The Swedish public broadcaster has made a big deal out of the fact that one of their own reporters, who has been a vegetarian for over 30 years, accidentally received a meat burger instead of his veggie burger during a visit to Max in Gävle. The reporter, who was affected by the mistake, later returned to the restaurant together with a team to confront the district manager – something that happened at the taxpayers’ expense.
In a segment from SVT Gävleborg, viewers learn that state reporter Rikard Berglin has not eaten meat since the mid-1990s. Recently, however, that long streak was broken – according to himself, ‘involuntarily.’
It was only after Berglin had eaten about half of the burger that he started suspecting something was off with the taste.
– I haven’t eaten meat since 1995 and was extremely disgusted, the SVT reporter tells SVT.
Confronted the District Manager
Maria Lindstedt is the district manager for Max in southern Norrland. She says that in her 24 years at the company, she has never before experienced anyone being served meat instead of a veggie burger.
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According to her, it was most likely a case of human error in the restaurant’s operations. But that’s an explanation the reporter isn’t buying.
– That sounds very unlikely to me, says the SVT reporter in the segment.
Refuses Compensation
Berglin believes that the experience can be difficult to understand for those who eat meat themselves. According to him, however, the incident does have news value, as it may be of interest for Sweden’s hundreds of thousands of vegetarians and vegans to know how big the risk is of being served meat by mistake when ordering vegetarian at a restaurant. It is simply something that taxpayers have to accept that the state reporter investigates.
The reporter was offered compensation in the form of an ice cream, but declined. Instead, he continued to be critical and stated that he refuses to accept any form of compensation from the hamburger restaurant after the mistaken serving.