Do you want some meat with your
vegetarian dish? Consumer group Choice tested the vegetarian menus of
fast food outlets and found some contain animal by-products.
One of those was rennet, which comes from the stomachs of calves and is often used to produce cheese.
Choice
looked at 80 vegetarian items on the menus of Domino's, Go Sushi,
Hungry Jack's, Nando's, Noodle Box, Oporto, Pizza Hut, Subway and Sumo
Salad.
Hungry Jack's told Choice the cheese in its Veggie Burger
may contain rennet and the mayonnaise contains egg - but the burger was
not marketed as being vegetarian.
Subway's cheese also contains
rennet but its vegetarian menu options do not come with cheese - it is
added by request. Domino's said there were no animal by-products in its
mozzarella cheese.
Choice spokeswoman Ingrid Just said strict
vegetarians were not always getting a strict vegetarian product at fast
food chains: "You can't assume non-meat menu items are suitable for
strict vegetarians."
Ms Just said Oporto, Nando's and Pizza Hut did not respond to the
survey, so the watchdog could not guarantee their ingredients were free
of animal by-products.
KFC and Red Rooster declined to take part
because vegetarian options are not what they primarily offer, while
McDonald's was ruled out because it doesn't have a vegetarian range on
its regular menu.
I'm not totally shocked by this, when you ask in a fast food place or restaurant if the cheese is vegetarian you normally just get a glazed look