hi all

just got this e mail response re Quorn avaialability in Canada . . . maybe if all the veggies harass then they might push harder . . .

Thank you for your recent contact regarding Quorn products.

For your information all Quorn products are only made here in the UK and are branded and sold only by ourselves.

We have investigated selling Quorn products in Canada in reply to enquiries from other consumers.

The Canadian authorities specify minimum nutritional values for key nutrients for any 'simulated poultry substitutes' to be sold in Canada. As they currently stand, most of our products would not meet all of these criteria, and to achieve this, in some cases, it would be necessary to fortify Quorn products with some of these nutrients. Fortification does not at present meet with our brand values.
We are therefore unable to advise when or if we will be able to sell Quorn products in Canada.

As Quorn products are sold frozen, it is not feasible to despatch small quantities for direct sale.

Unfortunately, we do not sell our products direct in the USA this is only through distributors. UNFI distribute our products in Vermont, and may be able to work with you. We have heard from Canadians in the past that have done "Quorn runs" to the US taking coolers and purchasing products there and bringing back home to Canada for personal use.

Hope this information has been helpful. Feel free to contact us again with any additional questions or comments.

Yours sincerely

Tracey Cope
Consumer Care Advisor

I thought you were talking about the hunt!
http://www.quornhunt.co.uk/

hmmm - nope!

I enjoyed this part

I do like a bit of Quorn (and I'm a meat-lover!), tasty and relatively cheap compared to meat (i.e. good for a student). Perhaps I'll have to look into doing some Quorn runs when I move...

oh dear. i was hoping they would have soy and veggie based products (like sausages, mince, burger patties and so on) in Canada. Are any other products available?

Isn't the problem with Quorn simply that the Canadian authorities don't consider it to be food fit for human consumption? Even in Canada there's no legislation governing consumption of non-food items, it's not an offence to eat the box rather than the Big Mac, so why not import it as something else; animal feed, roofing sealant, insulation, whatever, and then eat it. So long as you only put it in the mouths of consenting adults it seems to me that that shouldn't trouble the authorities.

So does Quorn contain any nutritional value at all, or just not enough for the Canadian food authorities. One would think that, if Tim Hortons products pass the test, their standards cannot be too high.

It sounds like you hit the nail squarely on its head.

Otherwise the kids will just go hungry and will waste away.

There are plenty of other meat alternative products in Canada. I've seen sausages, burgers, meatballs, bacon in the main stores and BulkBarn has soya and TVP pretend ground meat.

I've said it before and will say it again though - cos I'm like that - I don't understand the need for vegetarians to eat meat substitutes, either vegetable are good enough to replace meat or they aren't. Factory made products are usually full of chemicals and additives and it's pretty easy to make veggie burgers and sausages from beans and chick peas.

Quorn is not gluten free and contains egg, the eggs used not to be free range either so many vegetarians would not want to eat it. It was also introduced as something made from mushrooms when it isn't, it's a mould grown in a bin which doesn't seem very appetising to me.

I can see two reasons for that:

- the food format adopted for meat is a convenient one, burgers and hot dogs, for example, and has merit regardless of the content of the bun. It such cases it's not about wanting something formatted like meat so much as just liking the presentation. Similarly, a non-vegetarian might choose one of beef, lamb or chicken as the product offered in a burger due to an aversion to eating one of the other animal products. The same applies to turkey bacon sold in "BLTs" in Muslim countries, lousy though it is.

- again with burgers and hot dogs, it's convenient to have vegetarian versions for children so as to minimise the degree to which they are stigmatised as being the progeny of eco-nutter wack jobs.

I agree, we never touched meat substitutes until very recently, and only because it is sometimes nice to chuck something other than just veggies on the bbq when you are too lazy to make it from scratch (although bean and veg burgers are so much yummier). We get most of our protein from raw veg and sprouts but it is nice to know that the fake stuff is available for the odd occasion. And in the UK at least there are other meat substitute products that do not contain egg, are higher in protein content and taste better than Quorn.

Hmm ,yes, I can see that now, child free zone here so I don't think on those lines.

Still not convinced on the other stuff though. My veggie years were not filled with quorn and burger substitutes, unless provided by a non veggie going out of their way to be kind.

It's been a while but, at one time, I had a vegetarian child. Recalling that, in the eighties her mother started a co-op in order to obtain organic food in Ontario (it's still going though organic produce is widely available now). The co-op imported all manner of products technically not allowed for sale in Canada, some due to labelling issues, some due to content, as well as selling local produce of dubious legality, raw milk, free range eggs and so on. I would imagine that other food co-ops similarly flout the law and wonder if they might not be a source of this horrible sounding mould.

Maybe, Quorn smuggling. In years to come there will be museums detailing the efforts made by deprived vegetarians so sneak it across borders.

I think I might go and make some falafel now.

Go to Chilliwack, its full of the stuff right now, sweet an' tasty, there is even a maze.