<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Please don't beat me up for going to McD's today. I was on the road and craved a milkshake.

But, since I haven't been there in a long time, I discovered they now have NEW McCafe shakes, with whipped cream and a cherry.  (Am I supposed to be thrilled?)

When the girl gave me my shake, I said it looked different (smaller, for sure!) and specifically asked the manager (standing right there), if the shake (plain vanilla, I skipped the whipped cream and cherry), is the same as before or if it's a new product. She (without cracking a hint of a smile or courtesy) said that it is definitely the same.

Well, stupid me,  sipped it, and it did taste different, so I phoned McD's customer service...the number is on the cup...1-800-244-6227....and asked if the ingredients changed. My thinking was....I was fine with the old vanilla shake, so if they didn't change it, I'd be o.k. Ever since the frivolous lawsuit against McD's a number of years ago, we can't get a straight answer from them.

But, it turns out...they changed the ingredients. It used to have artificial vanilla extract...not a problem, because it's a distilled, alcohol ingredient. That's gone. Now, they use "Natural flavoring from a plant source."  The guy could not tell me what plant, and presumably, it could change at will.

Could be that the new flavoring is fine. I don't usually freak over flavoring, but the words "plant source" sort of got under my skin, so I threw it out and told another manager (other one had left), that they should NOT tell customers that products have the same ingredients if they do not know what they're talking about.

Truthfully, I don't expect the store people to read the ingredients, but the first manager was clearly emphatic that it was the same product, and I had a moment of stupidity when I trusted her.

So...if you're a McD's shake drinker (I don't know about strawberry or chocolate), you may want to call McD's.  It boggles my mind that with such a boom in gluten-free food service, that McD's prefers to pass up on all that money.
*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*
Archives are at: Http://Listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?LIST=CELIAC