To Be Really Angry at the Butterkist Company & Want to Complain & by E-mail

[RockinHippy]

Not some poxy PO.Box address as written on the packet

I have very ill DD, who has spent the last 3 hours either doubled up with stomach pain or pebble dashing the toilet :(

Worse still its as the result of a cheer up treat I bought as she has a fractured elbow, cast shoulder to fingers & is fed up :(
Very bad as she's at an age where she is easily embarrassed & is now trying to sort herself out in the toilet with raging diarrhoea & her main arm in plaster :(

I bought her the Cinema Sweet Microwave popcorn, because the shop didn't have her favourited salted version & I know she likes this too. I know that the non microwave bags are fine as they don't contain any artificial sweeteners, I also know that the toffee popcorn version is fine too. I'm pretty sure the sweet microwave version USED to be fine. Its not anymore, but contains an artificial sweetener that lists abdominal problems as a side effect, one that DD is very sensitive to, one that along with other sweeteners, diabetic products carry a warning not to eat too much of fir precisely this reason, yet none diabetic, non sugar free stuff sneaks these sweetener in without any warning or clear labelling that they are there at all

I feel like crap excuse the pun because I trusted a brand we knew & didn't read the small print on a day I was suffering with migraine eyes & probably couldn't have read the tiny print if I had tried.

AIBU to be upset & fuming & ask if anyone has a direct email address for this company :)

The first world problem is not the allergy.
That is very sad, and utterly unavoidable.
The first world problem is a spoilt woman whingeing that she didn't read the list of ingredients that were listed on the packet.
In any case, if you buy crap, don't be surprised if it does bad things to you.

YABU if anyone is to blame it is you.

So you inadvertently gave your dd something to eat which triggers a reaction . unless their marketing specifically said suitable for ".... intolerant" I'm afraid it was down to you to check or err on the side of caution if unsure. If your dd is school age she also needs to be involved in checking ingredients, and presumably could have on this occasion. Hope she feels better soon.

What do you mean you 'trusted butterkist'??

Like a trusted friend?? Its a brand.

I have food intolerances, therefore I read labels

Could this be a Mumsnet campaign? All products carry a flash on the front of the product with 'recipe changed' and the date on? This would be a quick visual check for us to either re-check all the ingredients if we haven't bought it for a long time or to know that nothing has changed if we have bought it since that date.

I check all products every time I buy now after finding something that suddenly started containing sesame oil. It would certainly help me if there was an indicator that the ingredients had changed.

I hope your DD is feeling better Rockin
Definitely contact them.

Another example of someone not taking any personal responsibility.

It seems to me that if you write to Butterkist (what's wrong with a PO Box?) pleasantly outlining the problem, sayin how much you usually like their stuff and NOT BLAMING THEM, you may well get the reaction you are looking for, ie that they consider changing their packaging policy and highlighting recipe changes.

Hope your DD is feeling much better now.

I'm wondering if Butterkist bother to inform the Vegan and Vegaterian Society's when they change recipes.

I'm actually going to pose that question on the FB page if both.

I quickly google as I'm shopping, as the ingredients, Sugar and Vit D are sometimes not even Vegaterian, so you cannot go by the ingredient lists alone. Most cheap Soya Milk isn't Vegaterian, for example.

There is a mass market for manufactures who label properly.

We should be able to identify what is in our goods and where everything supplied comes from.

It stops companies fooling those that care, that what they buy is ethical and/or safe.

"The first world problem is a spoilt woman whingeing that she didn't read the list of ingredients that were listed on the packet."

Some of us create these "First World Problems", so others don't live in poverty and children are sold as workers, is that an acceptable enough reason.

If making food manufactures, take responsibility by just carrying out a simple task and labeling that is.

I have food intolerances. Shopping takes ages due to the need to read the labels. But that's my burden.

I do wish companies would stop sneaking sweeteners into products though. I ordered a sprite (not the lite version) the other day and thought it had a funny twang - it had sweeteners on the ingredients list. I am sure this didn't used to be the case. I am not intolerant to sweeteners but can really taste them and find it unpleasant.

Sorry your dd isn't feeling well but I don't think you can blame Butterkist OP. My nephew has allergies, I bought bread from asda - normally I check, I forgot...I asked his mum to check too, she assumed it was fine as she'd checked before, he was ill, it was the bread, I felt awful, his mum felt awful...but it wasn't Asda's fault...annoying that they changed the recipe but it was our responsibility. I still fuck up and buy food with nuts in it for dh, it's hard and annoying but as long as the ingredients are listed it's up to us to do the checking.

Of course YANBU to feel upset and angry but ultimately, if you have a child that is very sensitive to certain ingredients, it is your responsibility to check labels. Unfortunately, you do have to check regularly because recipes changes. It's a PITA but the company have every right to do so.

I'm pretty sure the sweet microwave version USED to be fine.

YANBU to think that companies should make it clear when ingredients have changed, but it sounds like you don't actually know that they have been changed, you just think they have? I'd try to verify this before contacting them.

Drench juice drinks have recently had sweetener added when they never contained sweeteners before - just another one to be aware of.

Could this be a Mumsnet campaign? All products carry a flash on the front of the product with 'recipe changed' and the date on? This would be a quick visual check for us to either re-check all the ingredients if we haven't bought it for a long time or to know that nothing has changed if we have bought it since that date

Funnily enough Jodie I was thinking similar when I woke this morning, though I expect there may be some sort of campaign already, when Ive some time I intend to look into it further, because something does need to be done.

Its okay saying read all the labels & when its life threatening I doubt anyone ever takes their foot off that particular pedal, but when its brands you know & trust, especially if like us you rarely buy much in the way of processed stuff, its easy to be lulled into a false sense of security with those products. It stupidly didn't occur to me that an ingredient change wouldn't be marked as such - this popcorn now also contains soya, something I often see highlighted as its a common allergen, so I still feel the company is in the wrong for doing this so sneakily, or more so the legislation is wrong that allows it to go on.

I have learnt my lesson however & won't trust known products again & will make sure DD understands that herself & always reads all labels too, & where possible stick to making my own as I usually do. Yes I should of checked, but where is it right that any of us cant just trust these companies & have to repeatedly do that

Reading up on this particular artificial sweetener makes it even worse, they promote it as almost natural as it starts off as sugar, but wrapped in chemical compounds that don't break down in everyone's body - doesn't break down in water treatment plants either - which is a worry

More worrying still is the fact that it was down graded from "safe" to "caution" in 2013 after the only long term study done on it (by an Italian scientist) after it showed high rates of lukemia in rats

For those that ask - DD thankfully is okay this morning, though naturally exhausted & washed out as it was 1am before the worst of it passed - meaning she also couldn't handle taking her pain killers for the fractured elbow & 3 am before the colic like pain finally stopped all together - that was after 3/4 of a pack of popcorn - a mouthful gave me abdominal discomfort too.

& I'm sorry, I disagree that a polite note to Butterkist will have much effect, I think we all know that most of these companies only really sit up & take notice if they think they might be sued or get bad press, a polite note will probably get us a few vouchers for freebies, nothing more. I'm not interested in freebies, I'm interested in nobody else needing to needlessly suffer as DD did last night & recognition that we are only human, we can all make mistakes for all kinds of reasons & that the owness should be on these companies, not us as customers.

YABU

As a parent of a child who had allergies I reaf every label more than oncw even of it was something that I had bought before for him.

Id rather read something than let him suffer.

So they changed the ingredients. They are listed on the back its not like they changed them and didnt list the new ingredient.

Im afraid it was your fault you shouldn't be shopping for someone who has allergies if you cant read due to a migraine. You should have left it until later or as someone else has mentioned got someone to check the ingredients for you.

I even got in touch with supermarkets who had a (I think) monthly list of the products ds could have snd would regularly send updates.
Yes it was a pain in the arse reading 60pages of small print on an email over and over again but my ds didn't suffer from it.

*disclaimer im not saying dont go shopping im saying dont go shopping if your not well enough to check the ingredients.

Hope shes better soon.
Nothing you can really do about it now

Thanks SoulJ - I have now checked & its definitely an ingredient change - I was very tired last night & wasn't quite trusting my memory, but I have bought it before & a friend who is also intolerant to artificial sweeteners confirmed she has bought it frequently & is upset at the change too & mouthycow also confirmed that above

Its certainly been a learning curve though :(

I think the company can do more.

I've noticed that on Iceland products that they underline and bold any allergies.

I have a pack in my cupboard that doesn't have sucralose OR soy lecithin in. Now when I google the ingredients, it contains both, with NO warning anywhere on the packaging except the (tiny) ingredients list.

It SHOULD be made more apparent to customers that a recipe has changed, in the case of them adding soy it could be life threatening for my DS3!

It's ridiculous that a weekly shop takes me a minimum of 4 hrs simply because I have to read the ingredients on EVERYTHING. If these companies were forced by legislation to include a flashing on the FRONT of the packaging to denote when they have changed the recipe, I could start to trust products which don't have that on, and cut down the time it takes me to do the shopping.

Not many toddlers / preschoolers will behave for a 4+ hour food shop EVERY BLOODY WEEK, so it is all too easy to miss things.

And as a Lone Parent with no family support, I don't have a choice but to take DS3 with me!

It gets worse it is in the bags but not the boxes according to the website so it also depends what wrapping it's in. That's more common than you'd realise.

Well that makes it even more confusing Jacks

I have a BOX here that has both sucralose & soy in it, it was a bag from this that made DD so ill last night - my friend has said she has bags in her cupboard that she bought earlier in the week that don't & Ive just checked my local Morrisons & the bags are okay, the boxes aren't

CM I totally agree with you, its ridiculous that you need to go through that with every shop & toddlers in tow too, makes me even more cross that companies can do this without warnings

I've just had a look on the site for myself & I misunderstood - its the microwave stuff that contain the sweeteners, the none microwave bags & boxes don't, ALL now contain soya though & all of the cinema style stuff has exactly the same blurb on the front, secret recipe etc etc

I have a coeliac in my family and I know with certain confectionery that full size bars are fine but multipack snack size are a no no. I hate it. There is no logic to any of it and trying to remember is a nightmare. 4 hour shopping trips are unfortunately the norm. Hope your dd is improving.

If your child is so sensitive or has an allergy then it's your job to check the label. Companies change ingredients all the time. Yes it's horrid that she has been ill but it is not in anyway down to the company. And I am pretty sure that is what they will tell you. Also have you considered the fact that she may have a virus and it wasn't the popcorn at all ?