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Dear Judy and the List,

Not only Sainsbury's but other large Supermarket chains in
the UK now do this on some of their "own brand" goods.

Asda has had a problem with us where an item so marked
*wasn't* but this was in my view a very one-off glitch.
Karin (my coeliac wife) was delighted to find a pate marked
GF in our local Asda, which has given no problems (the
first we have ever seen, otherwise she eats my home-made.

Ironically Asda is now owned by Wal-Mart so you US guys
might like to go and ask why Wal-Mart can't do the same :-)

Tesco's also are beginning to mark their own brands as
gluten-free.  They have also in selected stores started
special diet areas, which include some specific GF items
(all very boring, but it's a start).  The big problem is
that they will mix GF and VERY non-GF items on the same
shelf (I include high gluten bread flour among the latter).

I complained about this and the local shop rang me and told
me that their experts said that this is ok because they are
packed well enough.  I swiftly disillusioned the lady
concerned who fell back on "I'll get Head Office to talk to
you about this".  I STRONGLY suggested that they spoke to
the Coeliac Soc FIRST and have yet to hear any more since
last week.  Watch this space......... Incidentally do any
of our list members actually work in a supermarket chain
which asks its workers with specific health problems (like
coeliac) for their advice?  I have suggested this to
virtually all of the big chains in the UK now but have yet
to see evidence that they have ever done so.

Regards

David

David J Walland
University of Bristol Radiation Protection Adviser
[log in to unmask]
Tel +44 (0)117 928 8323
Fax +44 (0)117 929 1209

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