Page "Buddhist cuisine" Paragraph 3

When monks and nuns who follow the Theravadan way feed themselves by alms, they must eat leftover foods which are given to them, including meat.

( The Pali / Sanskrit term for monks and nuns means " one who seeks alms ".

) The exception to this alms rule is when monks and nuns have seen, heard or known that animal ( s ) have been specifically killed to feed the alms-seeker, in which case consumption of such meat would be karmically negative.

The same restriction is also followed by lay Buddhists and is known as the consumption of the " triply clean meat " ( 三净肉 ).