Almost vegan
I have been known to become a bit indignant when talking about Linda McCartney releasing more and more vegetarian products in place of vegan food, but this latest debacle takes the cake.
Is the company being immensely and mind-boggling shortsighted or are they being purposively antagonistic? I honestly can’t tell anymore.
Behold the brand new Linda McCartney Vegetarian pulled pork-style 1/4lb burgers. Yes, the company has borrowed a food innovation that has taken the vegan world by storm over the past decade (made with jackfruit originally) and made it vegetarian by adding one completely unnecessary ingredient.
Honey.
Can you even believe it?!
With veganism breaking sales and growth records all over the world and UK newspapers trumpeting information about huge increases in people who identify as vegan, Linda McCartney made the decision to add one of the most redundant ingredients possible to what would otherwise be a market-changing vegan product. You can see the ingredients list here.
Do they have a marketing team with no critical thinking skills? Does the company not appreciate the potential value of an additional 200,000 or 300,000 retail customers? Is the company deliberately antagonising vegans by adding honey?
I can’t make sense of it. At all. Please put your theories in the comments below or tweet them to Linda McCartney here.
Also… would you like to know why honey is not vegan? Click here.
And when the company was questioned, their reply was almost angrily defensive about “Linda McCartney wasn’t vegan, we are not a vegan company and deserve to offer our vegetarian customers options.”
I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of their copy/pasted response I’ve seen people getting…
So disappoint… 🙁
I got the same response. I suppose removing the honey would render it inedible to lacto-ovo vegetarians?
I have thought they are being purposefully antagonistic for a while now. I think there are better equivalents to all their vegan products. So only normally use them when there’s no alternative available.
Yes, this really ticks me off. Have done as you suggested any asked them via Twitter
Completely agree with you, I couldn’t believe it when I saw honey in it!! They could have used maple syrup or anything in place of it. So stupid they probably didn’t even think!
Made the mistake of buying these about an hour ago. Checked the ingredients in the store, and somehow missed the honey listing. Double checked when I got home, and I’m really annoyed. I’ve sent a strongly worded email to them.
Also why would they want to lose out on all the potential vegan customers?? They could make a better profit by using another sweetener. I can’t believe that makes financial sense. For sure it does not make the burger taste better.
I’m sure it’s better than the alternative for those transitioning, however even a vegetarian food called ‘pulled pork’ suggests to me they just don’t get it. It seems money still matters more over ethics, education and the legacy of all of those murdered souls.
Yes also saw this and felt so angry. So close, also my local supermarket (tesco in port glasgow I’m looking at you) is so woefully bad with their vegan selection I was genuinely excited when I saw these. Raging after looking at the back.
I’ve already emailed them about this. It’s ridiculous – what does the honey contribute that almost any other syrup can’t?
Have used the LMcC comments facility to ask why they would want to lose 500,000 potential customers for this product. Be interesting to see how they defend that!
Im so incredibly disappointing! Would have bought so many of these and was so excited to see this products, they could use any other sweetened instead of honey! Such a shame!!
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