Have you ever eaten veggie delight rolls from subway?And did you check what the assistant was doing with the?

Question

tongs?

The reason i ask is this.

As a strict vegetarian,i always check when i order anything what the tongs are used for,the gloves changed and the reason is this.

I have a panchant for veggie delight,but the last 7 stores i tried to buy one,the assistants didnt change their gloves after handling meat,they used the same knife to open a roll,that had meat on it,and they used the same tongs on the meat as the salad.

I always make sure they change the salad,so no meat contamination is possible,and the tongs are fresh and the assistants hate it,but they arent strict veggies,and think im nuts.

I actually wrote to subway to suggest they use tongs for meat ands salads and seperate one for veggies.

They say its not cost effective to pay 70 pence for tongs,so i told them they are illegally selling veggie labelled food,as they cannot guarantee its meat free.

I know the dead carcass eaters wont get this,but i know the strict veggies will understand my horror at his.

Answer 1

but its not like they killed an entire other animal for you to have a little bit of resedue on your sandwich. if you throw away the sandwich then your just wasting food when people are starving. im vegetarian but im not strict. such a strict vegetarian shouldn't bother eating out because face it, no matter what you'll always have some resedue no matter how much. even if they did use seperate tongs or gloves or whatever, they would brush up against the side of a container with meat on it.

im  not trying to critisize or anything but really, no more animals  would die if you ate such a small amount on accident.

Answer 2

Bloody h**l.

High horse springs to mind!

Answer 3

as a dead carcass eater, I don't get it... If you feel so strongly, dont use subway.. buy a lettuce and a bread roll and put them together. If there is no hygiene issue, then you are overeacting.

in effect

'I dont like 'X' so everyone in the world should change to cater for me'

Answer 4

I have them wash the knife, and the food is on a layer of paper that doesn't soak through.  the food is handled w/ gloves, not with tongues.  Also, if they don't change their gloves, tell them to.  Call them out on it!

The salad area is a little separate from the meat area, and the row always has pepperocini (sp?) next to it, so I don't carea about that being contaminated.  And never toast the veggie delight, that's kinda weird, since it's salad on a bread roll.  If you're vegan, I heard there's honey in the bread, so that's a head's up.

If the assiantants hate it, tough.  Explain with a bright smile that you're veg, and be polite and friendly.  unless they're *ssholes, they should be pretty understanding.

Answer 5

d**n! u must be a subway assistants worst nightmare!

i love too eat the dead carcasses of pigs, sheep, cows, etc.

you should try it sometime!

Answer 6

It's not just Subway that are guilty of this practise, in fact the only places you can guarantee meat free products are vegetarian establishments. Nearly all fast food shops, especially ones with deep fat fryers, use the same equipment for both meat and vegetarian options

PS. These places know they are breaking the law, but unless they are caught red-handed by the authorities - it's their word against yours, and when the inspector calls every thing is kosher because they are fore warned of the visits

Answer 7

I worked at Subway for a few months - this was back when they still had the other way they cut their buns, but not much has changes policy wise, back story is:

I was already a vegetarian, I worked with two very strict Hindu people that would not eat any meat either.

We'd switch gloves for vegetarian sandwiches, and switch gloves the moment customer rushes ended either way, and washed hands and surfaces constantly.

However, when we use our hands or tongs to pile veggies on ANY sandwich, it would not only be unhygienic to peel our gloves off in the middle of making a sandwich, but we'd hold the line up.

Subway is crazy, they'd time my every transaction - if it took me over a minute and 30 seconds to assemble a sandwich and ring up a customer, I could lose my job. My manager was especially frantic about me making the time right.

Unfortunately someone making seven dollars an hour would rather keep their job than risk losing it by peeling their gloves off mid-sandwich so their meat-juice slicked hands don't touch the veggies a vegetarian might touch.

It's unavoidable - you have less than a minute to make a sandwich, there's a line of 10 people, everyone is yelling or demanding you hurry up, people are rude and beligirent, you are freaking out, you just slap the thing together, touching meat, then digging in the veggies bin and putting veggies on.

Little bits of meat juice will get in the veggies. Even our vegetarian-run Subway was like this. None of us ate at our own Subway. My co-worker Patil brought Indian food from home, I brought my own vegan stuff, and the owner and the manager both were constantly dieting (they were fat guys, LOL).

Anyway just see it a different way - why not just stop shopping there?

Subway's customer base that is vegetarian is marginal - but the customer base that wants fast, instant service, the customer base full of angry, belligirent, on-lunch-hour meat eaters, is huge.

They'll cater to a faster lunch line before they'd cater to seperate tongs, or changing gloves, or otherwise revolutionizing the assembly line process that their sandwich making is.

I understand your concern, but not all Subways are like this, and Subways are actually not that closely governed by the corporation itself - business owners buy into it, they own the building themselves and just pay fees to Subway to use their name and for Subway to advertise and hook them up. Most business owners don't make a lot of money, Subways are not very profitable, I know my boss Haji only made 45,000$ a year from TWO restaurants he owned himself because of the fees he paid to Subway.

Because Subway is largely independently owned, address your concerns through business owners. Mailing complaints to the corporation might get the business owner in trouble or make his license to use Subway logos, etc. suspended, Subway is tense and uptight about everything. I know from experience that they'd mail our store with every comment any customer ever said, and we were even punished for erroneous comments - someone complained that the manager was always outside smoking (they probably confused us with another Subway location, they're everywhere like Starbucks is - but Haji went through h**l because of it).

Honestly, I just don't eat at Subway, there's probably blood from the roast beef all over the veggies.

Also, not all workers will be as consciencious. You'll come in, and order your veggie sub, and they might make a big show of changing gloves, using different tongs.

But every meat eater before you that ordered a BLT or a BMT or a ham and turkey wouldn't get that consideration because they wouldn't gripe and moan about it.

So either way, while you might get the service you want, other workers throughout the day would have slipped up and gotten meat juice in your veggies anyway.

So just don't eat there. I worked there for 6 months, and was already vegetarian, and I wouldn't eat at any Subway because I understand how they work and operate. No amount of complaints will fix it. It takes an understanding of the economic, "conveyor belt" mentality of fast food joints.

Answer 8

Jeez.  It's not like they are actually giving you a slice of ham on your sandwich or anything.

If you are "strict" vegetarian then why don't you refuse to buy from a store that sells dead animals as food?

The vegetarian food is not going to "contain meat" just because the same pair of tongs was used!  To be honest I've never seen tongs used in Subway anyway, they always use their hands.

Answer 9

i am also a strict veggie and have come across this in several stores. i think the best thing would be just to avoid buying from subway. the customer service is terrible and despise removing their gloves and wearing a new pair when saying something is vegeatrian and still containing meat!

Answer 10

I completely understand where you are coming from. I suggest that next time you visit Subway you DEMAND they use separate utensils/boards/gloves etc, and if they refuse, remind them of the health and safety food laws regarding cross-contamination. Good for you! :)

Answer 11

I realized long ago in a sub shop or any restaurant there is always going to be that little bit of contamination factor.  You can worry about the tongs if you want to, but something else already happened before you got there.

Have you ever noticed there are sometimes allergy warnings for packaged foods that are processed on the same machinery as things like peanuts?  Do you realize they don't have to tell you if it's processed on the same machinery as meat?

It is nearly impossible to get food that has had no indirect contact with meat, unless you grow it all yourself.  I know you might not want to hear this, but you need to be realistic.

BTW I do consider myself a strict veggie.  I was confronted with this issue when I was 14 or 15 and still a new vegetarian. I thought about it and I realized that, if I didn't happen to see the cheese and meat being cut with the same slicer, I wouldn't have known about it and would have eaten it anyway.

Answer 12

I went into a Subway in Liverpool with my strictly vegetarian daughter, we ordered one meat and one veggie sub. The assistant did the meat one, then said she would change her gloves before making the veggie one, and as far as I could see, there were separate tongs for the salads and the meats.

Answer 13

I totally understand where you are coming from!

When i was veggie i was constantly asking for cafe workers to change gloves and all that.

I'm vegan now so i find it is even harder, M&S do a few vegan things in packets but generally if im going out for lunch i take my own food or buy a pot of humous, some falafels and raw veggies like carrots (to dip with)!

There should be more available for veggies/vegans, pesonally i dont even want to have to look at meat when i buy food, it puts me off eating.

I walked past a butchers the other day as they were unloading a whole dead cow from the back of a lorry...i was almost phisically sick with the sight and smell of it!Eww

You should write back to subway and tell them because they wont change to suit veggies/vegans you are boycotting them.

And to all you flesh eaters...why shouldnt we be fussy? When i want a sandwich i dont want to have to eat a lump of decomposing animal flesh(no matter how small)!

Answer 14

i have never eaten at subway but i really do agree with this as a vegetarian i am also really annoyed about this especially in places like these and fish and chip shops ( they use same oil) I really think that food places need to change this .

Answer 15

When I vegetarian and went to subway I always told them that I had allergies and could they please change their gloves and use a clean knife.  They never had a problem with it.  Allergies always works because they can't prove that you don't have them and if you get sick, they're responsible.

Answer 16

They are breaking the law just to use the same tongs for the meats and salads; not only for veggies but for cross infection too. Say if some chicken has gone off and has food poisoning bacteria, dipping tongs in the salad spreads it. Public places should use colour coded chopping boards such as red for raw meat and white for dairy products, yellow for cooked meats and so on. You can contacts the food standards agency or you local environmental health team. I have done the latter when I spotted poor practise - and it was rectified immediately. Working in the NHS and supervising a cook, we get good guidance from FSA and so on. In praise of Subway, our local one does seem to adhere to Health and Safety standards, maybe it is the particular branch and poor training that has caused this. I love the meatball sarnie they do, lol.

Answer 17

Simple - stop eating at Subway.

Answer 18

yes i do check i am like you and i am also very particular too. and no you are not nuts. its time hygiene etc was priority as there is so much illnesses caused by bad hygiene with food.

Answer 19

Here, they only pick up the food with gloves, and they usually have one person put on the meat and another put on the veggies and cheese. So usually there is no "contamination."

Answer 20

Yes, the best they offered me was to change their gloves but they use the same chopping boards for everything and put meat in the same toaster thing.  I just don't go to subway anymore, rather than moan about it.  

Also, in subways here they just pick the food up with gloved hands, not tongs.

Answer 21

I just don't eat out anymore. It's too much of a risk as you say.

I'm too worried that what I'm eating will be infected. But also now that I'm vegan there's never much on a menu for me anyway. LOL C'est la vie.

Answer 22

Yes, my family and I went into a subway on holiday as we were starving. My boyfriend happily ordered a veggie baguette for him and my son- whereas I was horrified at how they shoveled meat then salad then meat again all with the same gloves on!

That totally put me off- ( I am a very strict veggie, going vegan)- and preferred to go hungry than eat there.

The truth of the matter is-  only food we prepare ourselves at home  will be truly 100% uncontaminated.