WalMart’s Great Value Gluten-Free Changes

Great Value Products Before the Packaging Change

I am a bit disappointed. Just last May I raved about how great the Great Value gluten-free labeling was at WalMart, and now they’ve changed things, lowering the number of items it considers gluten free. What surprises me the most is that they’ve nixed some of the most basic options they had…rice? Really?

In most cases it appears to have happened with the change of the packaging for this generic WalMart brand. Back in May I showed you the picture of the items I had in my house that were labeled gluten free, but now these products look very different. The packaging is now white with blue lettering – very generic. You can see the sample picture of the new logo in the picture off to the side.

The company still has in place its gluten-free labeling (most of it actually now says “naturally gluten free food”) the number of items is just reduced. But it makes you wonder why some of these most basic items are no longer considered gluten-free. Especially if they’re using the term “naturally gluten free food”, what’s more

After the Great Value Packaging Change

naturally gluten-free than rice? Well since this is the “instant” rice version, my guess is somewhere there may be a concern in processing. But really isn’t the processing just precooking and dehydrating?

So here’s my snide comment for the day…when a naturally gluten-free product isn’t considered gluten-free, has it been “unnaturally glutenized”? Think about that. How companies screw up perfectly good foods for the rest of us. Not sure how this happened (allegedly) to the instant rice, but WalMart doesn’t want celiacs to eat the instant rice for fear of gluten-poisoning. So I guess we won’t.

Anyway, the list includes other foods besides rice, like syrup, baking soda, creamy peanut butter, all jam/jellies, mayonnaise, corn chips, and beets – just to name a few. You can see the entire list at Cecelia’s Marketplace.  Administrators at Cecelia’s Marketplace also gave out this phone number for you to express concerns about this change. 1-877-505-2267.

Be careful.  In the investigating I did online, the peanut butter information still said it was gluten-free.

While I am ranting a bit about this, the other side of the coin is that this company is really stepping up and labeling generic items well for our community.  I am thankful for this. I certainly can’t find this kind of service at Target or my local grocery store.  I just wish some simple foods,  like some of the few I’ve listed above, could just be listed as gluten-free.  Why is it so difficult? (Sigh).

Tags: celiacs, gluten-free, Great Value, groceries, label, labeling, shopping, WalMart