I have been gluten free for well over 5 years now and am overly cautious when it comes to eating foods I did not prepare myself. However, as I am sure many of you know it is still a challenge and sometimes, no matter how diligent you are, gluten sneaks in – gasp! Let’s face it isolating gluten components from packing is not as easy as some think because you need to be very well versed in some of the more non-traditional way gluten can sneak in.
That’s right, yours truly had a minor run in the other day and I will be the first to say it was my fault. I always read product packaging as though it were an exciting novel — so when you see the guy in the market staring intently at a box, that’s me.
For my little brunch party the other day I was perusing the aisles of my favorite gourmet shop and stumbled across a glorious pile of French chocolate truffles. So, I picked up the box and read the ingredients. Unfortunately a “replacement label” in English had been plastered over the original French and other European languages citing the ingredients. Having lived in France I would have preferred to just read the original labeling but looked at the translation and it seemed to be just fine.
Alas, things are not always what they seem. After my splendid brunch we retired to the living room and I thought what better way to cap off the day that with the truffles – and they were FABULOUS. However, as I was letting the delicate chocolate morsel melt in my mouth I noticed a bit of a more solid texture. Curious I thought. Perhaps some crystallization of the sugar?
I went back to the kitchen and looked at the package, this time peeling off the English overlay and there it was…wheat gluten. Damn! Well, thankfully I did not have a bad reaction but even after all this time being gluten free it reinforced that you can never be lax and need to question everything. Oh well, lesson learned. I am just sad because the chocolate was to die for and such a shame it was not GF.
Tags: product labels
