Aldi and Labelling

Hi all a story of bad consequences.

Went to our local Aldi store and saw some loverly chocolates on display. I particularly liked the look of a pack of light chocolate with a crunchy filling.

As we all do I read the ingredients and was pleased to see that only the glucose syrup was derived from wheat. As i am one who does not react to the syrup I thought great a special treat.

That night I opened up one of the little bars and consumed it. What joy just like I remembered maltesers. Great.

A few hours later it started. And you all know what I mean.

I went back to the packet and re read the ingredients. Safe as houses.

It was then I had a brainwave and read the individual packet. To my horror in small writing is said "contains cereal with gluten".

I spoke to Aldi the next day, and their reaction. "Oh we will let the manufacturer know". I tried to tell them the danger etc. and tried to get the bars removed from sale to no avail.

So I have learned a new lesson. Read all the wrappers and mistkes happen.

Take care.

[Hidden]

Hi Roscoe, bad luck and I hope that you feel better soon. Reading the ingredients doesnt always tell all as they often use wheat starch as a dusting agent to stop things sticking together and from sticking to the conveyor belt and this happens with foods from potato chip sticks to dried fruit. I would never have thought to read the label with dried fruit but...

I also read about a coeliac who was staying in a hotel where they served a buffet style breakfast and they checked with the staff about what was gf and they were told that they added wheat flour to the scrambled eggs to make them fluffier and so that they kept better. More like went further LOL.

Jerry

[Hidden]

Hi Jerry. Thanks for the comment. Where do you live?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Roscoe, I live in Bristol in the UK.

You might be interested to know that a few years ago a bunch of coeliac from Australia, the US and the UK all looked at the advantages and disadvatages of 'our' gf systems.

And in the US they had 20ppm as gf but only wheat had to be labelled as containing gluten because the other toxic grains prolamins, secalin rye gluten, hordein barley gluten and avenins oat gluten is not properly detected by the wheat gluten ELISA test.

In the UK we had 200ppm and could get a whole range of foods on prescription, wheat starch and wheatfree that were below 200ppm Crunchy nut cornflakes wre deemed safe for coeliac until late 2007 and they are malted.

In Australia and NZ it is 5ppm which's 5ppm gluten and 5ppm gliadin. but in Australia wheat is big business and you have wheat deriv's that are corn derived in the UK and the US because it is a much cheaper process to turn corn into dextrose than wheat.

So we all have advantages and disadvantages and we all agreed that it would be great if we all had the best of all worlds.

Here's the abstract on why the US chose their stance:

The composition of barley prolamin extracts was studied in order to develop a method for barley prolamin quantification. Currently used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for gluten-free analysis are not accurate enough when quantifying barley prolamin. Based on our previous study, barley prolamin standard was shown to bind more actively to the antibodies than the wheat prolamin standard. This partly explained the inaccuracies in ELISA. Additionally, we found out that the aqueous alcohol extract of barley prolamin contained considerably more prolamins than wheat extract is known to contain. Because of the differences between prolamins in cereal species, accurate quantification of the celiac-toxic prolamins in gluten-free foods should involve more attention.

[FionaGFG Administrator]

Wow Roscoe I'm in shock. Are you based down under? Wherever you are you must not let that slide. Do contact:

- your food standards agency

- retail / trade body that ensures products are safe and labelled well

- coeliac society

- the manufactuer if you can see a name (write to MD)

- write to the MD / head of the Aldi chain

They all have a duty of care to ensure that labelling is clear/ accurate/ correct and items are fit for purpose. In this case the consumer would read the package and (not open it up to read the individual labels) so many parties could step in and ensure that no other unsuspecting coeliac suffers.

Do let us know the responses.

Hope you are feeling better now.

[Hidden]

I agree 100% with Fiona on this point.

[Hidden]

Hi all.

A follow up to the post. I spoke to Aldi Head Office in Sydney to explain the problem. No worries the Aldi person said, will get onto the product manager.

I suggested they should take the product off the shelf. Like hell they did. Product still on sale.

I contacted my local Aldi same thing.

Contacted coeliac society NSW no answer. Probably busy. Got onto the ACC the department I thought handled labelling problems. 3 weeks later I get a reply that it's not there department, try the Fair Trading Department NSW.

Did that after receiving the email and after buying the product again (yes still on sale) and giving the information required I have been advised that they will investigate.

The product is still there. How annoying.

Ross

[Hidden]

Hi guys success to a point. Read as follows: From the food authority NSW.

"I refer to your complaint regarding the inconsistent labelling of Moser Roth Finest Milk Chocolate 125 g.

Discussions with the staff of the supplier of the product confirmed that there is no gluten in the product; the labelling on the inner pack was erroneously thought to be appropriate for legal purposes.

This issue should now be resolved and consistent labelling should be found on new supplies of the product."

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

Makes me wonder about the whole future of gluten free labelling if this is what suppliers are concerned with. But a win is a win.

.

[FionaGFG Administrator]

Well done for raising it Roscoe. At least you know no other coeliac will pick it up and eat it now. I would still persevere with contacting your coeliac society as they often follow up and work with retailers to ensure they fully understanding labelling laws etc.