I'm Eating Vegetation, 'cause of Fast Food Nation
So the other day Shawn and I were eating Gardenburger Margherita Pizza Wraps and Shawn was carefully reading over the ingredients for some reason. I think it's because he has an issue with mushrooms and a number of Gardenburger products have mushrooms in them and we were rather surprised to find that these rather tasty wraps did not have mushrooms listed.However, we did notice that "enzymes" were listed as an ingredient in their cheese. Now, that might not seem like an issue, but often "enzymes" in cheese are not vegetarian and they actually come from the stomachs of calves. Granted neither Shawn nor I are vegetarian (although I was for over 7 years) but I know that I prefer eating vegetarian when I can and I really only eat poultry and fish, no pork or red meat. Anyway, the discovery of the term "enzymes" on the container prompted us to investigate further into whether the enzymes used were indeed vegetarian or not. We couldn't find anywhere on the package that said the wraps were "vegetarian". The term "meat-less" came up, but not vegetarian. We couldn't find a damn thing on the package to indicate what type of enzymes were used in the cheese.
I decided to look into things further by checking out the Gardenburger website where terms like "meat-less" and "veggie" were thrown around, but once again, not "vegetarian". The term "vegan" was used on their products without any animal products whatsoever, of course, I couldn't find any mention in regards to the type of enzymes used in their cheese.
So I decided to e-mail them, and I got the following response:
Thank you for writing to us. We pride ourselves on making the best tasting vegetarian meatless alternatives using the highest
quality all-natural ingredients. Our Natural Flavors come from herb and vegetable sources*. Various Gardenburger products
contain cheese. The enzymes in our cheese are biosynthesized and not from animal sources.
Gardenburger products contain, no eggs, and no other animal products or by-products other than cheese. We also produce 17
vegan products that do not contain cheese. We can't divulge a complete list of ingredients in our natural flavors and spices
(our competitors would love to know), but we assure you that none comes from animals.
Mystery solved. However, I really think it would be in their best interest to list the enzymes as "vegetarian enzymes". I mean, it wouldn't be the first time a large company tried to pull a fast on in it's consumers. Think McDonalds and wheat and dairy in their fries.
*Probably contains mushrooms. :P
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