Poor service puts catering business at risk, finds survey

Vegetarians account for nearly two and a half billion pounds worth of food eaten outside of the home each year, at restaurants, cafes and workplace canteens but three quarters of them are unhappy with what's on offer. The Big Veggie Survey (2011), coinciding with National Vegetarian Week this week, showed that lack of choice when eating out was the biggest difficulty veggies faced in relation to their chosen diet, with 75% of vegetarians indicating that it was a problem. Liz O'Neill from the Vegetarian Society, said: "Contrary to popular opinion, the Big Veggie Survey showed that only 3% of self-declared vegetarians eat fish. However, past research commissioned by the Vegetarian Society revealed that 85% of vegetarians have been offered fish as a vegetarian choice, when eating out. "If restaurants can't even get that kind of thing right then vegetarian customers are right to be concerned. "The UK catering industry employs over 1.3million people and in a recession nobody can afford to lose sales. We already know that a single vegetarian in a mixed group has a disproportionate influence on where that group chooses to dine so there's a huge slice of business up for grabs by those willing to pay a bit of attention to the details and offer great meat-free food for all their customers."