Ethical vegans should eat mistaken non-vegan food if it ruins the whole dish

If someone is vegan for ethical or environmental reasons (not health), and their food order comes with a non-vegan ingredient by mistake (for example, sour cream or cheese inside a burrito) it’s better to eat it than waste the entire dish. If it’s on the side, sure, don’t eat it (still a bit wasteful imo but much less than a whole meal being tossed) however, if the mistake "ruins" the whole meal, tossing it is just wasting food and adding more harm. The animal suffering is already done.

Obviously I understand if you've been vegan for a long while then some people have adverse reactions specifically to meat. If that isn't you, or if you've eating it all you're life until recently there’s no need to refuse it on principle. Veganism is about minimizing harm. Even if you have been vegan a while, sauces w a tad bit of butter or cooked in the same pan as meat (unless it'll cause health harm to you) are ridiculous to toss out on principle. If a whole meal will be thrown out because it touched butter, and your health would be fine if you ate it, then yes it's ridiculous to throw out based on ethics. Same as if you received a leather item that you would use if not being made of leather, if you throw it out then you're just causing more harm instead of using it or giving it to someone who will.

Not eating or utilizing something (that would otherwise go uneaten or unused) based on morals just adds to the waste and doesn’t undo the damage. Eat and use the mistake, don’t let it go to the landfill.