A vegan man ordered two plant-based pizzas from Papa John’s. Instead, one had real cheese on it, while the other was covered in ‘dead pig flesh’.
Matt Carter – from Aberdeen, Scotland – was interested in trying the worldwide pizza chain’s new vegan options after seeing them advertised.
The 21-year-old and his girlfriend treated themselves to the Jackfruit Pepperoni – a twist on your average pepperoni pizza – and the Vegan Works, described as a ‘real meat-free delight’ and topped with vegan sausage, jackfruit pepperoni and a range of different vegetables.
However, they were left ‘fuming’ after the pizzas were delivered – only for them to find meat and real cheese all over them. As per the Daily Record, the pizzas were ordered from Aberdeen’s Holburn Street branch on Tuesday night, January 7.
Matt, a CNC machinist, took to the Vegan Supermarket Finds UK Facebook group to complain about the incident, saying he ‘wouldn’t be going back’.
Matt wrote:
Tried Papa John’s, they put real cheese on one of my pizzas, then I found dead pig flesh all over the other. They then refused to send someone to replace them and requested I take them back to the shop myself as they didn’t believe me.
Their excuse when they saw them was that they have ‘never made a vegan pizza before. Was fuming to say the least.
When Matt insisted on taking the pizza back to the branch himself to get it replaced, they somehow managed to get it wrong again.
Matt added:
I couldn’t believe that they got it wrong more than once. They’ve had vegan cheese and the vegan hot dog pizza in stock for months so there’s no excuses for that. We were offered another portion of Marmite scrolls to win us back, but we had already decided that we wouldn’t be going back to Papa John’s again.
Since complaining about the pizza rigmarole, the chain has since confirmed it is aware of the grievance and is taking steps to ensure a similar incident doesn’t happen again.
A spokesperson for Papa John’s said:
We are aware of an isolated incident involving our vegan pizza and are working with the store to correct the situation. At Papa John’s we take quality control very seriously and will be taking appropriate measures to avoid issues such as this in the future.
Papa John’s is the latest fast food chain to join the plant-based hype, following Gregg’s, KFC and Burger King.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.