In the past two weeks, I’ve consumed only two things made from (or including) animal derived products. The obvious was Quorn. There’s still some in the freezer, so there’ll soon be more. And then it’ll be used up. Then there’s margarine, or spread as it’s now called. Again, the spread was already in use. Which means I’m pretty pleased with myself.

I’ll concede that biscuits have been the biggest issue. Until this evening, that is. In two weeks I’d eaten no biscuits. But, then, my second in command made a random purchase from the corner shop at the end of the street. Initially, I’d dismissed them as almost certainly not vegetarian. And then I bothered myself to read the packaging. To find that they contained no animal-based contents. Now, this was surprising. As a new vegetarian, around 1982-3, I seriously struggled to find anything which was free from animal fat or sugar (which at the time involved charcoal made from bones).

So, it seems that it may not be so difficult to avoid animal products entirely after all. I think that this demonstrates the huge influence that vegetarians have had on the food industry over the last couple of decades.

Now, compared with becoming a vegetarian all those years ago, when most meals had to be made from scratch and eating out wasn’t possible, maybe it isn’t as difficult as I ‘d imagined.

I’m looking on this as a slow process. But at least I now have biscuits.