Don’t miss out on your Just Desserts

Vegetarians love desserts as much as the next person and rounding off a great meal with a delicious sweet treat should be something everyone can enjoy. Unfortunately many restaurants don’t label whether their desserts are vegetarian or label them misleadingly, so veggies choose not to order them because they can’t tell if they are suitable or not.

Vegetarian desserts are common, but with businesses not labelling their puddings clearly or using non-vegetarian ingredients, many customers walk away from their meal disappointed. Restaurants also lose out on potential sales from the millions of veggies who live in the UK.

Businesses, chefs and restaurant owners

To make sure your desserts are suitable for vegetarians:

• Leave out gelatin/gelatine (a gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones etc.) Vegegel or agar agar are suitable alternatives and available from most supermarkets or catering suppliers.
  
  
• Check your desserts don’t include cochineal or certain E numbers (see here). Vegetarian red food colouring is available as an alternative.
  
  
• Watch out for non-veggie whey and emulsifiers in chocolate.
  
  
• Jelly isn’t usually vegetarian, but vegetarian jelly crystals are available.
  
  
• Carry the Vegetarian Society Approved trademark on your suitable products and menu items.
  
  
• Attend a professional cookery course at the Cordon Vert cookery school for inspiration and advice.
  
  
• Check out our delicious desserts recipes

Help spread the word – order your free Just Desserts cards

We’ve produced a set of handy wallet-sized Just Desserts cards which can be given to restaurants, cafes, caterers and any other business that serves food and is not labelling their desserts clearly. Each sheet contains 6 of the wallet sized cards.

You can order sheets by filling in the order form (page 2 of the form) or contacting us directly on 0161 925 2000.

Thank You

The Just Desserts campaign was funded by donations from supporters of the Vegetarian Society, which we're extremely grateful for. Like to see more campaigns like this? You can find details of how to support our work here.

Your Feedback

If you have distributed the Just Desserts cards we'd love to know who you've given/sent them to and what the outcome was just email justdesserts@vegsoc.org