Wednesday 26 October 2011

My Love Affair With DS Gluten Free Foods And Why I'm Angry

I've been eating DS Gluten Free foods for a good few years now, I believe I started off with the crackers and then as more foods got introduced I scoffed my way through those too. I'm a seriously sensitive coeliac to the point that I can only tolerate a very low PPM and I've never had a bad experience with DS Gluten Free, ever. (Of which the same cannot be said for another gluten free company, that's going to be a long post that I'm not looking forward to writing).

I've had the pizza, the sausage rolls, the chicken and mushroom pies, the baguette, the ciabattas, the crispbreads and the crackers. The only reason that I haven't had the full range is because I shop at Tesco and they don't stock everything. I absolutely trust DS Gluten free and for me, once that trust is built, it stays. Their food doesn't hurt me and it's really, really, yum! I'm more than willing to go to Asda or Sainsbury's once a month to stock up on the stuff that Tesco doesn't stock, but it is a trip that I don't really have to time to make.

So let's get this straight, I love DS Gluten Free food. I'm an incredibly sensitive coeliac and during years of trying all the different products I have never been glutened by them. Plus I think the foods are lovely.

Here's why I'm angry. Over the course of this year the limited amount of DS things available in the frozen aisles of my Tesco have disappeared. Last week the very last DS item and a regular on my shopping list went too. The Margarita Pizza.

What's in the spaces where DS Gluten free frozen products used to be? Genius. Everything that was DS is now of the Genius brand. I don't want Genius, I want DS Gluten Free. DS don't hurt me.

It's easy to say 'well I'll shop at another supermarket', it isn't that easy in practice, not when you've been buying store branded goods that aren't in the free from aisle but you know are safe and having to then go into an alien supermarket and check every label.

There's some complaining that needs to be done.

6 comments:

  1. I feel your pain - literally and metaphorically :-( Are you able to do an online shop somewhere else? For example I can't afford to shop at Waitrose/Ocado but once every 6 weeks I shop online with them as they have a wide range of branded gf products from big and small manufacturers. I buy large quantities of the things I can't get anywhere else. Might be worth looking into doing that for them or Sainsburys etc?

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  2. Annie, that's a great idea. I'll have to start doing that, so much easier. Thanks for reading :)

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  3. Here in Australia, the 'other' brands' products from the uk aren't allowed here due to our strict regulations. They didn't meet the definition of GF. A friend who works on the board for the food standards agency recently informed me of this. We recently got Schar products imported over here (and they're not bad, either - I've had their pan carre a lot) and plans are in place to get ds over here in the coming months.

    Thankfully Schar has adhered well to the guidelines of <2-3ppm (i.e. no detectable gluten)

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  4. Interesting that they weren't allowed over there, good thing too. I hope that stays the case. I wish there were regulations like that here.

    I've never heard of Schar, I'll have to look them up they sound like they would be ideal for me.

    Thanks for reading :)

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  5. Just looked Schar up, I've never ever seen one of their products and yet they are Europe's #1 gluten free brand? It's worse than I thought in this country.

    Thanks for telling me about them!

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