Covid 19 and gluten-free product shortage

[trents]

What are you finding when shopping for gluten-free food products since the Corona virus outbreak?

My wife and I went to online order some things from Bob's Red Mill this morning and found that most of the gluten-free products we normally purchase from them were out of stock.

Is this due to hoarding or production issues created by work force absenteeism or some of both? 

This experience created a concern for me in that the gluten-free population represents a niche market to begin with and we have fewer alternatives than most people.

[docaz]

40 minutes ago, trents said:

What are you finding when shopping for gluten-free food products since the Corona virus outbreak?

My wife and I went to online order some things from Bob's Red Mill this morning and found that most of the gluten-free products we normally purchase from them were out of stock.

Is this due to hoarding or production issues created by work force absenteeism or some of both? 

This experience created a concern for me in that the gluten-free population represents a niche market to begin with and we have fewer alternatives than most people.

I wonder if this because people are staying home and ordering items online because on Facebook groups you see pictures of empty shelves but the gluten-free shelves are fully stocked. 

[icelandgirl]

I ventured out briefly yesterday and was able to get loaves of Canyon bakehouse bread and some bagels.  I didn't look for anything else specifically, I was trying to get in and out quickly!  I did notice that the store was out of meat, very low on canned goods and completely out of frozen fruits and veggies.

[ravenwoodglass]

I had to get just a couple things yesterday and while my favorite bread was very low in stock gluten-free pastas and other items were in good supply. The rest of the store was cleaned out of meats, eggs, and of course paper goods like TP and paper towels. I am relieved I only have to feed myself and my pets and had to go to two stores to get enough dog food for my little dog who has even more food restrictions than I do. I hate that people are wiping out shelves and even though there was only one case of my dogs food I only took enough cans to last her a week so the next person who needs it will have some available. People need to think of others at this awful time. If there are only a few items left and we can make do with with just a couple we need to do so.  I asked a stock person if they were putting out some frozen broccoli and she said she just put out a dozen and one guy immediately grabbed 10 of them.  I hope these selfish folks stop doing this soon.

[GFinDC]

I think the point of stocking up on TP. food etc is to avoid having to go to a store and break the social distancing guidance.  It took me a while to understand that myself.  I was thinking all those TP hoarders were crazy or greedy.  And some of them are.   But the social distancing guidance is an important part of containing the pandemic.  Fewer trips to the store equals less chance of exposure.

I have a  92 year old uncle who is home bound.  So I don't want to take a chance on getting sick and then exposing him if I can help it.  So I stocked up on some  things to improve social distancing.  No, I didn't hoard lots of stuff, just enough that I don't need to go to the store every day.

Our Aldi had lots of gluten-free products.  But they were out of peanuts and some other foods.  Several other stores were featuring many empty shelves.  The cough and cold section of Chinamart was mostly empty too.

I saw an article about viruses not spreading as easily in warm humid environments.  So we are keeping a tea kettle on the stove to help with that.  Also taking some elderberry.  And praying for God's mercy on all people.

[trents]

5 hours ago, ravenwoodglass said:

I had to get just a couple things yesterday and while my favorite bread was very low in stock gluten-free pastas and other items were in good supply. The rest of the store was cleaned out of meats, eggs, and of course paper goods like TP and paper towels. I am relieved I only have to feed myself and my pets and had to go to two stores to get enough dog food for my little dog who has even more food restrictions than I do. I hate that people are wiping out shelves and even though there was only one case of my dogs food I only took enough cans to last her a week so the next person who needs it will have some available. People need to think of others at this awful time. If there are only a few items left and we can make do with with just a couple we need to do so.  I asked a stock person if they were putting out some frozen broccoli and she said she just put out a dozen and one guy immediately grabbed 10 of them.  I hope these selfish folks stop doing this soon.

All stores need to limit the amount of an item one person can buy per trip. Some are already doing that, like Walmart. This would give opportunity for the supply chain, already likely impaired by employee absenteeism, to catch up. Buying a lot per trip may be in keeping with social distancing but it would backfire when people start to suffer from malnutrition or lack of sanitizing supplies. There are people whose pantries stay pretty bare even under normal circumstances either because of low income or they may be single, for instance and eat out a lot.

[Scott Adams]

Yesterday Costco in Santa Rosa, CA was completely sold out of gluten-free bread. I did find some at Trader Joe’s.

We are now under Sonoma County’s “shelter on place” orders, but many of us are used to this due to the issues we’ve had with wild fires...still having power is a bonus for us! ?

[Fenrir]

We are not in shelter in place mode yet here in MN but we have 77 cases all but 4  are in the Twin Cities and we're an hour and a half west of the Twin Cities. Luckily, about the only thing not getting sold out here is gluten-free items, nobody else seems to want them. ?

I work at a hospital that only has 66 beds to serve an area of 20k+ people. We really only have staff to man about 40 beds. Will get interesting out here if we start seeing a lot of cases. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Fenrir

[Awol cast iron stomach]

We jumped to 288 and had our first death.

Our Wal-Mart has limits as you pointed out. My husband reported  Costco was out of meat, tp, and paper products. It was initially hard to find bananas we got some now. My kids love bananas.

My body still doesn't like a lot of processed gluten-free breads thankfully I ran low on flours and reordered right before the number of cases jumped. They were out of Pamela's , but my husband found a Namaste at Costco for my daughter's waffles. I will probably need some more flax seed soon. 

I initially thought the no toilet paper were price gougers like the hand sanitizer guy. It took a couple of visits and the last tp taken simultaneously just as my husband got to the shelf occasion. Happy to report he got some the 4 th visit.

I am being eclectic with meals and mentally noting/using what needs to be used. My son is practicing restraint with his beloved salami, and self rationing his portions. 

My husband experienced an incident with someone being aggressive at the store despite his innate calm nature. So I am not eager to have him or myself to go store. As it just getting started around here.

I got to the pet store and got our cats some wet food, but had to try a new dry food as they were out of our regular grain free and didn't get any on last truck. Let's hope my cats like the substitute dry food brand.

Stay safe everyone.

Edit : we are 585 now with 5 deaths. Our governor inacted a stay at home order for entire state. He stated if more hospitals are needed he will open closed hospitals or field hospitals.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Awol cast iron stomach
Added update

[Awol cast iron stomach]

20 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

Yesterday Costco in Santa Rosa, CA was completely sold out of gluten-free bread. I did find some at Trader Joe’s.

We are now under Sonoma County’s “shelter on place” orders, but many of us are used to this due to the issues we’ve had with wild fires...still having power is a bonus for us! ?

There are benefits being experienced in the shelter in place. One suburb in our state has gone shelter in place, not certain if we will be. Good reminder we should all be grateful for power. Be safe and well.

[Awol cast iron stomach]

20 hours ago, Fenrir said:

We are not in shelter in place mode yet here in MN but we have 77 cases all but 4  are in the Twin Cities and we're an hour and a half west of the Twin Cities. Luckily, about the only thing not getting sold out here is gluten-free items, nobody else seems to want them. ?

I work at a hospital that only has 66 beds to serve an area of 20k+ people. We really only have staff to man about 40 beds. Will get interesting out here if we start seeing a lot of cases. 

Glad you are finding gluten-free. Also best wishes on the hospital situation. I wonder if our governor will utilize hotels across the street and near hospitals if we run out of room. They are using the tents and drive through testing to my knowledge. 

Stay safe and well.

[Awol cast iron stomach]

On 3/18/2020 at 4:20 AM, ravenwoodglass said:

I had to get just a couple things yesterday and while my favorite bread was very low in stock gluten-free pastas and other items were in good supply. The rest of the store was cleaned out of meats, eggs, and of course paper goods like TP and paper towels. I am relieved I only have to feed myself and my pets and had to go to two stores to get enough dog food for my little dog who has even more food restrictions than I do. I hate that people are wiping out shelves and even though there was only one case of my dogs food I only took enough cans to last her a week so the next person who needs it will have some available. People need to think of others at this awful time. If there are only a few items left and we can make do with with just a couple we need to do so.  I asked a stock person if they were putting out some frozen broccoli and she said she just put out a dozen and one guy immediately grabbed 10 of them.  I hope these selfish folks stop doing this soon.

I blanched some broccoli and beans to freeze since frozen is sparse. Not sure if the tip is helpful to others.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Awol cast iron stomach
Missed word

[Fenrir]

26 minutes ago, Awol cast iron stomach said:

Glad you are finding gluten-free. Also best wishes on the hospital situation. I wonder if our governor will utilize hotels across the street and near hospitals if we run out of room. They are using the tents and drive through testing to my knowledge. 

Stay safe and well.

I think most likely what would happen here is that we have a large event center that's owned by the City across the street from the Hospital that would be setup as a second hospital. 

[trents]

Went to Safeway yesterday as I was getting low in gluten-free bread. The bread isle had obviously picked over and the gluten-free bread section was somewhat depleted but I was able to get a couple of loaves of Franz gluten-free bread, my favorite. I could have taken more but decided not to hoard. If worse comes to worse we have enough gluten-free flour products to make our own, which we haven't done in years because the commercial products have improved so much.

[Awol cast iron stomach]

Oh I thought of one more thing. I read that some online companies are not shipping orders except high demand emergency supplies for the coming weeks. Are you able to go to a local store or have someone check on your behalf? Another thing I utilize is my almond meal as flour. We make almond milk from nuts as I developed intolerances to the stabilizers in the store bought, so I use the leftover meal for baking too.

[Awol cast iron stomach]

1 hour ago, Fenrir said:

I think most likely what would happen here is that we have a large event center that's owned by the City across the street from the Hospital that would be setup as a second hospital. 

Let's hope you all don't have to, but that way all your medical staff and other employees are close by as I am sure you will all be tirelessly working hard on behalf of the ill.

[Jim Rockford]

The Ralph’s in California I went to yesterday had Bob’s bread mix and plenty of yeast. I didn’t even check for “real” bread, as they only have Udi’s.

The Pamela’s products (best bread mix) website shows almost everything sold out.

Have not checked Sprouts or Whole Foods but consider buying gluten-free flour and yeast if you are Jonesing for bread.

[Ennis-TX]

Went to the store for the first time in weeks today, I first went at 3 am to our 24 hour walmart to avoid the crowd and because the pain from the surgery makes me hostile, but they were closed. I went back at 8am and all the egg beaters and egg whites I normally get were gone...all the large cases of eggs were gone and I had to over pay for 2 36 cases, all the canned goods were gone and same with all the lunch meats, cheese and the only bacon I eat.....all the normal cereal is gone most the nut butters EVERY bag of gluten flour and real sugar was gone...only leaving bags of almond flour and gluten free flour left I was VERY happy to see that and looked like heaven with all the gluten poison removed. I got my sugar free sugars which were all fully stocked and bought 4 bags of almond flour, the dairy was all gone but my almond milk was there. Of course every paper product was gone,,,except I found RV toilet paper in the automotive section.
Few odd things....all the cooking oil except for 6 bottles of canola and the very expensive duck, fats and coconut oils were all gone...I could not even find lard for my deep fryer Amusingly all the keto, grain free, and gluten free freezer goods were untouched. I wish more of that was dairy free.....

I am planning to go to my restaurant supply store when I get my truck fixed...when ever that is. Hoping we can get by with just fixing the head on it.  I think that is the only place I am going to find bacon, egg whites, and other food items.

I am going to be laughing when all these idiots find that all the bread, milk, cheese, they bought start growing mold and going rancid be before they get to them, and the nut jobs for a years worth of toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Ennis_TX

[trents]

I hope the general population doesn't all of a sudden decide to go gluten-free!

[icelandgirl]

17 hours ago, trents said:

I hope the general population doesn't all of a sudden decide to go gluten-free!

I have this feeling that the fad gluten free people are going to relax a bit and go back to some of their regular gluten filled eating...leaving more gluten free stuff for us!  I could be wrong ..just a thought!

[trents]

Yes, but if gluten-free products are all that is left on the shelf . . .

[lynnszec]

I started purchasing these organic instant noodle cups from this online store that comes in a pack of 12.  

www.omasownfoods.com

I tried some banana chips from a girlfriend and decided to make a purchase myself and got interested in the noodle cups also 

[AuntieE]

Well I'm going to starve 

Covered in DH already, no very veg in the shops or egg. 

 

 

[Scott Adams]

I'm sorry to hear you're having a DH issue, but I don't think you need to starve. There are online options like www.glutenfreemall.com that offer certified GF products, as well as Amazon and others. 

On 3/18/2020 at 9:54 AM, Fenrir said:

We are not in shelter in place mode yet here in MN but we have 77 cases all but 4  are in the Twin Cities and we're an hour and a half west of the Twin Cities. Luckily, about the only thing not getting sold out here is gluten-free items, nobody else seems to want them. ?

I work at a hospital that only has 66 beds to serve an area of 20k+ people. We really only have staff to man about 40 beds. Will get interesting out here if we start seeing a lot of cases. 

@Fenrir what is it like now at your hospital? Are you seeing cases there? I hope all is well.

[AuntieE]

I am on the fasano diet, plus nut allergy. I only eat fruit, veg, egg, ghee, a tiny amount of dairy or I hurt. Pascha chocolate in small amounts. If I don't stick to this I am very unwell. So, I guess this is not going to go well for me