Organic Does Not Equal Gluten-Free

[lpellegr]

It took me a while to convince the people at Shop Rite this morning that the organic farro does not belong on the gluten-free shelves with the organic quinoa from the same company. The customer service woman kept protesting, "But it's organic". I finally got a manager to remove it, but they took the quinoa, too, because it "didn't belong there". Sigh. I wonder how they'll take it if I tell them that all of the Van's waffles in the gluten-free frozen section are not the gluten-free ones, which apparently they don't have at all? I just don't want some newly diagnosed person to assume that anything on the gluten-free shelf is okay. Sigh again.

[ravenwoodglass]

I doubt you'll get very far but you could give them a list of what is and isn't gluten free. This post does serve as a good reminder to all folks that just because something has a tag on the shelf that says gluten free we all need to read the labels on the item we are about to purchase.

[brendygirl]

I hear ya.

In the early days I bought some cookies and they tasted so great, only to find out they were the gluten kind. They were shelved right next to the gluten free kind and I must've grabbed wrong.

Recently, I saw Rudi's bread in the frozen section next to the gluten-free breads, but it wasn't the gluten free kind, just organic. I was so disappointed because I had a coupon to use for Rudi gluten-free.

[mushroom]

I have found that there is a truly bizarre connection in the minds of the supermarkets that organic and gluten free are somehow related, and therefore should be stocked in the same section, sometimes even mixed in amongst each other, as if everything that is gluten free is magically organic or vice versa. Just a couple of days ago I was in a new market and asked if they had a gluten free section, and the response was, "Of course, it's with the organic." The only store that had a dedicated gluten free (with a sign even) was destroyed in the earthquake so I am having to change my shopping habits. It's going to be hard, I can tell. Some stores have them on the regular shelves where you have to play hide and seek, do they or don't they? Makes shopping take so much longer. I am going to be talking to some store managers