The Original Fudgsicle Mishap

                             My Grocery Cart

About 3 months ago I was in the market as usual,  doing my weekly grocery shopping, in the second to last row: the freezer section.  I wanted my weekly fudge pop indulgence.  I grabbed the package in the backity back!! The most frozen one I could find, and decided to blog this wonderful gluten free treat.  I realized I had never blogged about this fudge pop being gluten-free, and how silly of me to keep this tid bit to myself.  So I grabbed my phone to take a picture of the front and back of the box.  I gasped! omg, omg, omg.  I starred at the ingredients.  MALT FLOUR.  Yikes!  No way!  It can't be.  How come I never noticed this before?  Did the ingredients change?  Was it always like this?  Something had to have changed and then to top it off I noticed at the bottom of the ingredients list: CARAMEL COLORING (yes, sometimes derived from corn, and yes always check, but I have a serious reaction to Caramel coloring, and many other Celiac's do as well)...I never had any symptoms.  But then I stopped there, dead in my tracks.  I recalled having mysterious symptoms, figuring it was gluten, but unable to figure out from where...I always check the ingredients....

As it turns out, I had neglected to check the ingredients.  I want to assume, that I must have assumed they were fine and gluten-free.  For the life of me I cannot figure out why I made such a stupid move.  Never assume.

I can't even tell you how many months with even the possibility of years on and off!! did I eat The Original Fudgsicle 40 calorie pops.  It was the best evening snack ever!  And I used to eat 2.  Forever I promoted The Fudgsicle to friends and family.  And here all this time I thought it was Gluten-free.  Always.  Never a doubt in my mind.

Once I saw the word Malt, I googled it.  Malt Powder, and does it have gluten like I think it does?  It does.  I actually found a few blog posts where other Celiac's experienced this same incident.  There were even posts dated back to 2009.  So it looks like in this case I am the fool, because clearly Malt powder has been in these babies for quite a while.

The moral of the story?  Check.  Always CHECK.  Even if you are an expert, a Doctor, A beginner, A friend, A family member, A boyfriend who knows everything or a fellow Celiac.  Check.  There are times when we experience Cross Contamination or what I like to call Slippage.  There are going to be times that you slip, completely unintentional.  Mystery symptoms are a constant and consistent reminder to get yourself in CHECK.  If you are having symptoms and are on the gluten-free diet, re-check what you are eating.  

Happy Gluten-Freeing!

xoxo Julie

http://www.goodiegoodiegluten-free.blogspot.com/