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

It's only their own brand that's being discontinued. The OP title is entirely inaccurate. They're still stocking branded cornflour such as Brown and Poulsons.

I suspect the main purpose of the customer service people is just to make customers go away without feeling too aggrieved rather than to actually dish out correct info.

Here you go - bulk purchase from Amazon.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007XR1K3E?tag=findthisbest-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

This is a disaster in my world, my husband is a coeliac and I use loads of it to make sauces with. Had noticed it wasn't in last time I looked. It as Aldi had it did t think much of it, another reason not to shop at Tesco I suppose.

I haven't been able to get it for ages from Tesco and Asda. My sister managed to get me some on Saturday.

This ⬆️

See my post above. It's only Tesco's own brand that's discontinued. Ignore the thread title

This doesn’t surprise me, whether it’s down to not bothering to cater for all their customers or a badly communicated supply issue. Tesco is further away than the other supermarkets for me so I don’t normally go in, but I did over the weekend. If you are a cook, or care about the quality of what you eat, the choice was absolutely dismal. And very expensive unless you have a club card. If you can I would just shop elsewhere.

I was looking for cornflour in Tesco at the weekend and couldn't find it. I asked a member of staff and they couldn't find it on their list.

I then looked in m&s where they also didn't have it and the girl there said they haven't had any for weeks as there is a shortage.

I haven't tried any other supermarkets yet as it wasn't urgent but I will do next time I'm in one. Hopefully it'll come back soon

I always make cheese sauce with cornflour using the all in one method and it doesn't go lumpy.

My point is this:

Someone who works for Tesco has told me that senior staff have been told the reason is a supply issue.

Someone who has posted on Twitter has been in email communication with Tesco and been told it is not due to lack of customer demand but to a new supplier and change of packaging.

It is not unfeasible that the admins managing the Twitter account can see that the product is listing as "discontinued" and have decided themselves that this would be due to a lack of demand and that is what they have been telling enquirers on the Twitter account, including me, yesterday.

I am not saying that the Twitter admins are lying - but have possibly incorrectly assumed that this is a discontinued product; whereas, the supply chain from the Ukraine or another country may be the issue, an alternative supplier has been sourced and the product may be back on the shelves in a few weeks' time.

It's a bit shit for making gluten free batter, sauces that aren't stock based and coatings for prawns, chicken, tempura and assorted bread and cakes, though. Can't make pie shop liquor or all of the various soups with it, either - it doesn't taste or feel the same.

...which is currently displaying as out of stock.

@saraclara
"It's only their own brand that's being discontinued. The OP title is entirely inaccurate."

If you are concerned about the thread title, I suggest you report the thread and ask for the title to be edited to read:

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

I use loads of the stuff, relatively speaking. I get through around 300-400g a month. I'm always cooking Chinese food, esp. sweet and sour chicken, Hong Kong style, anyone who's made it knows you cant skimp on the cornflour.

By eck there's some hostile replies on this thread.

Cornflour is serious business eh?

Someone who works for Tesco has told me that senior staff have been told the reason is a supply issue.

Someone who has posted on Twitter has been in email communication with Tesco and been told it is not due to lack of customer demand but to a new supplier and change of packaging.

someone. Someone. 😂

I think that Tesco have misjudged quite how serious it is.

I almost posted this thread the other day. Couldn't find it in Waitrose and then Tesco. Asked in Tesco and was told they are no longer stocking it

Went into Waitrose and asked and it isn't with the flour but further down the aisle - can't remember what it was with now but the shop assistant did say it wasn't very logical!!!

Cornflour is made from maize, there has been warnings for MONTHS that weather and the war in Ukraine will affect the supply chain. It won't just be TESCO having supply issues and having to discontinue products that they dont know when they can get them back in. All those posters that are saying TESCO are only discontinuing it to up the price have no idea how a supermarket works.. it doesn't have to leave the shelves to go up in price. TESCO operate using the Just in time method to ensure they are not holding large quantities of products in warehouses. That unfortunately means that if there is a supply issue there will be gaps on the shelves. There are limited supplies of cornflour so its going to cost more thats how supply and demand work. www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/27/big-falls-in-crop-yields-across-europe-feared-due-to-heatwaves
wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/UKR/year/2019/tradeflow/Exports/partner/ALL/product/110220

I use normal plain flour, always have done for this type of sauce.

Errol..thanks for gravy tips. Guess i can improvise with veg stock as don't have meat juice to use.

@Linnet what quantities do you use? I made a lumpy sauce the other day for the first time, which troubles me!!

This is next level stuff.
Have you thought about going on Bake Off?

An update from one of the Tesco Twitter admins who has been responding to my query:

"My apologies, I've read my support teams message incorrectly. There are just currently supplier issues going on with this at the moment. Stock levels should return to normal shortly."

Five pages of absolute outrage for what was a communication error 🤣