A vegan was left feeling “heartbroken” and “mocked” after his visit to the Pizza Hut where he was handed over a meal he believed to be animal-free only to find out it contained dairy ice cream toppings.
According to 23-year-old Kori Paul Swabey who ordered jackfruit pizza for his main course, he was craving a dessert after his lunch which is why he headed off to Ice Cream Factory to try their new dairy-free dessert.
As the guy said, the Pizza Hut staff assured him that the dessert he chose was vegan-friendly as it was launched under the chain’s “Veganuary” range.
Nevertheless, after tucking into the desert, Kori found out that he had been deceived.
“I ate the ice cream, but the toppings when I checked the bottles clearly stated they contained milk. It’s like she just rushed it because it was busy,” the 23-year-old told Plymouth Live.
“This is appalling. I am outraged, heartbroken in fact. I feel like my lifestyle has been mocked. It’s a mistake that shouldn’t have happened, I could have had an allergy to milk.”
Even though Kori just recently became a vegan, he said that Pizza Hut’s actions deeply upset him.
“Even though I haven’t been vegan long, it’s still something I’m passionate and serious about,” Kori added.
“It’s the fact that they have been promoting their new vegan menu for Veganuary, but the staff isn’t aware of what’s vegan.”
After finding out that the toppings were made of milk, Kori refused a free meal he was offered and said he would never eat at Pizza Hut again.
Following his viral rant, the Pizza Hut spokesperson publicly apologized and ensured that the same incident wouldn’t happen again.
“Ensuring the welfare of our guests is extremely important to us. All of our nutritional and allergen information is available in a printed book in each of our restaurants and also online,” they said.
“All of our staff receive specialist training, however due to the variety of ingredients used within the restaurant menu, and the diverse range of inquiries, as a rule, we do direct guests to check the information for themselves through the formats available.
“We’re sorry that in this instance, the wrong information was given to the customer as a result of human error.
“We are in contact with the customer and are taking appropriate action at this restaurant to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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