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 :)

DH refuses to get the microwave butterkist saying it gave him a dodgy tummy. Now I know why!

I've heard of this sucralose problem before. There was a thread recently about sugar free haribo where a sweetener caused similar horrific consequences.

It does beg the question of why these artificial sweeteners are considered safe for use when they've been shown to cause such horrible problems

I wonder if they have a certain threshold of how high a percentage of consumers have to be given the raging shits before they'll consider banning it

I have an aspartame allergy, after drinking fanta once only to be very ill afterwards and then discovering they had changed the recipe to include aspartame I read every label every time on products I buy every week to be 100% certain. It's not worth the risk.

This is the price paid for eating heavily processed food. Stay away from it. Less chance of things going wrong. The basic question to ask every time you reach for something is ' has anyone fucked about with this?' If yes, step away.

popcorn isn't heavily processed

It is when it's coated with crap.

Do you know what 'heavily processed means'?
It means gone through lots of processes, not sprinkled with sweetener (rolls eyes)

We don't eat any "heavily processed crap" I cook everything from scratch - I got caught out with a shop bought popcorn - hardly ready meals & margarine

besides IME bringing DCs up on a natural diet & denying them everything their peers have, only makes them want it more, so a little of the safe stuff now & again won't harm & is a more realistic approach - unless the recipe has been changed & its now full of toxic sweeteners of course :(

I wonder if they have a certain threshold of how high a percentage of consumers have to be given the raging shits before they'll consider banning it

I think that's what pees me off the most with artificial sweeteners fruga, my DF & late DM are/were diabetic, so I'm used to buying diabetic sweets etc for them - all of it contains a clear warning to limit the amount eaten or it will cause abdominal upset - yet none diabetic stuff never does

Not sure if you are aware, but there is a very set way in which food information, incl. allergens now has to be labelled - see multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/allergy-leaflet.pdf which outlines how the new (EU) Food Information for Consumers Regulation will impact. It is being implemented now, has to be by end 2014 IIRC. SOme companies like Iceland - per Anya's comment above - have implemented already.

The issue of increasing amounts of sweeteners being used in non-'diet' products is down to 2 things: one being lobbying from health groups, and govt. agencies to decrease sugar/calorie content in many foods and drinks, the other being the rising cost of glucose.

No evidence the popcorn was responsible.

As for you having stomach cramps after one mouthful...I highly doubt it.

Real allegies are of course a big deal, but it always strikes me on mumsnet that there seems to be a high correlation between lack of basic scientific understanding + assumption that everything artificial is bad + children of those posters having multiple allergies.

Purely anecdotal of course.

I know the sweetner you mean, it's the one in these gummy bears (hilarious reviews compiled at the bottom, more can be found on amazon: slightlyviral.com/beware-sugarless-gummy-bears-on-amazon-com/
quite frankly the fact so many people have a problem with it makes me wonder why they use it in anything - and I would certainly never expect to see it in popcorn!
I would do twitter/fb then send a letter if no response, I've found you get better compensation if you write about these things anyways!

oops slightlyviral.com/beware-sugarless-gummy-bears-on-amazon-com/

The popcorn wasn't responsible thepg the ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER was

& you assume too much, no reason for me to say that if its not true

both DD & have been medically assessed for this in the past & confirmed - DD has been intolerant of these chemicals since birth, so we do both know what the symptoms are & know the difference between this reaction & normal gastro bugs. Perhaps you would like to gave a chat with DDs nutritionalist & Gastro specialist about the "lack of basic scientific understanding"

I think if you don't suffer with it, you can't know, thats fine, but those of us who DO suffer with it DO know the difference, so you can't presume you know better

& real allergies are a reaction to a FOOD STUFF, so an entirely different thing - this is a reaction to a NON food stuff added to food

Interesting Hazel thank you :)

falulah

That's the stuff that's for sure, thanks for the laugh, I will show it to DD tomorrow, she will love it :)

You and DD both medically assessed and confirmed as allergic to sucralose?

...and yet you also said this is the first time DD has had it and you didn't know it would affect her like this so reading the ingredients would have made no difference.

Please refer to my previous post.

The scary thing about the link Hazel put up was just how few known allergens are actually on the list. Unfortunately for those of us also dealing with different allergens I can see it making life more difficult and the rest of the ingredients harder to read.

No thepg medically diagnosed & these artificial additives, including all of these artificial sweeteners are KNOWN to aggravate or cause gastric problems

& as a scientist, you should know that allergy & intolerance are not the same thing, but trust me intolerances can be just as devastating, especially for DCs, though of course not life threatening as are some allergies

I didn't look properly at the link as tired & saving it for tomorrow, but that doesn't sound so good no Jack :(

Just been reading the Butterkist Faceache link & seems I got off lightly

Seems this same popcorn is setting fire to microwaves too !!

Coco, quite.
You have defined it succinctly for the benefit of us all.
I'd suggest keeping a dictionary to hand in future. It will help.

The laxative effect of sucralose always used to be stated on stuff like sugar free polos/sugar free gum.

In fact just looked and the chewing gum i have says excessive consumption may produce laxative effects. The warning is not restricted to diabetic products.

Be interested to know if this popcorn describes what a portion is. I suspect that rules around quantity of sweeteners are worked out on a per portion basis.

There's nothing at all SoulJ I've just checked both the outer & inner packaging, I have just noticed on the base of the box something that might say "with sweeteners" but the bottom of the box is scuffed, so its really hard to read & I'm not sure

The ironic thing here is that brands seem to be switching to sucralose because of consumers saying that they don't like/don't want aspartame.

I am really not sure what you would like food manufacturers to do.

I support the idea of big "NEW RECIPE" splashes for the first few months after a change in recipe.

But in this case, that wouldn't have helped you. You would have read the new ingredients and not thought anything was wrong, because this is the first time your DD has experienced a reaction to this ingredient.

I was prescribed tablets once by my GP, couldn't even tell you what for now, but the first few days I took them I was in agony with stomach pains. In the end I went back to the GP and we narrowed it down to the sugar coating that the tablet was in, it contained aspartame.

In the past I've had Mr Simms Sweet Shoppe checking the slush puppy mix for me as well .

I know of so many people allergic to aspartame from mild to severe reactions I think it should be on the label stating it contains it. At one point you couldn't buy a lemonade that didn't have it (I believe Asda now make one). Nearly all chewing gum is out, anything diet pretty much. Soda Stream for some weird reason have an aspartame free Diet Ginger Beer but aspartame in the full fat version. I even discovered Tesco Fresh Juice 'drink' has it.

I also support the 'New Recipe' splashes. They would have saved me the Fanta incident I described above, though as I said these days unless I can verify there is no aspartame in it I don't touch it.

I know of so many people allergic to aspartame from mild to severe reactions I think it should be on the label stating it contains it.

By that I mean on the front label of the product, not hidden with the ingredients. That wasn't very clear, sorry