Chesten

Hi all

From googling and perusing grocery store aisles I think the answer must be "no" but I'd love to be corrected.

Is there a straightforward icon or labelling convention that shows me foods are suitable for vegetarians? This includes things like cheese where I would be avoiding rennet.

(I do enjoy checking out the different products and think reading ingredients lists is a good habit, but not always practical with toddler tantrums etc).

Failing that, would anyone care to recommend some brands?

I've found quorn in Krogers and I'm trying some US versions. I've seen Trader Joe's and Whole Foods do nice things but I'll blow the budget if I only shop in those two.

... just curious. Recommendations go a long way.

tom169

No convention. You'll need to read the food ingredient labels.

My wife is a vegetarian and her favorite brand is Morningstar Farms. Totally junk food and not healthy though!

Lanyu

Hi Chesten
My wife is vegetarian but I do the shopping and I haven't seen any specific veggie label, generally I think they do keep the veggie stuff together "Meat Free" we use Kroger and Wholefoods the latter being cheaper for branded items. The best brand I've seen here is "Field Roast Grain Co" we also stocks up on "Tofurky" sausages we buy Kroger brand Tofu. Morning Star is her least favorite brand sorry Tom169 I don't know id you have "Drug Emporium" or if its a LA thing but they have good veggie and organic meat with price tags that make your eyes water.

Hope this helps.

tom169

This is certainly also true for our local store (Harris Teeter).

Haha. To be honest I've never actually seen her buy it.

Chesten

Thanks for the replies. I'll have a look out for those brands. It's funny isn't it how little things like labelling you can take for granted and only appreciate once you are elsewhere. Ring pulls on tinned stuff is another thing I didn't know I really liked until I found I needed to buy a tin opener

sherbert

I find labelling in the USA can be deliberately misleading. Also many of the vegetarian products here are heavily meat flavoured (tofurkey, fake bacon etc) which I don't particularly like. I eat a LOT of tofu because I can flavour it how I like.

Quorn/meatless meat is kept in the freezer section (I always assumed it would be in the fridge section and therefore didn't find it for months).

Trader Joe's does the best vegetarian sausages around and their frozen meatless meatballs are also really good. TJ is also cheaper than Safeway here in CA. Whole Foods of course has a superior range of veggie products but are, as you already found out $$$.

robin1234

I think Amy's is pretty good. Pizzas, burritos, all kinds of frozen ready meals. It's a big national brand, they're in Walmart and your local supermarket as well as coops etc. (Useful for folks who live in the boonies with no TJ or whole food market nearby.) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy's_Kitchen

Apparently Amy's have a UK presence too.

Bob

The fake buffalo chicken nuggets, bacon and breakfast sausages aren't entirely terrible.

Trader Joe's and Wegmans, are pretty good about their labelling for veg/vegan weirdo's.

Rete

Hmmmm can opener?

tom169

Or for us lazy just folk... Electric can opener

sherbert

In a country where literally everything is built to save a person as much time as possible to allow them to expend as little effort as physically possible, I cannot fathom why the tins don't have ring pulls.

tom169

After looking in our pantry I would say its a 50/50 split

mrken30

My wife buys quorn sometimes which is all veggie.

This is slightly off topic, but if you want to stay away from bad ingredients in non food items, EWG has an online database and a phone app. http://www.ewg.org/