Green and Blacks 70% now labelled contains milk, Alpro/Provamel Desserts now contain wheat

[flamingtoaster]

From another Mumsnet thread:

Green and Blacks 70% Dark Chocolate labelling now states it contains milk due to possible cross contamination - the site states on occasions this may exceed 5 ppm which some allergy specialists say can cause a reaction. Nothing has changed either in the recipe or the cleaning - this is just a labelling change.

However - this is a recipe change which I found mentioned on allergycooksforum www.allergycooksforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=75

Alpro/Provamel desserts now contain wheat starch.

The thickener has been changed from tapioca to wheatstarch. Full ingredients here:

www.provamel.co.uk/Eng_ENG/getpage.asp?i=10

OMG

Is thatthe provamel vanilla pudds?

DS2 usually has one every other day and just ate four one after the other - very unusual behaviour. And he has been giggling like a fool all afternoon.

I could cry. Really.
this is so fricking hard anyway. WHY do they do that !

oh, ffs.

am with you, pagwatch. dd1 has these occasionally, not always overkeen - scoffed hers yesterday

dd2 has been shouting for more recently as well - she's only gf/cf "in case", but still .

back to the drawing board

Why???

I mean, why do manufacturers of "allergy" foods do this? Not long ago Trufree added milk to thier previously milk free (and gluten/wheat free) biscuits. What would make them reduce thier customer base like this? It must impact on thier sales surely??

I can live with the G&B milk contamination, DD2 is no longer sensitive enough to react to 5ppm, but the addition of wheat to the Alpro/Provamel makes them a serious no no for me now, and whilsth I didn't eat them that often it is still annoying.

DH works in the food industry and sometimes things are changed due to a different supplier winning a contract because they are cheaper, or because one producer has gone bust and another takes over, or because it's just more economical for the manufacturer.

However, I would've thought that with allergy foods they would be particularly picky about things to make sure that things remain the same.

I think with alpro though they are aimed at the lactose intolerant so they aren't letting their main customer base down.

But, I'm sure there are loads of people out there who are both lactose and gluten intolerant.

flaming toaster, I wanted to ask you about coeliac testing in littlies. DD is nearly 15 mo and has really bad skin, but no other obvious symptoms, although her poos have always been on the loose side. If she were to have a coeliac blood test would it actually show anything, or is she too young?

LackadailyCAL - there is conflicting evidence -one study states that under two years old the blood test is less accurate (88% rather than 98%) in diagnosing coeliac disease, but other studies did not find this effect. So you could go for the blood test at this stage.

You'll find a summary of the research here (4th post):
coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?t=997&highlight=children+testing

When you say bad skin - do you mean a rash- could it be Dermatitis Herpetiformis in which case there is a skin test for it:

www.dermatitisherpetiformis.org.uk/faqs/faqdiagnose.html

thanks FT. the rash is very eczema like and isn't at all like the DH that I used to get.

I'll have a look at your link thanks