With the recent addition of the No Dairy icon to our identifiers, we now have 8 that we add on to different menu items. Some icons can’t ever be paired together (for example: a dish can’t have Sustainable Seafood in it AND be Vegan). Many dishes we serve qualify to have multiple icons on them. In an effort to balance and not overload people with too much on our signs, we do have some guidelines on why we choose to put an icon on some things and not others.
Here are key points for those that are curious:
No Dairy
We have quite a lot of items on the menu that have no dairy on them as we use non-dairy based fats in cooking and even creamy sauces that use dairy alternative ingredients. Some items have No Dairy AND are Vegan. Since anything Vegan is automatically No Dairy, we only place the vegan icon on vegan items. So, if you are looking for items that contain No Dairy ingredients, look for the No Dairy icon or the Vegan icon as you navigate the dining hall.
Vegetarian
Our definition of Vegetarian items includes those that have no animal proteins, but may contain dairy, eggs, or other animal by-products, such as honey. Our definition of vegan excludes ALL animal products. Not all vegetarian items are vegan, but all vegan items are vegetarian. Therefore, if you are vegetarian, you can keep an eye out for Vegetarian or Vegan icons to find items to meet your dietary restriction.
Halal
We get in as many different certified halal meats as we can source consistently. We mark any dish that uses halal certified protein in it that also contains no haram ingredients with our Halal symbol. Sometimes we have a dish that uses halal certified chicken that has another ingredient in it that would not be considered suitable by some people following a halal diet, so we do not add an icon onto those meals. Any dishes that are labeled vegan would also be acceptable for halal dietary guidelines. Those items are only marked with the vegan icon. So keep an eye out for both the Halal icon and the Vegan icon.
Single ingredient items
In another effort to prevent sign-overload, we are shifting to not adding icons to single ingredient items (ex. Fresh fruits and vegetables that haven’t had anything done to them other then cleaning and perhaps chopping) because those items should be self explanatory. This is in line with government labeling guidelines. You won’t see an ingredient list on a banana or a cherry tomato.
If anyone has additional questions around menu labeling- I’d be happy to discuss further! Feel free to email me at dietitian@dal.ca at any time.
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