[Subversive_plot]

So, I was tossing some stuff in our recycling bin, when I saw, staring up at me, a box with a title advertising the contents as "White cheddar vegan rice crackers".

I understand how the box got there, Mrs. Subversive has to watch her dietary sugar, these were her snacks before the box was empty. What has my remaining synapses cooking are the words "white cheddar vegan" used consecutively in a product description.

My use of food-related Venn diagrams is a bit rusty, but wouldn't "white cheddar" and "vegan" normally be in non-intersecting groups? I chalk it up to marketing, sort of like seeing "gluten-free" emblazoned on bottled water.

Anyone else run across marketing non sequiturs like a this?

[mumofstig]

We get a lot of products like meat free Shepherd's pie and my favourite 'vegetarian bacon'   

[jezza]

Hello saw one yesterday No Poggy in the Middle Sausage rolls,local off licence /deli are trialling vegan Scotch eggs   jezza

[jezza]

That's No Piggy in the Middle   jezza

[New shoot]

I think all the big food companies here are firmly on that bandwagon SP. 

We sell the frozen bake at home Greggs where I work (big chain of takeaway pastry related foods, sandwiches and snacks here in the UK).

We have vegan steak bake and vegan sausage rolls in that range, plus another freezer full of vegan and veggie foods similar to the sausage rolls Jezza describes - no bull burgers, no chick chicken strips ... it is big business and costs quite a bit more than the regular versions, apparently as it has higher processing costs 

[Aunt Sally]

If you are against eating animals... why pretend to eat them 

[Growster...]

If you are against eating animals... why pretend to eat them 

That's exactly what we think here, Aunt!

Why take the 'names' or 'words' associated with meat, fowl or fish, and then say they don't fancy an animal product!

Mind you, I never understand anything on a Chinese menu, or an Indian one for that matter, (I'm sure it's fine though) so I'm never any the wiser! I also gave up anything mentioning the word 'jus' years ago...

SubP, is the Shoney's Restaurant chain still going? Best ever breakfast we've ever had when we were starving and jet-lagged early one morning!

[Subversive_plot]

@ New shoot and @ Auntie
I guess I must be the last one on the bus!  If you are vegan, you'd think the last thing you'd want to be seen eating is vegan sausage!  Is that like a methadone for meat-eaters?

I have to admit that I do eat some products pretending to be meat. I have "alpha-gal syndrome" (simplified explanation: allergic reaction to mammal meats, induced by a particular type of tick bite). I can't eat beef, pork, lamb, etc., haven't since 1998.  But there's a company called Impossible Meat that makes a burger type product that tastes close to what I remember about eating a beef hamburger.  One of our fast food chains (Burger King) even offers an Impossible Burger!  Thankfully, I can (and do) still eat poultry and seafood. I also eat a lot of turkey processed into turkey burger, turkey ham and sausage, etc.

@Growster. Yes, Shoney's is still around! We had one in Athens, but no longer, I'm afraid. Spreading development swallowed it up.

I've always shaken my head at people that think human consumption of meat is not humane.  Quick and relatively humane slaughter of an animal in a well-run abattoir is much more humane than death in the wild by  a predator, in many cases. In the USA, one woman, Temple Grandson, has made more humane slaughter houses her life's work... Look her up, her story is interesting, was even the subject of a movie!

[Christine]

Trouble is I think that a lot of vegans want to look like one of the crowd rather than stand out and be different. Peer pressure and all that.

Oh and then there's the crowd that want to bow to the pressure of eating less meat but don't want to stand out from the crowd so are happy to have the "lookalikes".

And then there are the transitioning people who are moving from one way of eating to another and still learning.

So of course the sales and marketing people see a hole in the market and go for it. The result is many strange things.

Moral of this is that there's nowt as strange as folks but customers can be even more so.