Non-vegetarian food has been dropped from the menu of the National Museum’s week-long exhibition-cum-event on India’s culinary history because of an “unwritten policy” based on “sentiments”, a senior museum official said on Thursday.

The organisers came under fire after the event’s menu, which had non-vegetarian dishes, was put up on the museum’s website. Shortly afterwards, it was decided that only vegetarian food would be served at the exhibition, Historical Gastronomica, that will continue till February 25.

The food event is being organised jointly by the National Museum, New Delhi, the culture ministry and One Station Million Stories (OSMS), a private firm.

Some of the non-vegetarian dishes that had been on offer were fish in turmeric stew, quail/fowl/country chicken roasted in saal leaf, offal’s pot, bati with dry fish, meat fat soup, lamb liver with chick-pea, dried fish and Mahua oil chutney.

The additional director-general of the museum, Subrata Nath, said OSMS had not discussed in detail the non-vegetarian items on the menu with museum officials.

“They got our approval but the non-vegetarian part of the menu was not discussed with us. We assumed that they would know that we do not serve non-veg food here, given the policy of the institution. Just 10 days back we had a Guru Nanak festival and we never had this controversy,” Nath said.

“It (non-veg items) was available at the site for a day and we withdrew it as soon as we realised the issue,” National Museum, New Delhi added.

Nath, however, said the “policy” of not serving non-vegetarian dishes was not a written one but a “sentimental one”.

“The museum is full of idols of gods and goddesses, we have to respect the sentiments of the people who visit us. We cannot serve non-vegetarian food here. It is an unwritten policy based on sentiments which we thought they (OSMS) knew,” the official said.

Asked if this was a digression from the culinary history of ancient India where non-vegetarian dishes were common, Nath said visitors would only not be served such food but briefed on them.

“We are not serving non-vegetarian food, but we will brief visitors on the historical dietary practises of ancient India. So it is wrong to say that we are not giving a true picture of the food in ancient times,” Nath said.