complaint

[EQ]

No don't go the Linda McCartney way they're vile. Evil nasty spawn of Satan's nanny. Go for the Quorn ones, far taster and less of a tummy/botty trouble afterwards.

[Tom Morris]

How about some nice healthy quorn sausages to go with the onion rings. Who cares which bit of the fungus they put in it?

Healthy though they may be, Quorn burgers and other assorted pseudo-meat tastes foul. If you know someone who is considering becoming a vegetarian, the best thing you could do to put them off is to take them to McDonald's and ask for one of their vegetarian Quorn burgers.

That said, some tasty vegetarian burgers do exist, and they are the ones which don't try and impersonate meat. If you want to eat meat, do so. I've eaten some really nice vegetarian burgers which contain all sorts of different vegetables, sometimes in a tasty spicy curry type flavour and sometimes in a hot Tex-Mex style. Much nicer. (And they are just oven grilled things, nothing particularly complicated).

[faithlessgod]

Healthy though they may be, Quorn burgers and other assorted pseudo-meat tastes foul. If you know someone who is considering becoming a vegetarian, the best thing you could do to put them off is to take them to McDonald's and ask for one of their vegetarian Quorn burgers.

Interesting. Taste is subjective is'nt it? I do recall my discovery of quorn burgers from meat eaters how prefered them at Ed's Diner. The story went, unsubstantiated AFAIK, but I like it, that Ed's Diner later stopped selling (the original) quorn burgers because their profit margin was lower than on meat burgers and they were losing sales, hence profit, from their own meat burgers.

As for macdonalds I would not trust their culinary strategy nor endorse them for any reason. (see the McLibel and Fast Food Nation books)

I am a pro-choice liberal (in the normal/Mills sense of these words) and my latest gripe is with Tesco's that buying up all the local food stores and severly restricting the choice and variety of what we have to eat. They ignore local demand and requests and impose what they think we should buy/eat. We should not acquies to this, and need to vote with our purchases (unlikely to succeed since most people are too lazy).

[Tom Morris]

Almost all discussions of taste are going to be subjective. You can prefix "In my opinion" and "To me" before the taste statements I made in my previous post.

[N=1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2949510.stm

There's a food intolerance issue with Quorn but less so than with many other foods.

From the article: "Statistics show adverse reactions are reported for one in 146,000 people who ate Quorn, compared to one in 35 who ate shellfish and one in 350 who ate soya. "

I did find this: http://p214.ezboard.com/fallvegetarianfrm2.showMessage?topicID=102.topic

but the scaremongering didn't manage to get a grip. I guess a vegetarian forum is the wrong place to slag off Quorn. :lol:

[faithlessgod]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2949510.stm

There's a food intolerance issue with Quorn but less so than with many other foods.

From the article: "Statistics show adverse reactions are reported for one in 146,000 people who ate Quorn, compared to one in 35 who ate shellfish and one in 350 who ate soya. "

My inital response was - Wow really scraping the barrel here!

Yes as Quorn is a protein based food so there is a plausible basis for allergic reactions.

However one clinical test on one person to show an allergic reaction is therefore not suprising. However how many other Quorn eaters tested for possible allergies have been positive or more importantly not? Does this warrant a news article?

As for a 1 in 146,000 allergic effect to Quorn that must be some epidemiological study! Way down in the statistical noise. If only all dangers we have to face occur this rarely. I have never heard of a lower statistic of this type ever. Adverse reactions to various cerela and vegetables is a far far higher (nuts, garlic, soya wheat - even when not grossly over-estimated- etc.)

As for the CSPI their 600 complaints is far too vague. What follow ups done - zilch? On http://www.cspinet.org/quorn/ there is a link to "dangerous allergic reactions" - all testimonials and not even physician reports. Now the link for "Medical Studies" is also shockingly poor:-

1) The Qorn manufacturers unpublished study Small sample size 200, RR 2 no CI and just one study.
2) Second study, sample size 100 no effect (even the the reasearcher still beleives Quron is problematic)
3) 10 preselected allergic reactions - poor testing for allergies and no controls or double-blinding.
4) A letter
5) Possible the same person reported in the BBC article. No-one denies portiens can cause alergic reavtions so no surprise.
6) Letter by CSPI
7) Another allergic reaction
8 ) Letter by CSPI

* So far 1 for 1 against for plausible control studies = 0 provionsally no real effect
* 2 reported allergic cases - what is surprising is how few for a protein based food.
* The rest are anecdotes and repeated use of the same anecdotal data by the group CSPI with not just unsubstiated but deceptional claims.
* No base rate - how many people eat Quorn?

Clearly the CSPI is a very dubious organisation if this is the best argument they can make against Quorn. In fact this has convinced me that Quorn is probably one of the least allergic protein based foods around.

Whether you like Quorn or not, a vegetarian or meat eater, this seems a classic example of poor reasoning.

[Killer Blob]

I'm allergic to something that is in some mushrooms but have no reaction to quorn.

How many skeptics have reacted badly to the "satan's fingers" that are served at the pub meetings?

And I would never ever take anyone to a McDonalds. Haven't set foot in one for over 20 years. I wouldn't trust their Quorn burgers to be vegetarian, they probably cook them in animal fat or flavour them with beef or something (yes, I've read Fast Food Nation).

[Tessa K]

I'm allergic to something that is in some mushrooms but have no reaction to quorn.

You are a delicate little flower, aren't you?

How many skeptics have reacted badly to the "satan's fingers" that are served at the pub meetings?

A few people (men) there look like they never see a vegetable from one year to the next. I suspect they have the digestive sytem of rats.

And I would never ever take anyone to a McDonalds. Haven't set foot in one for over 20 years.

I went into the one on Oxford Street a few times to use the loos when I was out shopping but soon stopped as they are stinky in the extreme. Borders has a much better class of bog.

Tesco does some nice-looking veggie products but the damn things have peanuts in them, so they're no good for me. Why take a perfectly good veggie burger and put Satan's sprinkles in them? They're not even a real fucking nut. Sorry.

This thread has more Views than any of the others. I wonder why?

[Abdul Alhazred]

Quorn sounds like the name of a villain from Superman comics forty years ago.

It's as evil as kryptonite.

OK, I'm out of the loop for pub discussions, what with being an ocean and half a continent away.

But these go good with beer and you can't get them, nyah! nyah! nyah!

http://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/l ... es_new.asp

[Tessa K]

But these go good with beer and you can't get them, nyah! nyah! nyah!

http://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/l ... es_new.asp

We wouldn't want them. They look revolting. You might as well inject them straight into your heart.

[Tessa K]

So, Killer Bob, are you a vegetarian for health, taste or moral reasons? IMO, people who claim to be moral veggies are just passing the moral buck

[Abdul Alhazred]

We wouldn't want them. They look revolting. You might as well inject them straight into your heart.

That is how they are administered.

Hold still. :P

[Tessa K]

Nick's email about this week's SiP mentions that there will be 'pub FINGER food'. Noooooooooooooo.

[faithlessgod]

What's wrong with cannibalism? ;-)

[EQ]

What's wrong with cannibalism? ;-)

Finding a big enough pot and collecting all the wood, for a starters. Then the washing up afterwards. :wink: