Vegetarian Food

I have been living in US since last eight years and like some of you

have mentioned in their comments, I have closely checked for food

ingredients to avoid accidental consuming of eggs or any meat.

I would like to know if any of you have ever considered the amount of

cross contamination that is prevalent in the kitchens of restaurants

serving dishes containing meat and eggs. For example, I have seen

people go to a Subway or Quiznos or Scholetzky's Deli and order a

Veggie sandwich and asking the server to change his gloves since

he/she could have prepared a meat sandwich with those. Even if the

person preparing your sandwich changes gloves before doing so, he/she

might have already touched the vegetables with the same glove that

touched meat while preparing a meat sandwich. So the veggies are

already contaminated due to such a contact with meat.

Same is the case with Pizzas, most of the veggie ingredients used in

pizza toppings have been touched by gloves that could have touched

pepperoni, sausage or ham - thus even if you order a veggie pizza,

you are essentially going to be consuming some meat since the veggies

are contaminated. I have also noticed that when cutting sandwiches,

the restaurants use the same knife that was used to cut a meat

sandwich and likewise for pizza. And I am only talking about places

where you can see your food while it is being prepared. In many of

the full service restaurants where you can't see the kitchen, one can

only imagine the amount of cross-contamination that could be

happening in their kitchens (same utensils, same cutting equipments,

same storage, etc.).

Having realized this, I find it very difficult to admit that it is

possible for a Vegetarian person to be eating at any restaurant that

also serves meat and completely avoid intaking any meat particles.

The only