Dairy Queen Canada

[tasha]

My family's in the DQ business and, as its such a big part of my life, I was pretty angry to find such a brief gluten-free list of food on www.dairyqueen.com ...nevermind the fact that the Canadian website had no list whatsoever! Plain sundaes are NO fun!

So...I emailed DQ Canada complaining a bit and here is the letter I received:

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Hello Tasha:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Dairy Queen Canada Inc. Your patronage is very important to us.

I want to clarify that the website that you obtained the Gluten-Free Products from is actually the DQ US website. At this time, DQ Canada does not have a Special Dietary Needs website and you are automatically connected to the DQ US website. The only exception is that Canada does not supply all of the products listed. The products that Canada does not supply are as follows: Lemon Freez'r; Cherry-Lime Freez'r; DQ Vanilla Fudge Bar; DQ Raspberry Vanilla Bar; Cherry, Grape, and Lemon Lime StarKiss Bars.

Regrettably, we do not have a formal list of products that do not contain gluten, however, this is to confirm that the following products are gluten-free:

DQ Vanilla and Chocolate Soft Serve

Arctic Rush - all flavours (formerly Misty Slush)

Cappuccino MooLatte (without whipped topping)

(Please note that this does not include Vanilla, Mocha, or Caramel MooLattes)

DQ Vanilla Orange Bar

DQ Fudge Bar

Additionally, the following toppings are gluten-free:

chocolate flavoured hot fudge

chocolate flavoured cold fudge

chocolate flavoured topping

butterscotch fudge

cherry

blueberry

red raspberry

caramel fudge

cocoa fudge

marshmallow

It is important to note that the information provided to you is based on Dairy Queen approved products only.? Please be sure to confirm this prior to making or ordering any item.

Dairy Queen cakes can be made gluten-free. The layer of chocolate cookie crunch can be omitted when making the cake. This is totally at the discretion of the independent franchisee owner. The general rule to order a special order cake is 48 hours but again it is up to the independent franchisee owner as to their requirements.

I would like to suggest that every Dairy Queen restaurant has an ingredient Listings Binder, that contains the ingredient listings, for all of the approved products used in the Dairy Queen system and that it is available for you to review. Also, you can review the label from any of the products used to make a Dairy Queen item.

As well, prior to making or ordering any item, please make the staff aware of your allergy. Dairy Queen restaurants are very busy and cross-contamination may occur between ingredients. Therefore, 100% confidence level cannot be guaranteed.

Dairy Queen Canada Inc. enjoys hearing from our customers.? Please feel free to contact us again at anytime if you should require any further information or should have any additional questions.

Regards,

Marlene Brennen

Customer Service Manager

Dairy Queen Canada Inc.

Orange Julius Canada Limited

Tel.: 905/639-1492, ext. 765

Fax: 905/639-5291

Direct Dial:? 905/637-4765

E-mail: marlene.brennen@idq.com

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Being such a gung-ho DQ person , I know caramel MooLattes are just Cappuccino MooLattes with caramel sauce added to them. We are told caramel sauce is gluten-free...so there's something missing here. I emailed her again a few weeks ago and am still waiting for a response to figure out this discrepancy. I'll let everyone know when I do receive a response.

I also thought I should add some helpful hints about eating at Dairy Queen as I have worked there for many long years.

-The cone rack is almost always above the ice cream machine (AHHH!) so ask the workers to be careful and watch that no crumbs get in when dispensing ice cream into your dish.

-Just to make sure, get them to wipe the spigot that dispenses soft serve with a napkin before use.

-If you get a Cappuccino MooLatte, make sure they rinse the blizzard machine out before use and wash whatever they put on top of your MooLatte so that the top of the drink can be mixed properly (sometimes its a plastic circle, sometimes a clear dome like what goes on top of a mcflurry)

-I've seen that some people on here say that a Skor blizzard is okay .... I would agree only if you get the employee to take skor from the box it came shipped in and they put it in your cup with a new spoon [at my dq at least, we don't always use a dedicated spoon for one flavour so be careful]. Make sure they rinse out the blizzard machine. A Skor blizzard is the skor pieces and chocolate flavoured cold fudge mixed in the vanilla soft serve. The email above says that the cold fudge is safe so don't worry about leaving that out. Make sure the person uses the right chocolate (they are all safe EXCEPT chocolate cone dip for obvious reasons), which is often an issue with new employees.

-the above note goes for reese's peanutbutter cup blizzards --as far as I'm concerned...all it is is mushed up pb cups with soft serve...again, be careful with the blizzard machine

-we can have floats too! Its just the Arctic rush slushy stuff or pop with ice cream. Horray! They are very yummy.

Anyway, I hope this helps improve your Dairy Queen experience

[Canadian Karen]

Hi Tasha:

Firstly, I want to welcome you to the board!! There are a bunch of really great people here!

Thanks for the info about Dairy Queen. Actually, with four kids, I go there quite alot and never got anything for myself, not knowing if it was gluten free or not. At least, now I have some options when I go with the kids (instead of just drooling!!!) LOL!

Again, welcome!

Karen

(just outside Toronto, Ontario)

[yhalifax]

I have a question:

What's wrong with the whipped topping that you can't have it?

[tasha]

I checked the whipped topping ingredients today and it could be hidden in natural and artificial flavour...other than that, I don't see where else it could be.