Iceland - Quorn Vegetarian food £1!!!

stumpycat

James_N wrote: »

The point is that although all mushrooms are fungi, not all fungi are mushrooms. The main-stream manufacturers of this industrially manufactured myoprotein want you to associate the product with "organic" and "mushrooms" and "natural", when it's none of these things.

Personally, I would no more fill my belly with this artificial product than I would cheap poor quality and unethically produced reconstituted chicken pieces. There are ethics in food production and consumption that I hold dear to, and which some people don't come close to thinking about.

There's also the basic dishonesty in making a vegetarian product - however artificial it is - and then giving it the names and taste of the meat products that veggies SAY they abhor - "chicken dippers", for instance. No-one's answered this point - basically because it's indefensible.

But as in all things, marketing often wins over sense. I was trying to make serious points, but these have been deliberately misinterpreted. As has been said - you cannot have a discussion with a closed mind.

I'm well aware that mycoprotein (myoprotein would come from muscle tissue btw) can come from any species of fungi, and am under no illusion.

I've not seen any claims that Quorn is 'organic' or 'natural' and the only reference to mushrooms was to point out their relation to other fungi... Other forms of protein are also produced in this way - e.g. from algae - a lot of the research is being done to find new ways of providing dietary protein which is not as costly in terms of resources. This method is also used for substances like Evening Primrose oil - they don't actually squeeze out primroses, or they would have been extinct years ago - so in that case is 'natural' preferable?

As for what 'Veggies say' - which veggies? I didn't know there was a consensus I was supposed to have signed up to. I don't care for things made to look like meat - maybe it's because I've been veggie for 35 years and have no desire to eat anything meat-like. But I do know people who are veggie, maybe for different reasons, who miss eating some meat and find that quorn satisfies the taste and texture they miss.

I think it would have helped your case if you hadn't insisted that all vegetarians think 'this' and believe 'that' as you're making a large assumption which is clearly untrue... there's also the large group of people who eat quorn and also eat meat...

James_N

stumpycat wrote: »

I'm well aware that mycoprotein (myoprotein would come from muscle tissue btw) can come from any species of fungi, and am under no illusion.

I've not seen any claims that Quorn is 'organic' or 'natural' and the only reference to mushrooms was to point out their relation to other fungi... Other forms of protein are also produced in this way - e.g. from algae - a lot of the research is being done to find new ways of providing dietary protein which is not as costly in terms of resources. This method is also used for substances like Evening Primrose oil - they don't actually squeeze out primroses, or they would have been extinct years ago - so in that case is 'natural' preferable?

As for what 'Veggies say' - which veggies? I didn't know there was a consensus I was supposed to have signed up to. I don't care for things made to look like meat - maybe it's because I've been veggie for 35 years and have no desire to eat anything meat-like. But I do know people who are veggie, maybe for different reasons, who miss eating some meat and find that quorn satisfies the taste and texture they miss.

I think it would have helped your case if you hadn't insisted that all vegetarians think 'this' and believe 'that' as you're making a large assumption which is clearly untrue... there's also the large group of people who eat quorn and also eat meat...

Thanks. I'd missed that.

At last - a reply that doesn't use insults. Thank you.

e4effect

This is my first posting so I hope you'll be gentle with me!
I've read through this thread with a sense of real disappointment that people find it so necessary to attack vegetarianism (on all sorts of levels). Having been a vegetarian who eats fish since I was fifteen (more than 35 years), I have come across lots of people who take great pleasure in attacking my choice. My reasons are ethical - I could and would not kill a pig, a cow or a sheep, and cannot with a good conscience expect other people to do it for me in a "discreet" place where I don't have to think about what they are doing on my behalf. Equally, I despise factory farming methods and the industrial environment in which many animals must live their lives - especially chickens and pigs. So, though I probably could kill a chicken to eat, I do not buy chicken or chicken products (though in theory I could eat free-range chickens). This is my ethical stance - it's not perfect and like everything in life involves some degree of compromise (such as dairy products). I do not proseletise, and don't expect to be hectored!

As a vegetarian I have eaten Quorn products (as well as many other brands) for many years. It is actually rather disappointing that no supermarket carries more than a small-to-medium-ish range of Quorn since it limits my choice in a market which is already pretty restricted.

I have no objection to the fact that Quorn and other vegetarian ranges use meat terminology to describe what they produce - after all they are aiming at meat-eaters too, and why shouldn't they? In the english-speaking world we already disguise the names of food animals with french-derived terms (such as beef, pork, mutton etc), so the fact that these words are used to describe the style of non-meat products is not especially hypocritical, is it?

As to the actual point of the thread: most of the supermarkets have regular offers on Quorn products, but most of these last only a few days.

Overall I would say that Morrisons have the best and most regular offers (there are almost always good vegetarian offers, though usually only one or two lines at a time). Morrisons also have a quite good range of Quorn products and are generally cheapest for vegetarian items (for instance their recent Quorn Peppered Steaks offer was £1.08 as opposed to Tesco's £1.18, and their Quorn slices are always £1.19 as opposed to Asda's recently increased £1.29 or Tesco's outrageous £1.44).

Asda sometimes have good offers on frozen products but you will not always be lucky. However they are the only supermarket to sell Quorn bacon-style rashers in chilled form (since Waitrose stopped last year).

In Tesco (my local is the giant Eastville shop in Bristol) the frozen and chilled vegetarian sections are easy to spot by the almost complete LACK of yellow reduced/special offer stickers. At the moment they have an offer on Quorn "Smoked Ham" style slices at £1 a pack, but such offers are rare and as someone else pointed out, when there is an offer on a vegetarian product, the shelves are usually empty until the promotion finishes.

Sainsbury's have a good range of Quorn items, but in my experience are more expensive than Morrisons for the same products.

Waitrose has a small selection and are overall the most expensive, but they do have special offers from time to time and given the quality of their other food are worth a "special visit" when funds permit.

I'm interested to know what other people think about the relative vegetarian-friendliness of the supermarkets.

[Deleted User]

e4effect wrote: »

Having been a vegetarian who eats fish since I was fifteen.....

How many times?..........vegetarians do NOT eat fish. Fish are living, breathing creatures that you have to kill to eat. Therefore if you eat fish you are not a vegetarian so call yourself something else.

e4effect

I actually thought I had explained myself quite clearly. But if you prefer semantics to sense, carry on...

[Deleted User]

Please see the Vegetarian Society definitions of the various types of vegetarian. Note no fish.
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/definitions.html

xellieqx

Pescatarian, no?

whiteguineapig

please please can the original poster and everyone else not be put off by all this stuff about who is a real vegitarian(sp) ect and please keep posting any good bargains on quorn (i buy it regularly and i'm really very grateful for the tips)

Guapa1

Hiya can anyone tell me when the offer ends? Thanks

andieu_2

Another Veggie here ( of 20 years) grateful for the post, my freezer is stocked now.

And I've never really thought of Quorn to be 'processed' or 'manufactured'... no more so than meat anyway..
You have to do some kind of 'process' to get your beef from a cow, so it's surely the same kind of process to get soya/veggie beef from a soya cow, right?
They just keep them in different fields till slaughter.