Whole Foods - Warning Mislabeled Product

[Eric-C]

I found this one out the hardway.

We shop at Whole Foods and eat mostly organic. They are usually excellent about labeling their own products.

Last week we bought 2 Portabella stuff mushrooms with a artichoke/crab meat mix. They make them there in the store.

The label has an allergen list as all their labels do and Gluten/bread/bread crumbs was not listed.

We bought them for that very reason.

Well...Sunday night after dinner was not the best I can tell you that.

I went to the store today and asked the guy at the seafood counter and he said for sure they have breadcrumbs in them. He was pretty shocked and apologetic it was not on the labeling.

Something to keep in mind if you shop there.

[oceangirl]

Thank you, Eric!

Hope you are feeling better.

lisa

[larry mac]

Good lesson for all of us. We always have to be suspicious of stuffings. Bread crumbs are typically mixed with Crab. They are used as a binder and extender. Just like bread crumbs and eggs are added to meat loaf.

best regards, lm

[Eric-C]

I talked to the manager who apologized and said she had contacted the corporate office to get it fixed.

She is sending us out a gift card and refunding the monies spent on the items.

I believe they will take this pretty seriously since its a cornerstone of the product they offer, being allergen alert and healthy. Thats part of the reason I did not question it. Knowing they carry a lot of gluten and other allergen free products I figured this was another offering that was specifically targetted at those with an intolerance.

Had this been a regular grocery store I would have questioned it before purchasing or avoided all together.

I'm just getting back to normal today.

[dh204]

Ugh, that is totally annoying, but nice that they were so cool about it (refund, etc).

I was just at Whole Foods last weekend and found a pamphlet there in front of the Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse section (in the frozen foods). It's a pamphlet about eating gluten-free and filled with lots of useful information - like which ingredients to avoid and what is okay to eat. They also mention the prepared foods and the salad bars and stuff, saying what to avoid. They have also mentioned to be careful when getting prepared foods from the salad bar; that sometimes customers will mix the serving spoons, so stuff at the salad bar could be contaminated.

[blueeyedmanda]

By law, if they used breadcrumbs shouldn't it have been listed since that is wheat?