Mars, the sweetie-people, took out a full page ad in my newspaper this morning 
– and presumably in everybody else’s newspaper as well – to apologise for adding animal products to Mars Bars, and to explain that the offending items would be removed as soon as possible.
This was done as a result of vegetarians complaining to Mars about the changes.
I haven’t eaten meat for 26 years, and over that time there has been a huge change in the attitude towards vegetarianism – just about every restaurant will have a veggie option, and I don’t have to have the same conversation at every meal to explain my choice.
Now, being a coeliac is not a matter of choice, so in one sense the provision of gluten-free food is even more important – do we have to wait 25 years for an equivalent change in attitudes?
Did you know that Mars Bars are no longer gluten free?
Can you imagine if Mars had taken out full page ads in every paper to apologise for adding something containing gluten to a recipe?
Mars has bowed to consumer pressure on this. How can coeliacs combine forces to exert the same pressures on manufacturers?
[This is causing a great deal of discussion over on the messageboard, if you’re interested …]
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I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
WOW!
Companies really need to learn that we all depend on their formulations either remaining the same, or some sort of clear labeling that tells up quickly and concisely what is “safe” to eat – whether by choice, or by dietary requirement.
It gets old always checking and re-checking the same items.
Yes – I expect we’ve all bought something believing it to be OK (because it used to be) only to be caught out by some ‘New Improved’ change to the recipe