The Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam has been serving vegan kroketten to visitors without spelling out that they are the animal friendly version.

Most restaurants designate vegetarian or vegan food by labelling it as such, but Blijdorp has opted for a green tick instead. ‘We want our visitor’s first choice to be vegetarian,’ a spokesman told television programme Editie NL.

The zoo says it is on a mission to persuade visitors to opt for more animal friendly and healthy food. The zoo introduced its vegetarian kroketten three years ago and made the switch to being completely animal free this year.

Not everyone notices that the kroketten do not contain meat and those that do rarely comment, the spokesman said. ‘People really like them and sometimes cannot believe they are vegetarian.’

‘We expect that meat will almost entirely disappear from the menu in the future,’ the spokesman said.