelatine but still great for emulsifying and thickening your food. Pectin (made from fruit cell walls) and carrageenan (made from dried seaweed) are good choices as well.

BEESWAX

Okay, this one may be obvious. But when I first became a vegan, I was oblivious to how many products use beeswax — it’s in art, food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, and more. Beeswax is made by scraping wax off the honeycomb and melting it down. The solidified wax is then collected and used in products.

While it seems like beeswax is in almost everything, it is  possible to find vegan-friendly alternatives, including soy wax, sunflower wax, rice bran wax, carnauba wax, and candelilla wax.

Note: Be careful with paraffin wax, which has been known to emit dangerous, carcinogenic fumes.

CASEIN

This is a tricky one. I tend to have the most trouble with lactose-free products, which I thought for a long time were inherently dairy-free. (Lactose equals dairy, right?)

Not the case! Most of these products still contain casein, a group of phosphoproteins typically extracted from cow’s milk, but also found in sheep and buffalo milk. It’s the ingredient that allows dairy cheese to stretch, melt, and ooze.

While scientists are first starting to unlock the technology to create vegan casein (just this January, Dutch manufacturer Fooditive released a vegan milk with pea casein), few products on the market fully replicate casein’s effect. But Violife, Daiya, So Delicious Dairy Free, Tofutti, Kite Hill, Treeline, and Follow Your Heart are crowd favourites, and rightfully so thanks to their resemblance to dairy cheese.

WINE

Wine lovers, this one’s for you.

You might already be aware of isinglass, a type of collagen derived from the dried bladders of different types of fish. It’s mainly used to clarify or “fine” beer and wine.

But isinglass isn’t the only ingredient to watch out for here. Several other non-vegan substances are used to clarify wine, including bone marrow, egg whites, fish oil, and gelatine. Winemakers don’t have to list fining ingredients on their label, so the best bet is to get a certified vegan wine.

Vegan wine companies include Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw (only red wines), Frey Vineyards, Lumos Wine, and Red Truck Winery.

L-CYSTEINE

This is a surprising one. (And gross!). L-Cysteine is used as a dough conditioner and preservative  agent for bread and baked goods, especially pre-packaged ones. It’s a common reducing agent, which helps to break down gluten in the baking process, and cut back on mixing time. While it has several animal sources, the most common are duck or chicken feathers and human hair.

A company called Wacker sells vegan L-cysteine for commercial use. Small bakeries are generally a good source for vegan bread since they tend not to use L-Cysteine.

LACTIC ACID

Lactic acid, a cornerstone of fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, is created when bacteria break down carbs. Most lactic acid comes from vegan sources like corn starch and beet sugar, but some lactic acid is also derived from the lactose from dairy.

Here is a list of vegan-friendly products containing plant-based lactic acid: beer (be careful about non-vegan clarifying agents like gelatine or isinglass), miso, wine, kimchi (make sure it’s otherwise vegan – some brands use fish), sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, and sourdough.

WHEY

Most vegans probably know that whey is dairy-derived, but it’s often difficult to spot in otherwise vegan foods. It’s the substance left over after milk is strained and curdled and is commonly used as a dietary supplement and in protein powders.

Because whey is so cheap to produce it’s tossed into a wide variety of processed goods, from cookies to crackers to chocolate candy. Many products include proteins derived from whey. Luckily for us label readers, these are listed as ‘whey’ among the list of ingredients.

Workout aficionados, don’t sweat it: A number of excellent vegan protein powders exist, including Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder and Earth Chimp Vegan Protein Shake.

I don’t always get it right, but that’s okay. Cutting out all animal products isn’t the only way to make a difference.  A 2019 study found  that if all Americans reduced their meat consumption by 25 percent or ate meat just two days a week, we would save more than 80 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, or around one percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. But if you’re up for going the extra step and cutting out all things animal-related, you might want to start reading your bread labels more closely.

https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/non-vegan-ingredients

Could this be cruise lines’ year of the vegan?

From latimes.com

Plant power is setting sail in a big way. Cruise ship menus, which once offered vegans little more than veggie burgers, are beginning to reflect the mainstream vegetarian and vegan trend found in restaurants ashore. More plant-based dishes are showing up in main dining rooms, buffet lines and specialty restaurants at sea.
It’s not surprising, given that some people, including the publication t he Economist, predicted 2019 would be the Year of the Vegan.
Among the front-runners in the cruise industry is Regent Seven Seas Cruises. It recently announced that, in October, more than 200 plant-based menu items — including the popular Impossible Burger — will be incorporated across its fleet for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“We’re offering imaginative selections of bold, flavourful appetizers, entrees and desserts,” said Jason Montague, Regent Seven Seas Cruises president and chief executive, when announcing the menu changes. He bragged that the new menu “sets the highest benchmark in luxury cruising.”

The list of new dishes is provocative: wild mushroom tart, falafel fritters, spiced potato and green pea samosas, and summer berry pudding chantilly. The new items reflect cuisines including Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Mexican. Other menu highlights include power bowls, hearty pastas and noodles, light salads and soups.

                Sweet and sour vegetables with tofu are served aboard Regent Seven Seas ships.

                                                             (Regent Seven Seas)

Not all cruise companies are in tune with the trend, of course, and it makes sense for vegans to contact their cruise line in advance to let them know their dining preferences.
Another good idea: Watch for theme cruises that promote a vegan philosophy. In addition, check out the list below of lines that are vegetarian- and vegan- friendly, courtesy of Cruise Critic.

Winning the first-place title from the website is Norwegian Cruise Line, which has a large number of dining venues and offers vegetarian and vegan items on most menus. You can even dine in a steakhouse and order something special that fits your dietary restrictions. The chef will make it for you or order it from a neighbouring restaurant.

Carnival Cruise Line comes in next on the Cruise Critic list because, like Norwegian, it’s a big fan of giving passengers choices. The main dining room always has one or two vegetarian entrees, as well as starters. “Indian food-lovers will adore the Indian vegetarian dish that is consistently offered on Carnival’s American Table menu (typically in addition to another meat-free option),” says Cruise Critic. Additionally, passengers can find veggie burgers at Guy’s Burger Joint and bean burritos at Blue Iguana Cantina.

Celebrity makes the list because it offers vegetarian menus in its main dining room, marking vegetarian and lactose-free dishes with colourful icons on its regular menus. And there are 14 days of variations, so you’re not stuck eating the same veggie burger every night.

Cruise Critic added the Italian line Costa to its list because it revamped its menus in 2015 to include new vegetarian and vegan items, making sure all regional menus include options, “a nice touch considering that most cruise line regional sections tend to be meat-heavy,” says Cruise Critic.

Oceania, known for its gourmet restaurants, added an expanded vegan menu in 2017, featuring more than 250 dishes in the dining room at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Early risers can tap into a vegan juice bar on the line’s newest ships, Marina and Riviera, where raw, cold-pressed juices and smoothies are available, in addition to energy bowls with ingredients such as acai berries and chia seeds.

SeaDream, says Cruise Critic “makes a point to pamper everyone, vegetarians and vegans included.” The line’s lunch buffet includes a DIY salad area with organic vegetables, plus pepper spreads and tapenades. Also, the daily soup is often meat-free. Dinner features a raw, organic and vegan meal option, with a starter, main dish and dessert.

https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-07-15/cruise-lines-vegan-food