This post may contain affiliate links for which I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more info, check out my Disclosure Policy. Thank you for your support!
After feeling a little peckish this evening, I decided to run to Tescos and grab some goodies to snack on. The Tescos here in Braunton is a little small so naturally the Free From aisle is smaller than in other stores.
However, this is usually a really good in the fact that it’s easy to notice new things. And sure enough, as I approached the aisle, my eye was caught by a bright green box on the bottom shelf. Excited, I picked it up – “The Food Doctor Spelt Crackers”. The name spelt rang a bell, maybe it was some new gluten free thing I hadn’t heard of?
But NO, some member of the Tesco staff had decided t0 put these boxes in the Free From aisle! Spelt is a form of wheat and DOES contain gluten – therefore should NOT be in the FreeFrom aisle! And it wasn’t just some box put back by a customer – there was a whole row of these boxes and the Food Doctor preoducts are normally in opposite set of shelves.
I thought this was really careless – if you see something in the FreeFrom aisle you’re likely to not check the labels and just chuck it in the trolley. I am really annoyed at Tescos for this and felt it right to share it with everyone!
Message for the future – don’t always assume what they put in the FreeFrom aisle is gluten free!!
It makes me mad as hell when they do things like this… another bright idea was to place the genius bread along side all the wheat bread. It only goes to show how little they actually know about the whole CD issue.
That is incredibly annoying but I suppose it is symptomatic of a generally poor level of knowledge on coeliac disease. I don’t know about you but I am constantly asked if I can eat rice….Did you take up this error with the store manager?
Weirdly (since I live in central London) I have actually been to Tesco Braunton and bought some of the wonderful Black Farmer sausages in there. Must admit I was somewhat overawed by the Tesco Barnstaple’s gluten free section which isn’t too far away. Very sad (I know!) but it was great in there!
Haven’t you already noticed the cakes made from rye flour in the same section? Or is that just Sainsbury’s?
If people who have coeliac disease don’t thoroughly understand the condition, what hope for those who don’t have it and therefore don’t have the same degree of self-interest? A quiz held by NHS dietitians at a GF event in Leicester just over a year ago revealed that only 2 adult coeliacs who had entered got all the foods displayed correct as GF or non-GF.
I’m not excusing Tesco, just making a point. I’m not sure that being angry is a way to get a point across. Just generally, a higher level of education and awareness is needed, and this does take time.
I used one of my Toastmaster speeches to communicate with my club audience. And although many had heard of CD, the majority had not realised just how serious the condition is. They are better informed now.
I did exactly the same thing at the CoOp Sarah, and they weren’t even that nice, anyway!
In my search for a GF cracker that is similar to a Cream Cracker I’ve forced down many rather than have wasted my money,has anyone had more success than me?
Just to add to all the comments here the Free From sections in supermarkets are not just for coeliacs, they sometimes have products which are dairy free, wheat free and other things free, so you do have to make sure what you are buying is meant for coeliacs. They don’t say it is the gluten free section and therefore some items may be dairy free but still contain gluten as this is aimed at a person who is dairy free.