Get Your Money Back for Bad Tasting Food

There is a saying – I think coined by Oprah Winfrey – that when you know better, you do better. That sentiment can easily apply to gluten-free food. It’s a simple concept, and it’s certainly been proven true in my circle of gluten-free friends. When you taste better food, you eat better food. Rory Jones, who co-wrote Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic with Dr. Peter Green, spoke to our local support group a while back. Rory recounted the story of a small child who tried a bagel from Joan’s GF Greatbakes. The little girl liked it, but said it didn’t really taste like a bagel.

Those of us in the audience who’d had Joan’s wonderful bagels, laughed in unison. Unlike the child, who had never eaten a gluten bagel, we knew that Joan’s bagels tasted like ‘real’ bagels. The child had no idea what a real bagel tasted like because her whole life, she’d only had had gluten-free bagels. Based on her comment about Joan’s exceptional product, whatever the child grew up eating apparently didn’t taste much like a gluten bagel.

Dee Valdez, also known as Gluten Free Dee, who recently launched the first gluten-free food bank in the U.S., implores us all to take bad gluten-free food back to the store. Dee’s idea is fabulous and I’ve personally taken bad tasting food back to stores several times I’ve also requested refunds from internet sites when whatever I purchased tasted like what I assume cardboard does. Just make sure you know the return policies of the stores you shop at before heading back with your styrofoam tasting buns for a refund. Many smaller stores tend to have unforgiving return policies. In our area, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Publix and Kroger have extremely customer friendly return policies.   

The entire plan of Dee’s about returning bad food is particularly smart. Sure it’s great to get your money back, especially these days when most of us are watching our pennies tightly. Dee also explains that if people return bad tasting food to stores, eventually there might be a pattern that stores will pick up on. They might notice that products from a certain company or the same products are continually being returned by unhappy customers. Some large companies get their gluten-free products into stores simply because they are a large company. The taste of the items has nothing to do with anything. If companies make bad or sub par tasting products, they don’t deserve the store shelf space, particularly if there are five better products in the same product category available.

The average gluten-free consumer is spending anywhere from 20-60% more for gluten-free replacement foods than gluten shoppers spend on their food. Do the math. That’s a LOT of extra money just for food. Who would think someone would be forced to pay their bills or buy gluten-free food? Well, it happens and more often than most of us would like to think. Hence the need for gluten-free food  banks.

The gluten-free food bank program that Dee kicked off in Colorado last week is something to be commended and hopefully the program will spread to all the areas where there is a need for it. Take Dee’s challenge and take bad tasting food back and ask for a refund. Just think – you could possibly use the extra money to donate something to a gluten-free food program in your area, or even a regular food bank. It is the season for giving and giving to someone who needs food – of any kind – is a worthwhile cause indeed.

Special thanks to Gluten Free Dee for being an inspiration to others and for reminding us that just because we can’t eat gluten, doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy amazingly delicious food!