Subject: The Olive Garden uses pork in their sauces!
UPDATE: 12/21/2019
We now have an updated menu from Olive Garden VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN MENU INFORMATION
UPDATE: 2/23/2015
Received the following reply to an email sent to Olive Garden;
I’ve researched your question about Pork in our menu items. After reviewing, I learned Pork is not listed in the ingredient statement for these menu items:
The Five Cheese Marinara, Marinara, Primavera and Kid’s tomato sauce.
If there are additional names or terms that Pork may be labeled as, please let us know so that we can review the ingredients again for you.
While Olive Garden has made every effort to provide complete and current content information, our recipes and ingredients can change at any time. Additionally, we can’t guarantee that cross-contact with other foods containing this ingredient won’t occur in our kitchens. Please keep this in mind as you decide if these menu items can meet your individual needs.
We appreciate the time you took to contact us, and look forward to your visit.
Sheryle
Olive Garden Guest Relations
UPDATE: 2/23/2013
This information was taken from the Olive Gardens main website,
they have since changed the information available.http://www.olivegarden.com/faqs
We appreciate your concern regarding pork products in our menu items. Pork is
primarily used as a flavor enhancer and traditionally is a common ingredient in
Italian cooking. Entrees that do contain pork include:
Lasagna Classico
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Cheese Ravioli with Meat Sauce
Tour of Italy
Create a Sampler Italiano
Zuppa Toscana
Create Your Own Pizza
Chicken & Shrimp Carbonara
A few of our menu items can be adjusted to accommodate a vegan or vegetarian
diet, but none wholly meet the criteria. Depending on your personal philosophy,
we can suggest the following items as meatless, but not necessarily vegetarian
or vegan:
Minestrone soup (vegetable and mushroom base; no meat protein)
Garden Salad (without dressing)
Marinara Sauce (mushroom base; no meat protein)
Capellini Pomodoro
Eggplant Parmigiana
Fettuccine Alfredo
OLD INFORMATION before they changed it:
Olive Garden uses pork in almost everything, without saying so on their
menu. In fact, the Pasta e Fagoli soup, while saying it is made with beef, is
made with pork! The following was quoted from their web site located at the address below, but they have since changed the
site and ingredients can no longer be found on the site. Chances are the ingredients have not changed with the site.
http://www.olivegarden.com/ouropportunities/ourcompany/faq.asp#pork
Does Olive Garden use pork in its recipes?
Pork is primarily used as a flavor enhancer and traditionally is a common
ingredient in Italian cooking. Pork is included in our meat sauce. With some
advance notice, our managers would be happy to accommodate your diet by
specially making a ground beef meat sauce to accompany your choice of pasta.