A vegan cafe in Canada has taken a stand against the CFIA which is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The cafe is called ‘Grow Your Roots Cafe’ and is owned by Melanie Baudens who set up the cafe to sell a range of vegan food products to the public in Kanata. Melanie was asked to stop using the terms “cheese” and “burger” after a customer complained that her Cheddar cheese was not made from dairy.
We feel like “customer” is a little too impersonal so for the rest of this report we are going to refer to the customer as “Karen”, you’ve probably heard of her before, she’s usually seen at the front desk complaining because her coupon expired, you know, the one with the ‘I want to speak to the manager’ haircut.
Karen decided to complain about her cheddar cheese not containing dairy despite being in a vegan restaurant and despite the menu stating that it was 100% vegan… but that’s never stopped Karen before. Melanie said that the customer felt it was very misleading.
Melanie Baudens was then paid a visit by the CFIA who suggested changing it to “Cheese alternative” or “cashew Mozarella” to which she immediately replied no with the reasoning ” don’t like the word alternative. I think it makes the items sound less appetizing than what they really are” which we completely agree with.
Asking a vegan cafe or restaurant to list their products are what they really are is very selective, you don’t see the CFIA going to meat or dairy restaurants asking them to call their milkshakes ‘strawberry flavoured pink coloured puss filled oestrogen cow juice’ but then again they would probably argue the same as Melanie in that it doesn’t attract customers to want it.
You can’t have one rule for one vegan cafe and another for someone else’s cafe, if you’re asking restaurants to do that then you go gurl but you have to ask all restaurants to do the same not just vegan ones.
Nuttin’ wrong with it
We have discussed this ‘totally nuts’ suggestion by the CFIA in length at the office and think that they have taken it too far, we fully support Melanie and wish her all the best in her fight to stand up against the CFIA and any other Karen’s who visit her cafe!
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