I have been a vegetarian since the age of ten. There are at least four million vegetarians in Britain. Different people have different reasons for choosing not to eat meat, from being strongly opposed to the cruelty of children to just wanting a healthier diet.

The hardest thing about being a vegetarian is the restrictions put on where you can eat out. Vegetarian food is often prepared on the same area as meat, or often prepared using the same equipment. This may not seem like a problem to non-vegetarians but it is to us. I am vegetarian because I don’t like the idea of eating something which is dead, so I don’t appreciate my supposed vegetarian food being cooked next to a beef burger. Also fast food restaurants do not cater very well for vegetarian, even though we are a minority, why do we only have the choice of one meal in McDonalds, which is not even approved by the vegetarian society?

I feel that it is unfair that my choice is restricted just because I don’t follow the norm!

However things are beginning to change! Sweets which at one time I could not eat, because the contained gelatine, (a stabiliser made up of ground animal skin and bone) have now changed the gelatine for Pectin (a vegetable stabiliser) which means I can finally enjoy sweets such as Starburst and chewits and skittles.

Even though my choice of food is always limited to a choice of one or two meals when eating out, the variety of meat substitutes is growing. Instead of always having cheese and lettuce sandwiches, I can now have Textured Vegetable Protein chicken slices or honey roast ham. Instead of just a jacket potato or pasta for dinner, I can now enjoy Soya chilli con carne or vegetarian Toad in the hole!

So why then if the choice of meals

you can buy from a supermarket is increasing,

is the choice of meals available

in a restaurant still so poor?