This is pretty awesome. I really hope that some people get called on this because false advertisement sucks. Basically a team of people from quarrygirl.com decided to buy a bunch of food testing kits (testing for casein, egg and seafood) to test food from 17 Los Angeles area restaurants. This idea was sparked when “Regular readers of quarrygirl.com will recall us publishing an email and photos from ‘Mr. Wishbone’ detailing the contents of a dumpster at LA Vegan Thai with non-vegan ingredients plainly visible, and presumably used as ingredients in the food (pancakes in this case).”

They did a lot of in-depth analysis and it turns out that of the 17 restaurants, something like 10 restaurants failed the test, 1 was questionable and the remaining passed. That’s baaaad. Much kudos to the people at quarrygirl.com for “dishing out” (sorry I had to do it) over $1,000 of their own money and conducting these sorts of consumer experiments. After reading about the ruckus after President Obama called on a blogger to ask a question about Iranian elections, I think we can see that blogs like these further journalistic ideals and that some blogs aren’t just forums for opinionated brain-vomit.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Per quarrygirl.com:

“During the meeting, Mr. Wishbone outlined an ambitious plan that would enable us to test for common non-vegan ingredients (eggs, casein [a component of milk], and shellfish) in a multitude of menu items from local vegan restaurants. The plan would be a logistical, financial and time-sucking nightmare but, if done properly, and to scientific testing standards, it would be a ground-breaking and highly reliable indicator of just how “pure” food from vegan restaurants really is. Here’s an outline of the plan:

* Locate a facility that has no traces of egg, casein or shellfish in which to perform the advanced tests
* Purchase anti-contamination equipment including industrial sterilization supplies, lab coats, uncontaminated bags, swabs, razor blades, gloves and floor coverings
* Obtain highly restricted industrial food testing “kits” only available to the food manufacturing industry
* Develop a regimented process to test each food item with the highest standards of inter-test cleanliness, ensuring that absolutely no food particles from one food item contaminate another
* Select a diverse set of menu items from 100% vegan-only restaurants throughout LA (with one exception, see later)
* Order the food for carry-out, and seal it in an airtight bag in its original packaging either inside, or very close to the point of purchase
* Transport the food items to the testing facility intact and sealed, and perform the tests within 48 hours of purchase, keeping them refrigerated until immediately before the test
* Develop a strict bracketing control, with a thorough analysis of the testing facility and equipment before testing: A negative control to ensure no pre-existing contamination, and a positive control test on a known-positive food product (containing all three target non-vegan items) to ensure that the tests do indicate positive results
* Conduct the test in absolute secrecy to ensure that no restaurant would know they were providing samples, and pose as regular customers ordering take-out food in a normal way, with no disclosure that the items would be used for a test

So, we divided up the work between us, and dedicated a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday as well as over $1,000 of our collective money to pulling off the most extensive scientific test that we know of to find out, once and for all, if samples of restaurant food are vegan or not.”

Via: LAMetBlogs

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