Tesco confirms it has discontinued selling cornflour due to "lack of customer demand"

[mandolinwind]

If you are going to be very inconvenienced by this decision please reply to the Twitter thread and tell Tesco what you use cornflour for in your kitchen:

twitter.com/croakinggoat/status/1592468320443592705

Judging by store comms it will be back. "Due to a severe issue at our supplier, we have had to discontinue the range on all own label Cornflour. Unfortunately, this will not be resolved before Christmas"

I use it whenever I make potato kugel, I can't be arsed keeping potato starch on hand though I suppose I could switch.

smittenkitchen.com/2015/12/potato-kugel/

Just to add that it really seems like Tescos is getting rid of so much of its range. We have been shopping from home from Tescos for around 23 years I think (after we first tried Sainburys and their brand new website kept crashing and not storing our favorites, and Tescos worked, - we were very, very early adopters of internet grocery shopping). But more and more these days we are only buying half of what we need from Tescos, because they simply don't have what we want and I am struggling to get to the weekly minimum for an internet shop, to the point I didn't actually do one this week, and may end up going to fortnightly in the future. During lockdown DH really got back into cycling by cycling to Lidl and Asda and Sainsburys to buy the odd extra thing, and now his paniers are coming back with more and more (great investment those bicycle paniers)- simply because we can't get what we have always had from Tescos anymore - we are now buying basic staples like tissues and even potatoes from elsewhere, as the Tescos ones aren't what we want.
So I totally share your frustration. Not corn flour particularly but it is symptomatic of a much wider problem. I was looking at our Tescos vouchers the other day, and they are a fraction of what they used to be.

Where did you see this, please?

I use cornflour to make 'spanish style' hot chocolate in the microwave. 3 teaspoons of cornflour + 3 teaspoons of hot chocolate powder creates something resembling chocolate magma.

This takes me back - I used to be the buyer for Homebake at Tesco. Cornflour was never a big seller, much, much less than other flours - only really bought by confident cooks.
So, basically, Tesco are saying that they don't want to be the supermarket of choice for confident cooks. OK, message received.

@motleymop How do you do [the best crispy coating on fried chicken], please?
Google southern fried buttermilk chicken.

Another coeliac in the family here, we need cornflour. Luckily I don't do my big shop at Tesco.

I use cornflour all the time, in many of the ways already mentioned. I don't think anyone has mentioned that it's brilliant for rolling out fondant icing. I used to make cakes for a job and it's standard to use cornflour for dusting because it doesn't dry out the icing. If you use moulds or cutters for icing, they get dusted with it too.

Its a great Gluten Free alternative that doesn't cost a fortune. Sure it will be shortly stamped with 'gluten free' in the corner and available for 3 times the price in the Free From section...

I use it to make lemon meringue pie, chocolate chip cookies and for thickening... annoying

I think many supermarkets stopped selling it over Covid and then didn't restock it as they can make more money out of people buying thick bleach which is much more expensive. Very annoying as I can't use thick bleach as I have fragrance and other allergies.

Asda still sells it and I think Morrisons?

So I now have to do a regular 16 mile round trip to surreptitiously (as they still limit quantities!) bulk buy thin bleach from my nearest Asda.

Very annoying.

And I can't believe that there is no demand for cornflour ffs. It's a kitchen staple. Hopefully Asda are more sensible and I can add it to my Asda bulk buy list!!

I use cornflour but I don't shop in Tesco.

I must admit I no longer buy cornflour, luckily we have no GF needs here so I use plain flour.

They don't sell blancmange powder anymore either and what is the main ingredient in blancmange powder? Cornflour!

I recall asking about some item in a supermarket to be told it was discontinued because there is no demand, 'You're the third person to ask for it this morning'!

Recipe here
I double or treble quantities of the mix to make a kilner jar full, I add a good grind of salt, use twice the amount of dark chocolate😏 and use choc chips as it's so much quicker and less messy to do.

This is what I was told, yesterday, via Direct Message, by Tesco's Twitter admin:

"Good morning,

Thank you for getting in touch.

I'm very sorry you've not been able to get any Cornflour in your local store. I understand how disappointing this was for you.

I can confirm these have now been discontinued. This appeas [sic] due to customer demand and won't be available in any of our stores.

I'm sorry that I can't be of anymore help at the moment and thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Thanks - Michael"

Someone else was advised on 8 November:

twitter.com/rhodri/status/1591188626175455233

By using the right ratios in the first place, which admittedly is more difficult.

Oh that looks good, must try it, similar to Reibekuchen.

So, is it due to alleged "lack of customer demand" or to a temporary issue with their supplier?

I have just been to Tesco and there is a shelf edger for cornflour but no stock on the shelf.

Up thread - an alternative to cornflour is arrowroot often used to thicken sauces that are clear

I think they need to bring it back in small tubs like baking powder or bicarb is sold. Clearly people use it but it's generally in small quantities so a large box lasts forever.
It's my go to for gravy making when GF friend or SIL are visiting. Pretty sure I put it in the meringue for my Mary Berry Pavlova recipe too.

I use plain flour for white/cheese sauce but cornflour for custard.

I buy mine from Lidl or Aldi cheaper. So I have no care for Tesco to stock it.

I would buy a packet of cheese or white sauce that would probably be cheaper than buying all of the ingredients and easier to make as well. Its like Pesto. Who can be arsed making pesto when you can buy a jar from Asda for a quid?!

If packet instant sauce is to homemade white sauce what jar pesto is to fresh homemade pesto, then I'll go on making from scratch thank you! Jar pesto is a different beast!