Gluten Scanner Apps Are Not Reliable

I just don’t understand, maybe because I was born in an era where you had to research stuff for accuracy. Not just school, but life. You couldn’t just post a picture on Facebook and ask “Is this gluten free?” No you had to take time to call, email, write a company and ask, “Hi what is your policy on gluten free products? Do you have gluten free products?” So you can imagine I was a bit skeptical about an app that scans products to look for gluten.

OK don’t get me wrong, I love convenience items, but I’ve worked with technology development, it’s not perfect. It can only be as smart as the programmer (Or the person who wrote the specs for the programmer) so how can an app accurately tell me if a product contains gluten? I’ve yet to see one that is spot on all the time. Ingredient sources and ingredients change often how can they keep up with that? There are several reason why the apps are not accurate. 

1 – They don’t work with the manufacturers to find out ingredient sources. Aldi’s corporation has a lot of gluten free products with their fancy logo saying so. One day I contacted them regarding an item without that logo. Their response was “we can’t verify ingredient sources, so it might not be safe, we don’t put the logo on the package.” So while it may look safe because you don’t see gluten ingredients listed, it might be highly cross contaminated, How is an app going to verify that??

2 – The information in the barcode may not be accurate or the full truth. Manufacturers are NOT REQUIRED to label if an item is made on shared lines or in a shared facility. Birdseye Veggies always scan as 100% safe on every app I’ve seen. They’re made on shared lines, which for many Celiac suffers means No purchase. I’m sure they’re not the only one this happens with. 

3 – They don’t know ingredients country of origin, Maltodextrin in the US is generally not made with wheat, and if it is, will be listed, since wheat is 1 of the top 8 allergens. Maltodextrin along with Starches and Sugar tend to make apps hiccup; why, because outside the US it might be made with wheat, and the app doesn’t know where it’s from. 

These reasons alone make me cringe when someone says “I Trust The App Over The Packaging” Really?? OMG NO! Honestly? The app doesn’t care if it’s right, but the manufacturer does, because there are lots of risks of having wrong information on a package. I find it rather frightening we blindly trust technology over people we ask questions to face to face, or purchase.

For an item to be labeled gluten free, in the US it has to be assumed to have less than 20ppm of gluten in the product, so If you scan it with an app and it says “May contain gluten” Check if it contains any Starch, Sugar, or Maltodextrin. Those items alone will make the app hiccup and give you a false answer. When in doubt reach out to the company. You’ll get the best, most accurate answer to your question. Yes it takes you an extra 5 minutes you can’t browse Facebook or post to Instagram, but that little bit of research will give you an accurate answer that you can confidently share with others.

I keep a draft email written and I copy and paste it into an email or on the online forms to a company. It won't hurt to ask, yes you have to wait, the response won't be instantaneous, but you'll get a better answer. Another place to look, on the company website! You'd be shocked how informative FAQ's are on a company site. 

An email I received recently thanked me for reaching out to ask about their products and applauded that I let them know how important correct labeling is for them as a company. As people with food allergies we always complain how we want more people to be aware and understand us, but we don't stand up and let our voice be heard where it's most important. - To the people who manufacture our food! Yes if you suffer with anxiety talking to strange people can be scary, but it's really what we need to be doing to get our voices heard. Contact companies ask the questions, press them why they don't label if it's gluten free. That is how we can both get the most accurate information but also get our voice heard.

Bok Choy - Modified Gluten Free Menu

A while back we noticed one of our few staples for Chinese food Wok N Fire was no longer in Addison. It was a sad day for us since PF Changs is a bit of a cluster to eat at on the weekends, (It can be an hour + wait!) and no other places that offer gluten free Chinese food really. Wok N Fire was now Bok Choy Asian Kitchen, which my fiancé felt was an odd name, since he finds it to be a disgusting, dismissive vegetable. :D I emailed them 3-4 times asking if they had gluten free options, with no response. Then out of the blue 4 months later I got an email “Yes we have gluten free options.” I wasn’t sold on their poor customer service so we skipped it. We finally gave in and decided to give it a try. My fiancé pulled up their online menu. It now lists gluten free options. So we opted to give it a try. 

First off it was a Sunday night, not busy, no one at the hostess stand…. We got seated the host took us thru the whole place to find us a seat. The décor has not changed at all since the name change, a year ago. The server was a bit flaky but seemed to understand gluten free. We got a bowl of Edamame which is our favorite. Over all we were disappointed that the menu was Mostly Sushi, and some entrees off on 1 page. They had a whole page of mixed drinks and barely any non-alcoholic options. Wok N Fire had amazing ginger ales and lemonades, not at Bok Choy. We opted to try a couple things so we split the Teriyaki Chicken with Gluten free Fried Rice, and the Pad Thai. I Love Pad Thai, always have. Personally with steak is my favorite. So we ordered steak pad Thai. When our food showed up the server made sure to announce – “Both these dishes are made gluten free.” Great! Then as I stared at it I asked my fiancé, “What did he bring me?” My dish was most certainly not steak. It was chicken and tofu. He told us he rang it in correctly but the kitchen made whatever. (WHAT?!) Once I had him re-confirm that it was gluten free, I told him we’ll just eat it, no big deal. Next time I’ll have them re-make it. I Was NOT a fan of the tofu, the chicken was only OK. The Teriyaki Chicken w/fried rice was a LOT better. 

Not Steak... Not a Fan of Tofu!

We can say we’ve eaten here, if I’m out with my sushi loving friends I might make a stop here again, but most likely not with my fiancé, there was so little on the menu that was worth having for a meal unless you want sushi. Which was sad, the fried rice was good. But I don’t think I can justify going to a place just for fried rice, unless it’s a really bad stress craving, and then we’d probably do carryout and get food elsewhere. The fact the kitchen made “whatever they wanted” annoyed me. 

Personally not a fan of tofu, so I kept shoving it aside and just at the noodles, which lacked a lot of the usual Pad Thai flavor. It was hard to tell some of the chicken from the tofu, which was odd to me. I give them 3 dragonflies, while they have options, the kitchen isn’t attentive, and their menu is lacking from what it used to be. Plus our server seemed annoyed that I wasn't just happy with the fact he brought me "A" gluten free dish..