Misleading clssifications
As the owner of a vegan restaurant, I have significant concerns about WizardEats' classification system and the way it is presented to both businesses and customers.
Our business is entirely plant-based and alcohol-free, therefore our menu is fully halal. However, having reviewed the classifications on the site, I believe the system is fundamentally flawed and potentially misleading.
The categories currently are:
• Fully halal
• Partially halal
• Non-halal / kosher (animal welfare focused)
My first concern is that these categories do not appear to accurately reflect how halal status works in practice.
Halal primarily relates to meat preparation and certain prohibited ingredients such as alcohol. Many foods are halal by default, including vegetables, fruit, chips, salads, rice, bread and countless other plant-based foods.
This means that unless a venue's menu consists 100% of non-halal meat and alcohol, it is difficult to understand how "non-halal" could accurately describe the entire menu of any venue. Most, if not all, restaurants will serve at least some items that are halal, regardless of whether they serve halal meat.
Likewise, if a venue serves both halal and non-halal items, then reducing the entire business to a single category is misleading. By the logic of the system, almost every restaurant would have at least some halal options available.
My greatest concern, however, is the description attached to the "Non-Halal / Kosher" category, which is labelled as "Animal Welfare Focused".
This appears to attach an ethical judgement to the categories rather than simply providing dietary information.
As a fully vegan business, we do not serve meat, fish, dairy, eggs or any other animal products. No animals are slaughtered or exploited in the production of our menu. Our menu is also fully halal by default.
Yet under WizardEats' system, a fully vegan, alcohol-free menu receives no recognition as being animal welfare focused, while a menu that serves meat and dairy can receive an "animal welfare focused" label simply because of the slaughter method used.
From an animal welfare perspective, this makes little sense. Vegan food is both halal and the option that involves the least harm to animals, yet the categorisation appears to frame halal and animal welfare as opposing concepts.
The icons used alongside the classifications make this even more problematic. The site uses a green tick for "Non-Halal / Kosher (Animal Welfare Focused)", while halal venues are shown using a red cross symbol, and partial an orange circle. This creates the impression that one category is positive and another is negative, rather than simply presenting factual dietary information.
The result is a system that appears to imply that halal is less ethical, while "non-halal" is more ethical, despite the fact that fully vegan food is halal and represents the highest possible animal welfare standard available in the food industry.
I attempted to raise these concerns directly with WizardEats. Unfortunately, every attempt to use the "Contact Us" website form resulted in a 403 Forbidden error, and I never received a response to a direct email. As things stand, there appears to be no effective way to contact the company regarding concerns or inaccuracies.
I would welcome clarification from WizardEats regarding both the logic behind these classifications and the reasoning for the icons and "animal welfare focused" labelling, as they currently appear misleading and do not accurately reflect the reality of vegan, vegetarian or many mainstream restaurant menus.
Réponse de Wizardeats
Thanks for the review, albeit we don't fully understand it.
We feel strongly that animals should be treated ethically, as do many food establishments, hence our directory. Halal and Kosher slaughter is well documented and so recognised as representing increased suffering for animals.
Our website is not targeted specifically towards vegan or vegetarian listings although since they clearly involve no animal slaughter and so we do include these in our non-halal category.
Our contacts us page is working normally and we would be happy to receive contact from you.