Vegetarians getting a raw deal
IF YOU are a vegetarian, the next time you visit your favourite restaurant ask if you veg burger was prepared separately.
I am a vegetarian and have been to many restaurants only to find out that vegetarian meals are not prepared separately. At many of the well known fast food chains vegetarian meals are on the menu. However, upon enquiry I found out that vegetarian burgers, for example, are prepared on the same grill where meat products are prepared. If I did not enquire I would have consumed a veg burger made on a grill where meat products were prepared, thinking that it was a pure vegetarian meal.
This is in violation of my fundamental rights and restaurants are duty-bound to explain this to their patrons.
One may ask why, if I am so fussy, I go to a restaurant. My work takes me to other parts of the country and I have to stay and eat in hotels. Vegetarianism means not only the non-eating of meat products, but that vegetarian meals must be prepared separately using separate utensils (many Hindus abstain from pork and beef for religious reasons).
This I find lacking in many well-known restaurant chains. Is it a case of just being insensitive to our needs, or just plain lack of knowledge of what vegetarianism is?
Recently in Joburg I asked for a vegetarian meal and was told your “halaal” food is on its way. I call on restaurant owners to take a keen interest in the needs of vegetarians and provide for them. Some may argue that it does not make economic sense to have separate facilities for the preparation of vegetarian dishes as vegetarians constitute a minority.
I call on the South African Hindu Maha Sabha (SAHMS) to consider following the Muslim community whose restaurant facilities are strictly certified to cater for vegetarians.
It is high time that the SAHMS puts in place some programme to educate all restaurant, hotel and B&B owners on vegetarianism.
SAHMS should also issue certificates to restaurants who comply with requirements and these certificates must be prominently displayed. Restaurants must also include this in their staff training programmes. Without an intervention like this vegetarians will always get a raw deal. The unsuspecting patron will think he or she is consuming a pure vegetarian meal while the truth is that it will be tainted with meat
products.
DB RAMPURTHAB
Phoenix