It turns out that many General Mills products (ex: Betty Crocker (includes Bisquick), Chex cereals, etc) are NOT gluten free after all. I have returned all mine to my local Food City for a refund, stating specifically this reason as why I brought them back, and stating that this reason needed to be put on the refund slip. I've also posted a shorter version of this post to the Food City Facebook page, so that more people will be aware, customers and FC folks.
Here's how I found out (besides the fact that I started showing symptoms of being glutened after eating more of the products):
My Chex cereals were already open, so I let friends eat them. I also returned the BC frosting and the Bisquick mix, neither of which had been opened. I was looking forward to pancakes that tasted like regular pancakes, but not with that kind of risk!
Just how out-of-touch is General Mills?
Here is an excerpt from the blog I have linked above, in case you don't have time to read the entire entry right now (but you really should take the time to go read it all!):
Those of us who eat gluten free did not indulge in the baked goods offered in the closing baking event. The rolling pins, wooden spoons, and spatulas had previously been used to make gluten-full items. One General Mills spokesperson told us that the products had been cleaned and heated to 200 degrees. When she was told that heating didn’t remove gluten, she looked at us like were looney tunes. That was yet another educational piece of the gluten-free pie for General Mills. It was an unsettling moment for sure because if that information is not known or understood, to me it raises doubts about the status of their gluten-free products.
My reaction to this? If baking removed/killed gluten, I could eat baked goods! Maybe that's why the Betty Crocker "gluten free" desserts tasted like the "real thing" . . . there really was gluten in there. *sigh*
I, along with others in the GF community, are hoping that General Mills will take the points made very seriously, clean up their act, and get themselves certified by GFCO. Right now, word is being spread NOT to buy these products.
