Quorn

[sugarmouse]

abouttheir use of eggs and how their customers would increase if they were to make their products vegan.

heres the reply:

17 January 2006

Dear Jennifer

Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding Quorn products.

We are sorry to hear that you were upset to learn that eggs are used in the manufacture of our products.

The ingredients used in the Quorn range of products are vegetable in origin, but all contain a small amount of egg white which is added as a binding agent to produce the firm, meat-like texture that our customers enjoy. In addition, most Quorn products contain whey protein derived from milk.

Over the years, we have expended considerable effort working to find suitable alternative binders to replace the egg which would give the same eating quality and make our products acceptable to vegans. Unfortunately we have never been able to replicate the textures & flavours, (which market research data indicate are the optimum), of our current products with the commercially available, vegan approved, food ingredients.

We value and respect the views of all vegetarians and vegans and would hope to meet their criteria at some time in the future. We will continue to search for acceptable alternatives to eggs and fully assess new ingredients as they come onto the market place, but at present we can unfortunately give no indication of when and indeed if this will ever be achieved.

Thank you once again for contacting us with your enquiry. Please do not hesitate to contact us again should you require any further information or advice.

Yours sincerely



D Aston (Mrs)
Consumer Care Advisor

i was goin to send a reply stating the obvuous aboutthem having the perfect oppurtunity to increase their custom, and that there are many alternatives to eggs readily available..etc etc

or ask her would a trial run perhaps on one of the products not prove to be a good idea.

i would laughed if the reply said 'wel unfortunatly eggs are miles cheaper than alternatives to them ,and we want optimum profit!':-D

i wil reply though, doesanyone want me to add anythign.

[Lily]

I've been intending to email them about this myself, sugarmouse, so thanks for sharing that, you saved me the trouble!

Just how hard can it be for them to come up with a vegan replacement for the egg whites?

[cedarblue]

Just how hard can it be for them to come up with a vegan replacement for the egg whites?

its hard because r & d will cost ££££

[Tigerlily]

££££ ££££ ££££

Hehehe, I can't make these with my North American keyboard. Wooo!

[Mr Flibble]

Despite having a substandard keyboard, if you turn on num lock and then whilst holding left Alt you type 156 on the number pad, a £ will magically appear

[Pob]

French-Canadian keyboards have a £ symbol on them - and they are QWERTY

http://www3.uakron.edu/modlang/french/keyboard.html

[FR]

Wow, what a dumb ass company. Boca and Heath is Wealth have both found ways to eliminate the use of animal ingredients while increasing the flavor and texture of their products.

[Lilac Hamster]

The Quorn company have been trawling out the same dumb excuses for many years, right from the start, I'm sure I got a similar standard letter, it was so long ago, certainly over 5 years ago anyway.

Apparently whey tastes awful and is mostly used as a filler because the food industry has trouble getting rid of it. I did not know they used whey but they probably have to do things to improve the flavour if they use it, so much for the excuses about getting the taste right. If that was important I am sure they would not use whey.

Lesley

[Span]

I think you are all right about the £££££ element though, why else would they associate themselves in a place like McDonalds? Hmmm... ethics

[aubergine]

Fry's burgers and sausages are nicer to taste and have superior texture, and those are Vegan...

It's a shame they don't change, because their stuff is *everywhere*

[aubergine]

I think you are all right about the £££££ element though, why else would they associate themselves in a place like McDonalds? Hmmm... ethics

Their burgers have been pulled from McDs now I believe.

[Mr Flibble]

From my limited time as a vegetarian I remember quorn not only tasting not that great, but it also gave me stomach ache each time i had it. I've no idea why it's so popular, other than just luck and good marketting.

[Pob]

I wasn't impressed with quorn either - the mince is tolerable, but the big slabs of the stuff are gross.

[RedWellies]

From my limited time as a vegetarian I remember quorn not only tasting not that great, but it also gave me stomach ache each time i had it. I've no idea why it's so popular, other than just luck and good marketting.

I never liked it either but that may be because it's made from mushrooms/fungi (I believe) and I hate mushrooms! Soya mince gives me stomach ache.

[sugarmouse]

i confess i only tried the little peices.but because it is so widely avaialable and so evidently popular, i just think it would be good for them to go vegan!and yes span, the macdogfood involvement didt impress me either! Quorn dont strike me as a company who are concerned about animal welfare.they have only just started using 'Free range' (yeh rite) eggs.
why dont we ALL email them.lol

[Lily]

Well I used to really like the pieces and the mince, and the roast, and the sausages .

[Lily]

...and the nuggets.

[Tigerlily]

Despite having a substandard keyboard, if you turn on num lock and then whilst holding left Alt you type 156 on the number pad, a £ will magically appear

I am on a laptop, I don't have the nums lock/number pad function.

[Cherry]

I never liked it either but that may be because it's made from mushrooms/fungi (I believe) and I hate mushrooms! Soya mince gives me stomach ache.

It is indeed I was about to say exactly the same thing about evil mushrooms! It's made from a fungus called Fusarium graminearum if I remember rightly.

(Actually I liked quorn but am still happy to blame any funny symptoms that other people have had on the fact it's mushroom-related! )

[Gliondrach]

Fusarium graminearum - isn't he one of the teachers at Hogwort's school?

[aubergine]

The only thing I used to eat lots of were the swedish style balls. They used to give me a dodgy belly though because of the egg in it.

[alisont]

I have had the mince in the past when veggie but it always upset my stomach (didnt know at the time but i had an egg intollerance)

My meat eating aunt tried it once and was sick straight away - in fact all bar one friend that has tried quorn says it made them ill

Frys brought out a vegan mince that tasted fab but for some reason they have stopped doing it, we use the realeat mince sometimes.

Alison

[Tigerlily]

I always wanted to try Quorn because a veggie friend in the UK would talk about how he liked it. I was sad to find out it a) wasn't available in Canada and b) had eggs.

I'm glad to know most people didn't like it!

[Tiggerwoo]

Trust me Tigerlily, you didn't miss much!
I remember when I used to be veggie me and my bf would end up having to drink loads of water after eating quorn fillets in a casserole because the texture was so powdery it made us feel dehydrated.

[twinkle]

I second LilacHamster in saying I got pretty much word-for-word the same response from Quorn when I wrote to them, and that was probably 7 or so years ago. Their research department must be rubbish if they can't come up with a sub for eggs from all the millions of edible things out there

[Cherry]

Fusarium graminearum - isn't he one of the teachers at Hogwort's school?

Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

Frys brought out a vegan mince that tasted fab but for some reason they have stopped doing it, we use the realeat mince sometimes.

Oh no! I never saw the fry's mince. I agree with all the people who think that Fry's stuff is much much better than quorn. Quorn make a big fuss about their protein content don't they? Do you think that's why they're fixated on egg white?

I suppose it would cost them loads to change the recipe, but they SURELY must have made enough money by now to justify it

[sugarmouse]

lol thnaks guys! should i reply or just leave it at that.or shoudl i sarcastically suggest they start paying their staff less, apart from the research dept, to justify?

[RedWellies]

I don't think you should be sarcastic. After all, they were perfectly polite to you. You could just thank them for their response and reiterate that you wish their products were vegan. If everyone did this who wants to eat Quorn, it may eventually make a difference.

[aubergine]

we use the realeat mince sometimes.

Last time I looked, I thought the Realeat stuff had egg or milk in it.

[sugarmouse]

I don't think you should be sarcastic. After all, they were perfectly polite to you. You could just thank them for their response and reiterate that you wish their products were vegan. If everyone did this who wants to eat Quorn, it may eventually make a difference.

maybes! should we all email them.llol

[Morna]

Thier stuff tastes like fish sticks anyway. Processed grabage. I stopped eating them long before I went vegan because they tasted too Fast Food Nation-ish.

[twinkle]

Last time I looked, I thought the Realeat stuff had egg or milk in it.

The formed things tend to, but the mince was okay last time I looked

[mango]

££££ ££££ ££££

Hehehe, I can't make these with my North American keyboard. Wooo!

I can't seem to make any whatever I do...

[Tigerlily]

Hehehe, that's cute Mango!

[VeganJohn]

Redwood Foods are vegan and they are MUCH better than Quorn products. Redwood sausages are just mind-blowingly good lol!! Other vegan products such as by Fry's and Realeat are also much better than Quorn and better 'meat substitutes', which would probably attract more Quorn customers??

I always found Quorn to be quite tasteless and did not like the texture much anyway.

Still, it is a shame because Quorn gets everywhere like an earlier post mentioned.

[Vegan cat]

Hi Everyone

Was wondering if anyone knew if any of the Quorn products are Vegan. All the supermarkets round my way seem to stock alot of there products.

[Pob]

Nope. None of them are.

They all contain egg white, and many of them contain milk products, too.

Most of the Cauldron stuff isn't vegan either.

Annoys the hell out of me that supermarkets stock that stuff in preference to vegan alternatives like the Redwoods and Fry's ranges.

[Vegan cat]

Thanks Pob

Typical!

I dont think supermarkets relise that people would actually buy Redwoods and Fry if they stocked it.

Cant believe they are not vegan, shame cos they have quite a big range!!!!

[Pob]

On the plus side, if you buy them from health food shops you're not giving all your money to supermarkets.

Also it is better not to eat processed stuff all the time (like veggies that eat quorn for just about every meal!).

But it would be nice for more vegan foods to be in supermarkets.

[Vegan cat]

True.

I have a couple of health food shops round my way and they have a decent selection of vegan foods.

Although my Holland and Barrett are a bit rubbish - I think they focus on vitimins and nuts mainly!

[Pob]

I have to go out my way a bit to find a health food shop with a chiller and/or a freezer. Kind of encourages me to eat other stuff.

I was talking to someone today about the amount of unhealthy crap that they sell in health food shops. Most of them are just flogging crap loads of (non-vegan) pills and big tubs of milk protein. Mmmm - healthy!

[aubergine]

goodness-direct.co.uk do a lot of Vegan stuff mail order if you can't find it locally.

[Vegan cat]

I have a couple of Bodywise Health shops in my area, they are quite good .

They have chiller/freezer cabinets.

[Kworn]

Down with Quorn ;-)

They really must be stopped from dominating the veggie world and a tasty vegan product enabled to take over!

[Tigress]

that goodness direct site looks really good. It has a really good vegan selection and you can order produce.
I can feel a shopping spree coming along

[tabitha]

Hi Everyone

Was wondering if anyone knew if any of the Quorn products are Vegan. All the supermarkets round my way seem to stock alot of there products.

Im sure they could bloody make quorn vegan if they tried. It really irritates me that its not. I buy a lot of the burger things for the kids because they moan about vegan stuff so I use quorn for them as an alternative to crappy beef burgers. Although Im happy to say that very little meat comes into my house anymore. Bacon seems to be it and I dont buy that anymore or cook it, my kids get it in when they want it. I wish I could get them on to soya milk and cheezly though.

[Geeni]

Tabita - I completely agree that they could make it vegan, but they won't. They won't bother as it looks as though they completely dominate the vegetarian market as it is.

When I became vegan, I actually e-mailed the makers of Quorn to ask whether they would consider making their products vegan. Their response was something along the lines of not wanting to compromise the 'taste and texture' of their products (or invest unnecessary money catering for a 'minority' market?).

We also buy Quorn nuggets, burgers etc. for the kids in our house (considering it a lesser evil!), but I would really love to find a widely available vegan alternative.

Both my girls do love Redwoods cheatin' meats, especially cheatin' beef slices, and I've noticed that Redwoods now do 'chicken' pieces - wonder if anyone has tried them and whether it would be possible to get away with using them instead of Quorn?

[tabitha]

Geeni - I have used Redwood chicken bits in stirfries, also "chicken", sweetcorn and pasta dishes. The kids loved them. In fact in the stirfry they didnt even realise it wasnt chicken. I have also used them in chicken salad sandwiches in packed lunches. I have to be cunning and not tell them its vegan, but Ive got used to being cunning.

[Geeni]

Thanks, Tabitha, we'll definitely give them a try!

[Limey]

I wish they were vegan. There are so many Quorn products at my stores around here. All the veggie-friendly stuff I bought when I was omni were so good and yummy and I was sad to find them not vegan-friendly when I made the switch.

They should make it all vegan-friendly, then everyone could partake and be happy.