Comments on: Costco Membership: Worth it if You Are Gluten-Free?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:36:18 +0000

I was scanning through the list of replies and I noticed a few products listed that I have seen which say “gluten-free” on the package but list CC warnings on the back. Do be careful and remember that certified products can contain up to 20ppm (parts-per-million) of gluten and still get marked “gluten-free”. I am an aspiring chemist and am a fan of the ELISA testing used to determine concentrations this low, but I do not like the FDA’s choice in its application in gluten regulation. I have had a bad experience with the “food should taste good” chips, to name one product, but that was when I was a GF beginner. When I ingested them I immediately lost my sense of balance and hang on to things to move around. I was so confused about what had happened and took a closer look at the package. Stomach symptoms were did not appear until later, but I can bet that I was not “de-glutened” enough to notice a big difference in discomfort. I wouldn’t try them again, but I learned that I shouldn’t tangle with “certified-gluten” free products without further research on possible contamination sources.
Good luck and gluten-free-ness to all!!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:12:11 +0000

I found some great gluten free items at our Costco. We love the Casual Gourmet’s chicken sausages, Snikkidy Eat Your Vegetables chips, Organic Tortilla chips, Food Should Taste Good Brown Rice Crackers, Skinny Pop Popcorn, Hi, I’m Skinny: Sweet Onion Flavored Rings all natural and baked! and of course, their produce is awesome. Having a younger family new to the gluten, dairy, egg, sugar free lifestyle, these are some of my treasures that my kids are happy to eat. Sadly, no baked goods or bread yet though.

By: Lynn M

Lynn M — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:25:25 +0000

Hey, thanks for this post. I’ve recently had to go gluten free and am gearing up to make a trip to Costco. I’m glad that I’ll have an easier time finding things than I hoped!

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:00:03 +0000

Over the past year or so, I’ve found the Costco stores in the Denver area have added a huge amount of gluten-free products. My all-time favorite is a 2-loaf bag of Rudi’s Multigrain Bread in the freezer section for about $6.50. Yup, that’s just about half price of any of the local grocery stores. I wish they would carry more of the Udi’s products like muffins, bagels, pizza crusts, cookies, etc.

Sam’s Club is also seeming to catch up with Costco in the gluten-free area. Maybe stores are starting to catch on that this celiac thing/gluten sensitivity thing just isn’t going away!

The cure for the Costco hot dog craving – take your own hotdog bun made by Outside the Breadbox in Colorado Springs, CO & get a Kirkland hotdog carefully placed in your bun. Let the bun steam for a minute, add condiments & you’ll be in freaking magic hot dog land!

Who says gluten-free eating is awful? KEEP LOOKING, and ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT!

By: Johanna barron

Johanna barron — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:09:52 +0000

Please please consider Canadian costco my children love Udi bread and muffins, in Canada I pay 8 dollars for a loaf of GF bread and 10 for the muffins!!

By: Monisha

Monisha — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:18:56 +0000

I love Udi’s products and would be SOO excited if Costco carried them because it would mean that I could eat more of my favorite Gf Breads and bagels!

PLease ,please come to Costco in North Carolina!!

By: Sammy

Sammy — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:04:12 +0000

It’s about time. I would LOVE Costco to carry more Gluten Free products! WhaaaHooo! Now if we can just get them to also carry GMO free products and grass fed meat. Buffalo would be great too. We need a place we can buy clean dairy, meat, eggs, grain & produce that hasn’t been modified, pumped full of hormones or otherwise mucked around with.

By: etaibaron

etaibaron — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:34:16 +0000

I’m the CEO of Udi’s Gluten Free Foods. I was on your blog reading your review of our Lemon Muffins and Pizza Crust (I’m super glad your daughter liked them!). I wanted to comment about gluten free choices at Costco because we’ve been running a market test in the Denver Colorado area. You can currently find our gluten free muffins, breads and granolas at different Denver area Costco clubs. Costco has been very interested in seeing if they could offer more gluten free options to their members while adhering to their strict product performance guidelines. Costco won’t carry a product that doesn’t meet a minimum sales amount. Compare this to the fact that most food retailers don’t have this minimum sales guideline and you can begin to understand why Costco hasn’t offered more gluten free choices.

Bottom line for our current market test is if the gluten free consumers (and dollars) are there for Costco then they will slowly bring on more gluten free choices and, specifically in our case, bakery items. I’m hoping that our test finds some success because I think it can not only offer more choice (which is always good) to the gluten free consumer but it can also offer real cost relief. One of the reasons Costco is so successful is because they not only have THE lowest margin structure in the industry but they also typically cut out the middle man by buying direct. In non-industry speak, this means that Costco always offers better values to their members because of how they do business. We all know that the current costs of making gluten free baked goods are very high due to the limited supply of ingredients. If Costco chooses to get into gluten free you can be sure that the gluten free consumer will find some much needed cost relief. At Udi’s we think this will be good for everyone especially the gluten free consumers.

I welcome additional feedback. My email is below.
thanks,

Etai Bar-on
CEO Udi’s Gluten Free and Granola
etai {at} udisfood(.)com