Jordan writes:
Recently, I discovered that many of Rice-a-roni’s products, even the one’s I assumed to be vegetarian friendly, had meat byproducts in them. Granted, I can expect “Chicken and Broccoli” to have meat byproducts, but I’ve come to discover almost all of them do. Nearly all contain Chicken Fat. I wrote Rice-A-Roni a complaint, which can be found below, with there extremely helpful response! I was very pleased with their Customer Relations department for the time being. They wrote they’d send me a few coupons and such to try out their Kosher line, which can be vegetarian friendly. I just received the coupons in the mail. I opened the enveloped, with three coupons for Quaker Oats products. Here’s the irony. They decided it’d be friendly of them to send a recipe that I could try out with their products. What recipe is sent, do you ask. A recipe for Quaker Oats “Prize-Winning Meatloaf.”
Here is the original complaint Jordan sent Rice-A-Roni:
I recently became aware of your new Natures Way Rice-A-Roni product line. I was pleased with this because of the high reliance upon artificial preservatives in modern foods. Being a vegetarian, Ive never bought the meat flavored rice-a-roni products, and have stuck with items such as mexican style or herbs and butter. The non-meat products were my targeted food groups. I never bothered for a moment to look and see if these contained meat or meat byproducts, until I bought the Natures Way: Italian Cheese and Herbs. Now, I find that this product and the old products I was buying all contain Chicken Fat. Your guidelines specifically request no product suggestion, so I will say that I have an extreme product frustration. As an off-campus college student, I had been eating these for lunches many days of the week. I cannot in good moral conscience continue to eat any of these products until they dont have meat byproducts. If I was seeking the chicken broccoli, beef, or any meat product, I would expect meat. When I buy the others, meat is an extreme distaste, one that has lost me as a customer until chicken fat is removed from the ingredients list.
Here was their response:
RE: Rice-A-Roni Nature’s Way Italian Cheese and Herb , REF.# 026325336AJordan:
We’re so sorry that the presence of chicken fat in Rice-A-Roni causes you some concern. We have shared your comments with our Product Development Team for consideration in the future.
We wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about another line of pasta and rice dishes called Near East. While not labeled specifically for vegetarians, the products are labeled for Kosher certification. Some vegetarians find the Kosher labeling helpful in keeping to their dietary preferences.
Kosher Law is based on the Jewish book of the Torah, and precludes the use of meat and dairy products in the same meal. While a product may contain meat and also be Kosher, it must be labeled as containing meat products to prevent accidentally being mixed with dairy. Below is guide to some symbols you can watch for on our packages of Near East.
* The letter “U” enclosed in a circle on the front of a product is the symbol of the Orthodox Union of Jewish Congregations and indicates the product is Kosher. If it appears by itself, the product contains neither meat nor dairy as defined by Kosher Law.
* If a letter “M” is beside or underneath the circled U, it means that some part of the product contains meat.
* If a letter “D” is beside or underneath the circled U, it means that some part of the product contains dairy.
If you would like to learn more about our Near East products, please visit: http://www.neareast.com.
We hope this information is helpful, Jordan. A coupon to try Near East has been sent to you and should arrive within 7-10 business days. We hope you will find a new product to enjoy.
Jennifer
Quaker Consumer Response
That is the kind of customer service that happens when reps are just looking for keywords and then they print off a pre-formulated reply selected from a drop-down menu and include the standard “we’re sorry” package without thinking about what they’re doing. Jordan’s bungled encounter no doubt means Quaker Oats products now leave him with a a bad taste in his mouth. Sending a meatloaf recipe to a vegetarian, that is some delicious irony right there.
(Photo: basykes)
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So a vegetarian buys something NOT labeled vegetarian and gets pissed after finding chicken fat in the ingredients list?
Sorry but I don’t feel sympathy for people that blame other people or products when there is clearly no reason to assess such blame.
“I ASSUMED it’s vegetarian …?”
You should already be able to see where you went wrong there.
R.I.F. 4 LIFE!
Problem solved: All-vegetarian/vegan grocery store.
@ludwigk: So wait, if Milkig can include fish products, Does that mean products labeled with a circle-U and a D, as mentioned in the letter from Quaker, may include fish? Or does the circle-U D actually mean “Kosher-dairy” instead of “Milkig?”
@radleyas: Most vegetarians, myself included, really don’t give a rat’s ass what you eat. Just leave us the hell alone about what we eat, okay?
Also, if you have a good health food store you’ll find some decent truly vegetarian options. But, once again, the processed food will cost more (and a lot more than regular stuff you find at your regular supermarket.) That will strain Jordan’s college-student budget.
If you make your own meals in advance using whole grains, beans and veggies you’ll stay on budget, maintain your vegetarian diet, and probably save money overall in the long run, too. Not to mention Rice-a-Roni ain’t exactly healthy. (The sodium content alone isn’t too good for you.)
@uricmu: exactly
By “it’s not for everyone”, I meant it’s not a beneficial dietary move for everyone, not something elitist like “not everyone can handle something so HARDCORE as being vegetarian!”. Jeez, my comment was the *opposite* of self-righteous, but I suppose some people will hear what they want to hear. Sorry I didn’t scrutinize myself three times over before posting.
You are a probably a vegetarian because you care about your health right?
So why the hell are you buying Rice-A-Roni?
And why are you not reading the ingredients? If you have specific dietary requirements, then you need to invest the time and energy to read labels. Don’t complain after the fact.
I don’t buy Rice-A-Roni because (aside from the “Nature’s way” line this customer purchased) the stuff is loaded with MSG.
I’m not a vegetarian any longer but I still don’t get the hostility or mean-spiritedness towards people who don’t eat meat. If it’s because you’ve had a bad experience with someone who was priggish about their vegetarianism, I can’t help but wonder…have you not encountered people who are priggish about other lifestyle choices? I’m honestly just scratching my head why there seems to be this kind of reaction to this particular kind choice some people make.
That said, I think it’s ridiculous to not read the labels on any processed food – hell, even if you don’t have a single dietary restriction, in this day and age it just seems like a responsible way to eat. If you have the time to write a complaint letter and then forward the results of said complaint letter to a blog, you have the time to read the box in the store.
As a vegetarian, I learned long ago to *always* check the label. We’re lucky to have excellent food product labeling requirements. Many, many products contain chicken fat, chicken broth, or pork of some kind to improve the flavor, even things that appear to be vegetarian. I think it’s ridiculous, but that’s the way it is. Of course, you’re not doing your body any favors by eating Rice a Roni anyway. *sodium*
@Tzepish: Sorry, posted in the heat of the moment. I’m just baffled and unhappy that my comment was misunderstood by so many people, and that I didn’t catch it until so many responses afterward. It’s easy to forget that tone and context are lost when writing on the interwebs. My bad.
@sporks: I don’t inherently have a problem with vegetarians or vegetarianism. My ex-girlfriend was a vegetarian, and I made every effort to accommodate her dietary preferences (which were religious, as she’s Hindu). Good on folks who don’t eat meat, for whatever reason, whether it’s nutritional, political or religious. My problem is with douchetarians like the above poster who’s taking it upon hirself to singlehandledly save the planet from us ignorant plebes–and lets us all know it. Or with proselytizing vegetarians (or worse, their asshole fundie vegan cousins) who look their nose down on all meat-eaters. I have severe anemia and a vegetarian diet would kill me, according to all of the many nutritionists I’ve been to. I eat plenty of leafy greens and iron-rich veggies but that simply isn’t enough to compensate for my body’s severe lack of iron.
I also resent the idea that many of the more obnoxious vegetarians and vegans I’ve met have put forth, that because I’m an omnivore, I’m necessarily ignorant about the food industry and factory farming. I buy locally whenever possible, no matter what the food is, and all the meat I buy is free range and hormone-free.
I hate when people paint all vegetarians with the same broad brush, but at the same time, there are vegetarians who need to not react in kind to omnivores, the assholes on this thread notwithstanding. There are jerks of every stripe.
Jordon – STOP eating that Rice-a-roni crap! Get a microwave rice cooker and a 20 lb bag of rice from Costco. Takes me 16 minutes to make a few cups of Balsamic rice which is good for a few days in the fridge.
I always wondered what a vegetarian would feel if they lived in my apartment? I face the back and am surrounded by maybe 25 other apartments, many of which have barbecue’s going when the weather is even mildly warm. The smells of meat grilling on these various balconies always seems to find their way into my apartment. Would this bother you?
@LilKoko: Kosher cheese doesn’t have animal products, so that’s one safe bet to go by, at least if one lives in the Northeast where Kosher food is widely available.
As a vegetarian, I am very careful to read labels because of things like this, but one problem is that there are a lot of ingredients that are animal-derived (or MIGHT be animal-derived) that you wouldn’t know unless you were a, ummm…foodologist? It’s not always easy to determine if an ingredient is vegetarian and even if you contact the company, they don’t always know. If you go here, a lot of those weird chemical-sounding ingredients can be animal, vegetable or mineral-based, and you may not be able to determine which it is. Frustrating.
And you know, meat-eaters who act like vegetarians are all annoying/stupid/haughty/whatever…I don’t get that. Sure, maybe some are, but some people act like the mere existence of vegetarians is a humongous annoyance to them. Why? And as for annoyance, how about meat-eaters who have to spend 15 minutes trying to convince me how important it is for us to eat meat? STFU and go eat your poop-filled burger and leave me with my grilled tofu and let’s leave it alone.
@Framling:
Let me offer a quick kosher primer.
In the US, standard Kosher has the U symbol. Ultra-orthodox people who need to follow special rules (e.g., how the meat is inspected or butchered) will get Glatt or will get special kinds that you wouldn’t really run into in your supermarket.
Dairy is anything that has a dairy product in it, and that means it has no meat products. Meat means that there is nothing milklike in it. It is marked by F for fleische or M for meat, but usually you’d see the whole word).
Parve is anything that has neither dairy nor meat products, though it includes eggs, and it can include fish and fish bones (but no other forms of seafood). Parve is a great choice for vegetarians BUT one must check the trans fat content. A lot of things have margarine and shortening instead of fat.
@sporks: The reason most people think vegetarians are self righteous are because once they become vegetarian the either expect everyone else to join them or try to convert them. Most of them arent satisfied with keeping it to themselves.
I assume everything in the grocery store has meat in it until proven otherwise. Being veg means reading labels. That’s a non-brainer.
It’s a bit ironic about getting sent the recipe, yes, but Jordan and any vegetarian really needs consider everything going into their body if they wish to be true to their chosen lifestyle and are not doing it for reasons of fad (I know when I was in college it was often ‘cool’ to be vegetarian). If you’re eating vegetarian because it’s “healthy” you might want to re-consider using any processed foods, such as Rice-a-Roni. These foods are loaded with preservatives and unhealthy amounts of sodium.
You want to eat healthy? Try avoid shopping the “interior” of your grocery. Your fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and non-processed meats (for non-vegetarians/vegans) are all along the outside of the store. They lack the dubious preservatives of processed foods mainly found in the aisles and you’ll quickly find yourself eating healthier.
Plus, you won’t have to worry so much about what some manufacturer used to flavor their rice. Cook your rice from scratch and add vegetable stock (which isn’t difficult to make and store in your freezer). You’ll feel better for it.
@uricmu: Glatt Kosher is the one I’ve seen at Waldbaums. Woot! Jew-Fu growing… stronger…
@ripple: And in my experience, ones who are also hardcore into Peta take pleasure in telling you exactly what you’re eating in the grossest terms/way possible, assuring you never eat anything in front of them ever again.
@bizhart: agreed 100%–i read the labels of EVERYTHING regardless…a lot of vegetable soups have chicken/chicken fat–just because it says ‘vegetable’, you can’t assume vegetarian… and almost ALL the soup brands carried in major chain grocery stores have MSG. yuck. ya gotta read labels or else god knows what you are putting in your body….
@ripple: I wouldn’t say “most of them” expect everyone to join them or expect to convert them. Some of them definitely do, and they are just as assholish as the non-vegetarians who take offense to the mere existence of vegetarians. Like someone said above: there are assholes of every stripe.
I think the vegetarians who are out there throwing it in everyone’s face and being self-righteous about it must feel inadequate or something, so they try to use their vegetarianism as a means to feel as though they are superior in some way (they aren’t). Likewise, people who hate vegetarians and go out of their way to claim that all vegetarians have their heads up their asses have either been harassed by too many self-righteous vegetarians, or actually believe in the self-righteous vegetarians’ BS that they are morally superior, and hence feel the need to justify their non-vegetarianism.
When encountering either of these types, the best thing to do is probably just smile and nod slowly. Their social ineptitude and desire to hate other people is *their* problem, not ours.
@mercurypdx: *Disclaimer: I also know vegetarians who make no big deal about it in either direction, and are a joy to go to lunch with.
@uricmu:
“Kosher cheese doesn’t have animal products, so that’s one safe bet to go by, at least if one lives in the Northeast where Kosher food is widely available.
cheese is an amimal product.
@ripple: Wow, that’s not an ridiculous statement.
I’ve known many vegetarians who don’t even talk about their lack of meat-eating unless asked, and then don’t try to convert anyone.
Could it be that a few of the vegetarian-haters on this thread view a different lifestyle as a critical judgment on their diets? Folks, people probably care about you less than you think.
@uricmu: Actually, not to split hairs, but Ultra-orthodox Jews would not accept any meat that is merely *marked* Kosher. The strictest interpretation of the laws of Kashrut require that you know the specific religious beliefs of your butcher, you know him personally, and trust his judgment. It’s impossible to know that from pre-packaged marked meats.
The marked meats (like Aarons and so forth) are largely for the conservative and reform US population who want to buy their meat at supermarkets, rather than butchers. Usually on Saturday
.
Also, I want to clear up one other Kashrut rule from waaaay above (LUDWIGK) who said that to be kosher, animals must not have split hooves. Actually, the law is very specific: Of the “beasts of the earth” (which basically refers to land mammals with the exception of swarming rodents), you may eat any animal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud. (Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:6). Any land mammal that does not have both of these qualities is forbidden. Pigs have cloven hooves, the problem with them is that they don’t chew their cud. Reform Rabbis have been trying to genetically engineer a cud-chewing pig for centuries
.
@radleyas: Who’s the self-righteous one, again?
Reading though these comments, I see worse from the omnivores then the vegetarians.
I’ve been vegetarian for over ten years. I get sick of the people who eat meat pulling the kind of shit I see here on me. I don’t talk about my eating habits unless you ask. If I eat out, yes I’m sorry if I ask questions, but I NEED answers to make a choice on what I can eat.
Am I perfect? No not likely, but I try. But I don’t go shoving my lifestyle in other’s faces. Funny how all vegetarians ‘shove their lifestyles’ in other’s faces when I see plenty of omnivores doing just that.
As for reading all packaging, it would HELP if they didn’t use all the bio-chemical names for some of the junk they throw in foods. Though I mostly stick to either frozen vegi/vegan stuff or fresh, I WOULD like to go out and eat from time to time.
It is absolute BS what they have to put meat in.
@cstmr srvc: i think that uricmu meant rennet-free cheese. rennet is not vegetarian (it is the lining (or made from the lining?) of a calve’s stomach), and it is used in almost all cheeses, and has been since cheesemaking began. for cheese to be vegetarian or kosher it ,must be rennet-free.
Maybe it’s just my weird-o vegetarian/vegan friends, but they avoid most processed/pre-packaged foods for exactly this reason.
Nobody pulled anything on this guy–he didn’t read the label. Even the bio-chemical names can be looked up on the internet. Funny how one can think they’re doing right by their body by eating ANY packaged food, which are almost always stabilized (i.e. made long-living/shelf friendly) by chemicals, animal by-products or even vegetable by-products that are processed in a way that renders them value-free, to say nothing of out-of-control sodium levels. You want to be free of this stuff? Don’t buy packaged/prepared foods. End of rant.
@joellevand: yes, and because most veggies/vegans are health-concious and those prepackaged foods are nutritional garbage. i was really surprised, like many others, to read about a veg eating ‘rice a roni’. yuck. if you want rice mix there are lots of varieties available that arent loaded with MSG, chicken fat and chemicals-trader joes sells at least 6 varieties, whole foods sells dozens, and even the regular groceries have plenty of options…
Is anyone else completely boggled why this is even a consumerist post?
It would be one thing if the box specifically said “NO MEAT PRODUCTS/ Vegan Friendly!”
But the box says nothing like that.
“Dear company that puts meat in their products, I dislike eating products that contain meat, however I enjoy your products that contain meat. Please stop your products from containing meat.”
@Firstborn Dragon: it is BS what they put meat in, but as a veggie it is one’s responsibility to be aware of such things. on the bright side, vegetarianism is more common than ever, and its a lot easier now to find meat free foods. at least (most) restaurants dont use lard anymore!
@wigglepuppy: here is a recipe for veg/vegan spanish rice:
1 c. dry rice
2 c. water or vegetable broth
1/2 c. salsa
1 T. vegan butter, butter or olive oil
combine ingredients in med. saucepan, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 mins or until rice is tender.
it’s no harder to make than rice a roni, and it’s cheap, healthy and yummy!
@wigglepuppy: there’s beef and/or pork lard in hostess fruit pies, jiffy cornbread mix…the list goes on. boo! agreed on the personal responsibility tip (as naturally is the burden of anyone who makes life choices outside from the social common denominator).
however, yes, i will chime in and say that in 15 years of vegetarianism (and my father is a butcher so no hate for the meaties coming from me) i have been repeatedly verbally assaulted by over-defensive, insecure, judgmental omnivores and meatfans for YEARS. i have never ONCE given an unsolicited opinion on why i eat how i do. and never once would i yell about how meat-eaters are unfriendly, or don’t want to enjoy the life that comes with not eating flesh that has suffered, or whatever is the corollary to all the “but chicken is delicious” a-holes i constantly meet. you know what else is delicious? when you live & let live.
@TulstinNative: Not everything even says that they are made with or from animal fat. Lard (pork) is used in the manufacture of gummy bears. I’ve never seen that on the ingredients statement. But of course it has been a long time since anyone here has been interested in gummy bears.
From a lifelong Kosher consumer:
The circle-U is the most common, but by no means the only, symbol indicating that a product is Kosher: it means it’s under the supervision of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, colloquially known as the OU.
A bare OU on a product means that there is neither milk nor meat in the product. This is termed “parve” (sometimes spelled “pareve”). Occasionally you will even see the word Pareve printed after the symbol. Note that eggs and fish are considered pareve, so if you can’t eat those for health or conscience reasons, you still need to read the ingredients.
(A letter P after the symbol does *not* necessarily mean pareve; it usually means kosher for Passover, which is a whole ‘nother topic that I won’t get into here.)
A letter D following the symbol indicates one of two things: either 1) the presence of milk, other milk products (cream, butter, whey) or a milk derivative such as lactose or sodium caseinate, or that 2) it has no such ingredient, but was produced on equipment also used for products containing 1) above. This might be important for people with milk allergies. (Some of the kosher agencies, although not the OU, will use “DE” for dairy equipment in case #2.)
There are very few national-brand meat-containing products that are certified Kosher; the Near East brand mentioned above is a rare exception. If you see OU Meat (which is always spelled out, not abbreviated M), then there is some meat derivative in there, such as chicken fat. Generally this will not include beef, which would be marked OU Glatt instead. One product so marked is, or once was, the A&P house brand Bolognese spaghetti sauce. (“Glatt” is a technical term relating specifically to large cattle, indicating that the lungs are smooth and without lesions. If you see the word Glatt applied to anything but beef or bison, it’s meaningless.)
The importance of this information to people who don’t need to keep kosher is that not everybody knows what all the ingredients really are: for example, how many of you recognised sodium caseinate as a dairy product? Additionally, by law, anything less than 2% of the final product doesn’t have to be listed on the label. A kosher symbol is your guarantee that there aren’t any sub-2% surprises that they don’t have to tell you about.
The thing is, there are lots of people you don’t know are vegetarians, because they don’t throw it in your face. Overall my favorite vegetarians are the Janes (certain Asian Indians), because I’ve never met one that ever tried to convert me or make me feel like a savage for eating meat. Well, the Janes, and the ones that I don’t know are vegetarians until it just happens to come up (like, say at lunch).
I don’t dislike vegetarians, and in fact like a lot of them. I dislike the loudmouth, self-righteous ones, though.
@humphrmi: That made me laugh. I watch a lot of food shows and it’s amazing how many chefs and cooks revere the pig as a wonderful ingredient. So I can see why some people would like to see that variety of pig become fact. It would certainly make life easier for many people! My son currently has refused to include pork products in his diet because pigs are reputed to have the IQ of a human 5 yr. old. I haven’t had the heart to tell him about all the hidden pork products that are in most of the dishes he will eat.
On a personal note – my family has several members who are very allergic to corn in any form. It is next to impossible to find anything that is handled by man that doesn’t have corn in it. I certainly wish that we corn allergy sufferers could get the food industry
to refrain from the over-saturation of our food and diets with corn.
@KarmaChameleon: My digestive system does not absorb iron in any form. This is a result of a large amount of my intestines being removed surgically (treatment for an accident). I was in a lot of trouble for a very long time. I almost died from it several times. Then they decided to give me an “infusion” of iron into my bloodstream. It worked. I’ll have to have this done a few times in my lifetime. But it certainly beats the transfusions I’ve endured that only lasted a few weeks. So if you are truly iron-deficient and it is hard for you to absorb iron, this might work for you.
Hello, the OP could use the recipe, but substitute Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) for the meat.
Don’t get offended, get creative.
Vegetarian rule #1: check the label. It will almost always have beef fat, beef stock, chicken fat, or chicken stock.
I agree that meat eating should be done with restraint. Support smaller farms and more ethical practices through purchasing choices. I used to be vegetarian, but didn’t have the money or knowledge to eat a healthy diet. I eat meat now because I believe that meat is good for me in small doses. Especially for my skin. Know this vegetarians, watch your diet, your skins suffers without collagen. (I’m a tattoo artist, and vegans and some vegetarians have the thinnest, most papery inelastic skin ever. Tattooing them is a trial.) I have developed a general dislike for them in this regard: The ones with the worst skin are the ones with the loudest, most self righteous opinions.(They often smell bad too.) They are hypocrites to me. The ones with good skin, I don’t even know they’re vegetarian or vegan until they tell me. They are healthy and humble. Jorden, here, belongs to the former group. That response was educational and helpful. Getting a meatloaf recipe on mass produced coupons is funny and ironic.
@nrwfos: Yeah, but most gummi bears also contain GELATIN (unless they’re specifically veg-friendly gummis), so their lard-assisted creation therefore is a moot point.
What’s the problem? You got the meat by-products for free. It’s a bonus!
I literally almost fell off my couch when I read this posting…..and it made me hungry for a meatloaf/cheese/bacon/lobster sandwich-and a milkshake.
@Super1984:
Could it be that a few of the vegetarian-haters on this thread view a different lifestyle as a critical judgment on their diets?
I think you hit the nail on the head.
@nrwfos: Wow, I didn’t even know that was possible. I’ll have to do some research into that.
@loganmo: I think they sell that sandwich at Hardees / Carl Jr’s.
Is anyone else completely boggled why this is even a consumerist post?
@guroth: Nope.