DAMN YOU Artcaffe TO HELL FOR SERVING GLUTEN FREE COOKIES WITH TRACES OF GLUTEN!!!
I have been gluten free for over 2 years now, meaning I can't eat anything with flour(chapati,cakes, pastries, pies, bread), wheat or soya sauce, when I go to restaurants I always tell the waiter to tell the chef that I'm gluten free so as to make sure I don't expose myself to any gluten. If I do I get sick as a dog to give you an idea it's like having full blown malaria.
I only drink wine or fruit based alcohol which is very limiting, you will be shocked on how many drinks are made from wheat and barley, yes it is that serious.
I read the labels on everything, I google ingredients all day.
So my mum calls me yesterday and told me she will buy my gluten free cookies from artcafe, I'm like whaaaatt they actually do gluten free, chocolate chip please! For the gluten free people we low the struggle all to well of finding gluten free snacks or food.
I had a few that night and I felt off but I never thought too much of it, today I carried some of the cookies to my think tank session to munch on because I knew they will not have any gluten free snacks for me which I munched on mid-morning.
At some point in the meeting I start feeling even worse all this while I'm poping antihistamines like tic tacs, a very nice lady brings the group chocolate so I read the ingredients as usual and it says may contain traces of gluten.
Bummer I thought and gave it a pass as the gluten free life I have to live to be healthy, before my diagnosis I got soo sick I couldn't eat for a 7days I just kept throwing up, fever, stomach cramps so had to go to hospital after a battery of tests I was diagnosed with gluten& lactose intolerant.
In the meeting I'm feeling sick as a dog thinking to myself what have I eaten that has made me sick, I remember I ate my mom's veggie rice last night, I sms her and ask her how did you make the pilau.
She tells me "I fried onions added cinnamon, ginger, cardinnom, cloves and turmeric added peas carrots and the rice. Did it make you sick?" I said "Kind of even the pilau did so I'm not sure why it doesn't agree with my system...no worries tho "
On my home I was even googling if cardamon&cloves contain gluten(they don't), I was clearly desperate because now I have a fever, the chills, headache, lethargy, chest tightness. I thought about it some more and I was like there is no way any of ingredients can make me sick. Now I ask myself what have I eaten that I don't normally eat and it was the "GLUTEN FREE COOKIES FROM ARTCAFE!"
I get home in a huff feeling sick as a dog call Artcafe westgate where my mum bought them.
A lady answers and I explain that I have a complaint about the "gluten free" cookies and she says "we outsource them to a bakery so we can not be sure they are gluten free" and gets the manager Joffery. Artcaffe Complaint On Misleading Labelling from Cyprian Nyakundi on Vimeo .
I ask if the bakery is gluten free and the manager tells me that no it not, I'm like WTF(in my head clearly), then then he goes on to say that we even tell the buying customers there maybe traces of gluten. Your not serious I shout how can something be gluten free and contain traces of gluten, there is no logic to that!
He passes me on to a lady well spoken and she says "I apologize that that the traces of gluten made you sick THOUGH the sticker on the box clearly states that it may have traces of gluten".
I ask her how can it be gluten free when it contains traces of gluten??? She says she is not sure but they are checking on it and if there is anything they can do to make it better let me know... I say to myself how about not making false claims of being gluten free when your not, how about taking the fever, chills, headache, backache, scratchy throat away, how about buying the antihistamines I will have to take to barley function not to mention I will be sick for weeks if not months before the gluten is completely out of my system because Artcafe thought serving gluten free cookies with traces of gluten to people suffering from gluten intolerance is a joke.
I go to the kitchen in disbelief to check the box I read the front of the pack and it says "GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES" so I'm like I don't see it so I flip it over the the side where I see in small text "MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF GLUTEN" and I am stupefied!