I also love visiting food fairs – but recently it has felt like I’ve seen every vegetarian product under the sun. There doesn’t seem to be much more innovation in veggie friendly food.

This year, I went to the Good Food Show (well, MasterChef Live – but hardly anyone is there for the TV tie in) to see what was on offer. The usual range of meat substitutes were there – sausages, burgers, powerfully flavoured tofu. But tucked away in a corner were these little jars of delight…

Vegetarian Beluga Caviar! Sold in the UK by Caviar4Everyone.

I only had caviare a few times before I became vegetarian – and I’m certain I never had the really expensive stuff – but I remember it tasting delicious. The taste of this vegetarian substitute is sublime. It really captures what I remember of the essential taste, texture and aroma of caviare – and at less than a tenth of the price.

As soon as we got home, we whipped up some sour cream, chopped some onions and got out the blinis.

The taste was simply magical.

At the food show, I had a chance to chat with David Hollier; the British businessman who hopes to take the concept mainstream.

The caviar is the brainchild of Dr Robert Khachatryan – a former Soviet heart surgeon. Dr Khachatryan was looking for a low cholesterol alternative to caviar and this is what he came up with.

In our brief discussion, it became apparent that this veggie friendly dish has many advantages over regular caviar.

• It’s vegetarian! No more killing animals for food.
• Zero cholesterol, low sodium, generally healthy.
• Cheap! A 125g jar is around £20. That’s less than a tenth of the real stuff.
• Environmentally friendly. Traditional caviar is being over-fished

Even if you’re not vegetarian, you owe it to yourself to try some of this amazing product. The webshop is very basic – but the product is exceptional.

You can buy different flavours of caviar, in varying tub sizes, at http://www.caviar4everyone.com/purchase.htm

The first is, when going to a Michelin Starred restaurant, only having a single menu choice.

Usually it’s cheese salad. Or mushroom risotto. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have a single item suitable for my dietary preferences, but would it kill restaurants to give us veggies a choice? Half the fun of going out to a meal is discussing what one is going to eat. When you’re stuck with a single line – usually at the back of the menu – it can be quite dispiriting.

The second is food products which look like they ought to be vegetarian but are not.

Did you know that Twix isn’t suitable for veggies? No? Neither did BMI – who helpfully include the Twix in their vegetarian business class meal.

Master Food have a FAQ about Vegetarian labelling which doesn’t really answer any questions.

They also have a vegetarian food list which doesn’t seem to have been updated and – most importantly – doesn’t list which foods aren’t vegetarian.

The same is also true for soft drinks like Fanta – that fizzy orange goodness is made – in part – from fish.

I think that the Food Standards Agency should mandate a label for non-vegetarian foods which may appear vegetarian.

I’m not suggesting that beef stew needs a label – that should be obvious – but certain chewing gums, crisps, and soft drinks are all things that one would assume to be free of meat & fish but aren’t.

Here endeth (part 1 of) the rant