Hi Ebbie

Seriously sounds like you should take time to write to Tesco's head office and lodge a formal complaint about that. Atkins or no, that's a disgraceful way to treat any customer.

As for sausages (you could always make your own?), its worth having a look at the quorn range. I can't say for certain, but I seem to remember they were wheat free. On the plus side for you, the only reason I don't buy them is because they taste too sausagey!

I don't think Waitrose has spread as far as Sussex yet, has it? Only they've really pulled their socks up in the wheat/gluten free department... had some fantastic stuff on offer last time I was there!

Anyway... you deserve to be sainted for keeping your temper as well as you did! I hereby dub you, Saint Ebbie!

Well considering i was ranting and raving at the girl i was very surprised nobody in management heard and came over, they probably did hear and went and hid! LOL

Unfortunately been here before with stores and i have never got anywhere. The worst one was when i was 8 months pregnant in the Co-op i was standing by the veg when the next thing i knew i was pushed flying and was only stopped from hitting the floor by my DH grabbing me. One of the shop workers had pushed me as i was standing where she wanted to restock, she never said a word before pushing me nor offered any appology afterwards. We complained to the manager but because the girl had Down syndrome he said that he would not be able to take any action against her. Now i support the rights of all disabled workers, but if this girl's condition was this bad she shouldn't of been allowed to work on the shop floor. We threatened legal action and wrote to the Co-ops head office but that didn't get us anywhere and then with my DD arrival it got left. I have heard many other similar stories about this girl but still to this day she works there.

Had a good result at Asda once though. My DH brought a rhubarb crumble but being a man didn't notice the sticker pricing it at £8!!
Took it back wasn't angry at all, even found it funny when she said that no one else had noticed and bought it back. Anyway got another crumble, £8 refund and vouchers for £25 for my trouble!

"I had to go into Tesco's today to have something to eat. When it finally got to my turn (loads of staff standing chatting only one serving as usual) i asked if the sausage's contained any wheat (i have a wheat intolerance)"

I hope you send a copy of your email to the store manager and to the head office. [separate thread - still awaiting my reply from Sainsbury who say they respond to every email - hope the rest of you have had better luck!] SL

Don't write to Tesco, call them and complain at the store manager. They had labelled some cookies wrong once and my friend bought choc chip and found out they had peanuts in. She went MAD at them, saying how her son was desperately allergic blah bah blah. She got a full refund, more cookies and £25 in vouchers. REALLY HAVE A GO!!! Find out that girl's name too. She's no business being in a customer oriented business if she can't behave.

Hi Ebbie,

Dont know if this helps but Safeways stock Gluten free Sausages, and they are really yummy !

Good on you for having a go at the shop assistants, still think you should take the matter further though !!

Lisa

Stevia and Splenda were recommended by Atkins as acceptable sweetners because of the potential harmful effects of Aspartame the main ingredient in food industry "diet" ranges and most sweetners on the shelves.

Splenda is sucrolose, a product of sugar itself and has passed all the food agency rigorous tests.

This is not true of Stevia. Nor does Stevia have the authentic sugar tasting quality of Splenda. (I have tried both)

I suggest our campaign should be to press for liquid Splenda to be introduced as a table top product and for the food industry to switch from Aspartame to Sucrolose.

The following gives the case against Stevia. It is a strange fact of life that most beneficial drugs and most poisons are natural extracts of plants. Some berries are edible others not. Some mushrooms edible some not. Just because something is natural does not necessarily make it safe to eat.

Stevioside is a high intensity sweetener, 250-300 times sweeter than sugar

It is isolated and purified from the leaves of the Stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), where it is present at levels up to 13%, and has been used for a number of years as a sweetener in South America, Asia, Japan and China.

As a result of the outcome of safety assessments which have been carried out Stevia and stevioside are not permitted for sale as food or food ingredients in the UK or elsewhere within the EU.

Sweeteners and other food additives are tightly regulated within the European Union (EU) and may only be used once their safety has been rigorously assessed.

The EC Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) is an independent committee that advises the European Commission on questions concerning consumer health and food safety, in particular relating to toxicology and food hygiene.

The SCF identified safety problems with stevioside and steadfastly rejected applications to market the plant and its products as sweeteners and as novel foods within the European Union. No amount of lobbying to the supermarkets will change this.

Stevioside was first considered by the SCF for approval for use as a sweetener within the EU in 1985 and the review was updated in 1989.

On both occasions the Committee raised several questions of concern and concluded that, based on the submitted documentation, it could not accept its use. Extracts from Stevia rebaudiana leaves were also considered as toxicologically not acceptable.

A further application for approval of stevioside was received by the European Commission in 1998 and again referred to the SCF.

The data considered by the Committee indicated that the extract has the potential to produce adverse effects in the male reproductive system that could affect fertility and that a metabolite produced by the human gut microflora, steviol, is genotoxic (ie. damages DNA).

The Committee concluded that stevioside was not acceptable as a sweetener.

In 1998 a request was made for Stevia (the plants and dried leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) to be marketed as a novel food under the EU novel foods legislation (Regulation 258/97(EC)).

The application was initially evaluated by the Belgian Authorities who recommended that the product should not be approved.

The product was then considered in the UK by the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) as part of the approval process for novel foods.

The ACNFP agreed with the opinion of the Belgian Authorities and recommended that the product should not be approved due to lack of information supporting its safety, a view that was shared by a number of other Member States. The application was subsequently referred to the SCF.

The SCF concluded in June 1999 that the information submitted on the plant products was insufficient with regard to specification and standardisation of the commercial product and contained no safety studies.

There was no satisfactory data to support the safe use of these products as ingredients in food or as sucrose substitutes.

In December 1999 the Joint MAFF/DH Food Safety and Standards Group wrote to various companies known to be trading in Stevia products, informing them of the SCF’s opinion and stating that Stevia should not be offered for sale as a food or food ingredient in the UK.

Just emailed them all, hope it works, let you know of any feed back, I went heavily on the diabetic theme too, see if that helps.

Splenda is available as a table top sweeetener everywhere in the UK - Tescos, Superdrug etc. You can buy it as a powder and the usual little tablets.

And is still made with chlorine, no matter how patronising the earlier comment about natural products was. Sigh...

Count me out in the campaign for more of the stuff.

I wasn't saying I liked it or thought it was healthy - I was just pointing out to rustpot that it is available. I prefer saccharine - I can't taste the aftertaste everyone talks about - maybe I've got used to it.

Ideally we should have the choice - splenda, stevia or what have you. I'm fed up with the nanny state with its 'you can't buy more than 16 aspirins or you might kill yourself' attitude.

My sincere apologies, Robert... I wasn't for one moment meaning to imply you'd said anything of the kind. Likewise, I was largely referring to the earlier post...

As you say, Splenda is readily available for those who wish to buy it. Even better that you find saccharine works for you... I hope you feel duly smug whilst others scrabble for alternatives!

Its the hypocrisy which gets me I guess. That and the frequent decision to ban natural products on the basis of alleged contra-indications without applying the same yardstick to chemical ones.

As for stevia... I'm learning not to waste my energy on that topic here. But it's not like folk on this forum aren't well practised at fighting through the nonsensical assertions of the "authorities" to get to the truth...

The origin of this thread was about persuading the supermarkets to stock more low carbohydrate products. Something I was happy to support. Seems to have turned in to an obsession about sugar substitutes instead... which, personally, I think is a shame.

Sorry guys, Moi was not trying to be patronising merely informative.

Ebbie B had said that Stevia was naturally made whereas Splenda was chemically made. I was suggesting that things natural need not necessarily be safe. It is also true that things chemically made need not necessarily be harmfull. Neither is an argument for advocating use.

I agree with Rob that particular sweetners are a matter of individual taste.

Liquid Splenda is not available in table top form. Sachets, Granular, and tablets are, following the approval of Splenda by UK food authorities.

My key point in this thread was that if we were petitioning stores my vote would be to urge them to put pressure on thier suppliers to replace Aspartame with Sucrolose as a safer option with no loss of taste.

"When asked to choose between chewing on real nightshade and artificial, tests show 9 out of 10 users actively prefer to live..."

Its a fair comment Rustpot... it never does to assume "natural" and "safe" are one and the same thing. Though I'm severely chemically intolerent, so in my case chemical things are pretty much guaranteed to be harmful!

As Atkins has proved to us all, you can't always trust the word of the authorities! Dubious terms like "could affect fertility" make me wonder what an impartial scientist or doctor's findings would be. It'd also be interesting to know what research has been done with the tribes in the area it comes from.

I share your healthy sceptism of "authorities".

I was not suprised to see that Susan Jebb the nutritionist savaging Atkins in the press recently is employed by the Flour industry to do a study on obesity.

Are there any impartial scientists left?

I am also passionate about unrefined natural foods.

We could, if we put our minds to it, create a massive list of no no's, bombarding the supermarkets against E numbers in our food, unnecessary preservatives, tartrazine in childrens drinks, the over use of salt, added sugar, misleading low fat marketing etc. etc.

I wholeheatedly support the central tenet of this thread to to put shoppers pressure on Supermarkets to cater for the LC way of eating.

We have perhaps got sidetracked on just one element of such an LC campaign - sugar replacement.

Nor am I qualified to support or criticise the Scientific Committee on Food.

I have tried Stevia with no personal ill effects, and my gut instinct is that the harmfull suggestions are overblown cautious nonsense.

The fact is that Splenda is available and Stevia unlikely in the foreseeable future. We would be better off not using any sweetners at all.

I haven't done my bit yet. I'm going to get back on track and e-mail a few supermarkets this weekend. I shan't mention Atkins; just congratulate them on the low carb products they've got and suggest more, different lines they might stock. I think hitting out at sugar might be productive. It wouldn't be too dificult for one of them to market a sugar free ketchup for example - and it would be welcomed by all dieters - even the calorie counting brigade to say nothing of diabetics and saving children's teeth.