They are little bits of cardboard with flavouring on. They come in overpriced/undersized bags in the cracker section.
lol mr flibble do you mean the type which are like mini ryvitas? i have tried a few dfferent brands of these in a bid to find something not to calorific to snack on and iagree they taste like cardboard with seasoning on!theyre minging!
Dear Miss Edwards,
Thank you for your email.
I have looked through our list of M&S food that is suitable for vegans
and found there to be some discrepancies within the list.
We try to update these lists regularly and take great care over its
accuracy. We do recommend, however, that you take the extra precaution
of double-checking the ingredient list on the back panel of our
packaging. However it seems we have not done this on this occasion.
It's obvious that there has been a problem here and I'm sorry we have
let you down in this way. When something goes wrong, we are always keen
to hear about it so that we can put things right. I have already
reported this to our team who create these lists. I can assure you that
they will look thoroughly into what has gone wrong here and do
everything they can to prevent another problem like this, thank you for
letting us know.
Please feel free to get in touch again if you need an updated list or if
we can help in any other way.
Kind regards,
Rhian Jones
Retail Customer Advisor - Food Team
I thought I'd stand up and be counted, so to speak. I particularly like the blue paragraph. It's funny to think of M&S creating these lists on the strength of a non-vegan M&S employee checking the backs of the packets Well, or not.
"UPDATED: 7th June 2006
Vegan
PLEASE NOTE: This list was correct on the day of printing. However, recipes may change from time to time and
therefore, we advise that you check the ingredient list on the product at the time of purchase."
Hmm .. Looks better. And if it's true then they have a very comprehensive range. However, there are a couple of deeply suspicious entries which makes me doubt all of it. Call me suspicious minded..
I will write to them myself in the next day or so as this is just pathetic. It took me 2 minutes to peruse that list. Does someone who actually gets paid for it really take that little time to check it out?
*sigh*
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
Yeh, a few minutes of scanning is all it takes to spot serious errors! As well as pizza and salami there's:
'organic pumpkin seed and honey loaf' on p2
I'm trying to compile a list for my mum to give to her brother, who gets her veggie food from m&s when she goes to visit him. She was telling me that she wants to be (more) vegan and so I'm trying to make it easy for them
I don't know if it's worth contacting the media though - at least they are trying! Isn't it Sainbury's who doesn't even bother to update theirs anymore? But I do agree, it didn't take long to check, although I have to say I didn't spot anything other than the cheese & tomato pizza
I noticed with their dairy free spread that I buy (its very yummy btw ,my fav vegan spread available), that recenlty they put on it suitable for vegans , where before (just couple of months ago) it would just say suitable for vegetarians.
that's a good start - i'd much rather the word 'vegan' was actually on the label, rather than having to trawl through a long list of supposedly vegan products, and then still have to check the label before buying it anyway.
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
i've just had a look at that new M&S 'vegan' list and i noticed on the first page they say "Wherever we can, we provide choices within our ranges for customers who wish to avoid particular ingredients"
that's just not true. they don't seem to have any vegan sandwiches, but they do flavours which could quite easily be vegan if they just left the milk/cheese or egg out. they use egg pasta in all their pasta salads when they don't need to. they put honey in numerous things that would otherwise be vegan.
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
i've just had a look at that new M&S 'vegan' list and i noticed on the first page they say "Wherever we can, we provide choices within our ranges for customers who wish to avoid particular ingredients"
that's just not true. they don't seem to have any vegan sandwiches, but they do flavours which could quite easily be vegan if they just left the milk/cheese or egg out. they use egg pasta in all their pasta salads when they don't need to. they put honey in numerous things that would otherwise be vegan.
Their sandwiches are so annoying!
I seem to remember the last time I went in seeing a few and getting excited because they sounded vegan- but they'de put animal ingredients in for no apparent reason.
Like butter in a houmous sandwich- if they dont want to use an alternative, I'd be fine just having houmous in it!
I've been looking through the vegan list again and there are a couple of other things that aren't vegan too. Butter is mentioned in the veg section and there's something else with honey in it too.
Yes, would definitely be good to see more vegan sandwiches. It'd also be pretty good if vegan sandwiches weren't ALL hummus. What if you're not in a hummus mood?!
I know I'm feeling a little bit anti M&S at the moment, but at least they do quite a few vegan salad pots as sandwich alternatives (like the lentil & aubergine one).
Thank you for your email. I'm so sorry about the products added to the
Vegan list in error, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I
have passed the incorrect products on to our administration team so that
they can update it
These products have been added to the list due to mistakes in data
inputting, I really do apologise. We do our best to make sure that all
the products listed are correct as we understand the importance of our
allergy and suitable lists. We do advise on our lists that you always
check the ingredients on the product at the time of purchase to prevent
any unsuitable consumption.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us and I can assure you our
list will be updated as soon as possible.
I know I'm feeling a little bit anti M&S at the moment, but at least they do quite a few vegan salad pots as sandwich alternatives (like the lentil & aubergine one).
i like that one too at least their response was polite and (hopefully) helpful...!
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
I wrote back and said thanks, but that I was concerned that they were only updating errors in titles, and not in ingredients. I also pointed out that reading the labels, as suggested, wasn't always helpful because of ingredients that could be animal or plant derived, and that that was why accurate lists and labelling was really helpful. I hope they start labelling things like the coop do.
There's a new list on their site dated 12th Oct. A quick review of it has shown the following:
Honey Roast Wiltshire Ham 150g
Crunchy Red Cabbage And Sweetcorn Salad With Honey & Mustard Dressing
Veg With Butter - Autumn Vegetables With Lemon & Thyme Dressing
back to the emails again.... sigh.
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
I'm beginning to think that they are actually doing it on purpose, for some kind of 'joke'.
Honey Roast Ham !!!
My email was pretty blunt, so hopefully it will provoke a response beyond "we value your input... blah blah blah... and will look into this... blah blah."
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
I'm glad your email was blunt, these people need to be made aware that this isn't funny [if they were meaning it as a sick joke]. If it wasn't a joke then they are very uneducated in these matters and should receive more training before being allowed to compile a 'suitable for vegan' list.
Oh dear, I'm all hot and bothered now!
"Thank you for your e-mail.
I am sorry that you have found errors with our vegan list.
Can I just clarify that the items you listed, are not suitable for
vegans? So that I can feedback this information to the relevant
departments."
A stupid response I think. I have pointed out that "Honey Roast Ham" is a bit obvious, directed them to the Vegan Society site and indicated that they clearly don't care at all about this list.
Let's see what they say next.
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
So, it looks like they are relying on vegans contacting them and telling them what is wrong with their list. Shouldn't they have consulted at least 1 vegan before making the list?
This has me worried as I'm always writing to companies asking if certain products are suitable for vegans. How can I be sure they know what they are talking about now?
Sandra I think the only thing we can do is avoid processed foods as much as possible, read labels like mad and contact companies in case of doubt. I make everything from scratch and never look at labels anyway to see if it says "suitable for vegetarians". Hardly any foods here carry that kind of labelling, it's just quicker to check the ingredients list. It is disheartening though, finding HAM on a vegan friendly list !!!!!
Sandra well done on you for contacting companies to ask. I have to confess that I just read the labels and cross my fingers! Anyway if you are worried, perhaps you should include a paragraph in your letters with the definition of vegan and the main things to watch out for that aren't obvious (e numbers, sources of things that could be either way, refined sugar bone char etc), so that they can see what you are looking for exactly, or if they know for sure they will just skim over that bit and tell you.
I always put in details of what a vegan is when I'm contacting places, that's usually emailing restaurants or hotels.
I just don't know what to think anymore! I remember writing to a cosmetic company about the fact that they used silk in their face powder and they wrote back saying, that no silk worm was harmed because of it! How do they make that out?
I've written to Marks and Spencer about a few of their food items before, they assured me they were vegan, I hope they gave me the correct information.
OK. so update.. I've checked the new list today and all the offending items (including the honey roast ham snacks) seem to have been removed.
In fact , I've had a quick look through it and can't see anything that is unlikely to be vegan. Hooray ! They seem to have made an effort !
There are some nice sounding salads, soups, indian snacks etc on there.
Plus bread, humous etc. I may even try there for my next "lunch out" - brandishing my list as I go.
I will (however) still be reading the ingredients before I buy anything (as always).
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
I thought I'd noticed another blooper when I saw Organic Minced Meat on the list, until I figured it was the stuff from mince pies (I hope!).
There are some yummy sounding things on there - I'm definitely going to investigate M&S more, I never do food shopping there. The list says that Iced Doughnuts (from the instore bakery) are vegan; I'll have to check that out.
I dont buy much there but noticed their mushroom nutroast is atcually vegan as the non vegan sauce is in a pack away from the roast (but doubt il be buying it)
There was also a savoury vegetable rice dish that was vegan.
I had a look in the cafe area as there was a folder with allergy info in - this does now include vegans! the only thing that was ok was tomato and basil soup.
I spent some time chatting to the member of staff as she said to me - vegan thats a fish eating vegetarian i have explained correctly what a vegan is!
I love that too! They do a wee pasta shell salad thing which is nice. I don't mind paying a little extra for something nice once in a while but I wouldn't shop there for the weeks shopping! Their salads and fruit are always so much fresher and nicer than other places.
I finally went and bought some of this stuff to try out yesterday.
So far I've tried:
Peanut Brittle ( V. Nice - not too hard)
Caramelised Hazelnut And Peanut Bar (OK)
Smokey Bacon Potato Triangles 90g - Eat Well (Salty but nice).
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
Cumin, I can't thank you enough for telling us about the peanut brittle. I got some and ate the whole lot in 5 minutes...........it's gorgeous, thank you!!!!
Cumin, I can't thank you enough for telling us about the peanut brittle. I got some and ate the whole lot in 5 minutes...........it's gorgeous, thank you!!!!
You are very welcome. It is kind-of yummy isn't it. Not too brittle (to break old teeth) and not too sweet.
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
Yes, it is yummy! You are right too about not breaking 'old teeth' I got some for my mother in law, she's 84 and she loved it too.........I'll have her a vegan yet!
I did have a look yesterday without the list found some other items too like soups well tom and basil, a savoury vege rice, and some of the salads are nice there.
Parents got £30 in vouchers to spend on food there so im printing off the list for them as mum says she wants to try the vegan items so i can have a share
Have they got an up to date wine list out anyone know?
Re: Marks and Spencer's Vegan List
Mr Flibble
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Well, or not.
!!!!!
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