“Please check thoroughly what you consume on a flight.”
This was a piece of advice offered by vegetarian passenger Veera Jain to her followers and the public after discovering Air India served her a vegetarian meal that actually contained meat.
Jain was on flight AI 582 from Kozhikode International Airport (CCJ) to Mumbai International Airport (BOM) on January 9, 2024 when Jain said she was given a vegetarian meal that contained chicken pieces.
To prove her claim, Jain posted photos of her meal on X (formerly Twitter).
The first photo shows the meal’s foil packaging and wrapper, where the words “VEG Main Meal” can be clearly read. The foil also appears to have two pieces of chicken meat stuck to it.
VGML is the standard meal code for vegetarian airline food. However, it can be assumed that VEG (printed in green) also means vegetarian, especially as it was given to a passenger who requested a vegetarian meal.
The second photo shows a spoon sample of the meal where what appears to be the white part of a piece of chicken was mixed with rice.
Jain said she was issued an apology after informing the cabin supervisor and was also told that there had been other complaints about the same issue on the flight.
Jain said that no further action was taken.
“This is highly disappointing and it has hurt my sentiments. I ask Air India to take strict action on its catering services and delays,” Jain said.
Jain added: “And I would suggest everyone – Please check thoroughly what you consume on a flight. After two extremely delayed flights (Mum-Kozhikode on 4th Jan and return on 8th Jan) and nonveg served I have lost trust in all of the airline food now.”
The airline replied to Jain’s post, asking her to contact them directly and also requesting that she remove the flight details from her post “to avoid misuse”.
According to a December 2023 article by the Times of India, India has the highest vegetarian population in the world, with 38% of 1.4 billion people identifying as vegetarian.