Hi /c/vegan,
I just picked up tacos from some cheap Mexican place. They don’t really do anything to cater to vegans but in the past, they basically just gave me extra rice and beans and removed any cheese, cream, or meat.
Today I ordered and they put sour cream on it. I know that this place doesn’t have a vegan sour cream, so it was a mistake.
For a second I thought I wouldn’t eat it, but I got in a moral debate in my head and decided that at this point, the damage is already done, and I tried my best to scrape off all the sour cream and ate the tacos.
Obviously I still consumed a decent bit of sour cream which makes me sad, but I don’t know, I couldn’t see it being more moral to not eat it. And I don’t want to call them back and harass some minimum wage workers about it either, since they’ve gotten it correct in the past.
TL;DR: Cheap takeout had sour cream in it, would you scrape it off and still eat it? Throw it away? Demand a refund?
It all depends on why you are a vegan. If you are trying to minimize harm, will discarding the sour cream reduce the harm? In this case no, so I say eat it. Personally I find it worse to just toss it because then it is also a waste. Will not being more careful in the future to be sure they get your order right cause harm? Potentially. I’d put your effort there… Kindly.
If it is for health reasons, you have to weigh the potential damage of eating it. For most people the risk is small and scraping it off would be fine. For a severe allergy, that wouldn’t be sufficient.
Trust yourself. There are a ton of people who will tell you how to live and they will never all agree. If you are going to disappoint someone no matter what you might as well follow your heart.
Don’t overthink it. You are not immoral because you ate half a teaspoon of sour cream you didn’t want anyway. I would’ve done the same as I personally think it’s more harmful to throw away otherwise perfectly good food. You also said yourself that they don’t cater to vegans so the harm was done way before you went in the door and is going to continue. So who is really immoral here? No need to self-flagellate yourself over a sip of sauce that is produced by the million gallons. You did your part, you asked and they messed up because they don’t care about veganism they just want the business.
Just here to say I feel you and your situation. It’s tough and frustrating. I’ve been there myself!
You did the right thing IMO. As long as you won’t have any physical issues eating it, and they weren’t doing it to be a dick, it’s fine to eat for the reasons you mentioned. I would suggest mentioning it as nice as possible.
An alternative to eating it that I could think of: you could ask a friend if they’d eat it instead. Or to someone who finds it difficult to get a good meal everyday.
I’ve been in this position a fair few times. I tend to just eat it, even if there’s meat in there. Otherwise the food will just be thrown out and then my impact on the environment is even larger.
I suppose it does help that I only adhere to my vegan diet about 95% of the time. When I already occasionally cheat on my own account, it’s not as big of a deal when it happens on someone else’s account.
Usually I do complain about it, however. And/or leave it in a review. Mistakes happen, I’m usually more concerned by how they handle the mistake.
Just FYI, vegan is not a diet, but rather a philosophy (or ideology if you will) dedicated to minimising harm to and exploitation of all animals. There’s no “cheat” days with morals. You’re probably looking for the term “flexitarian”.
