Gluten-free Cafe Introduces New Products

Even though none of the soups from the Health Valley line were ever labeled gluten-free, the company stated that if a product contained gluten, it would be listed on the label. Each time I called the company about one of their soups that seemed to be gluten-free, the person on the customer service line event stated that gluten would not be hidden in “natural flavors”.  Good enough. I’ve been using their cream of celery and cream of chicken  soups for over three years now. Each product I’ve consumed has been gluten-free.

Back in November 2009, Clan Thompson reported on one of the updates that Health Valley soups were no longer considered gluten-free. They had not seemingly changed the ingredients. Here is the actual statement from the company:

“Unfortunately we are unable to guarantee our Health Valley Organic Cream Of Mushroom Soup is gluten free. Consumer health and safety is our number one concern. We do not have lists of products that are specifically considered to be gluten free. Reading the label is the best way to check for the presence of ingredients which contain gluten. If gluten is a major ingredient, it will be specified in the ingredient list. For consumers concerned about the presence of trace amounts of gluten, we suggest avoiding products that include natural flavors or spices.”

We have been using these soups routinely (long after the company’s change in tune) without issue and did not learn of the Clan Thompson update until recently. Still, I’ve had no problems with the soup. We finished up our last can recently so I decided to call the company and inquire about why they  could no longer state the soups were gluten-free. The person I spoke to said they did not test those soups for gluten-free status. Their policy is now that they can’t state anything is gluten-free if it has not been tested. I asked if they had changed suppliers for ingredients in the soup. They stated they had not. I bought more of the soups this week.

While doing some online research, I came upon some interesting information. Gluten-free Cafe is introducing a new line of gluten-free soups. They are rolling out to Whole Foods and many health food stores next week. At least two of them will be available from Amazon.com on March 30th. The company representative I spoke to said that consumers can ask their local health food stores to bring these new gluten-free soups in, as many will not be aware of their existence.

Health Valley is owned by Hain Celestial. Hain Celestial also owns Gluten-Free Cafe. So, the mystery is solved. The company went to the trouble of making gluten-free soup and wants to sell it to gluten-free consumers, instead of the products that are not tested. That’s perfectly understandable, but why they could not just come out and say that instead of inferring that the soups that people have been safely consuming for years might not be safe anymore is odd, to say the least. In this case, it’s doubtful this is about a CYA statement, it’s more likely all about marketing. It’s interesting that the Hain Celiestial website does not include Gluten-free Cafe on their gluten-free product page.

Having the words “gluten-free” on a can of pineapple or jar of mayo is not of great importance to me because there is very little (if any) risk that those things would ever contain gluten. Having the term on a can of soup is an added value that I am willing to pay more for. At least on Amazon.com, the new Gluten-free Cafe soups are about the same price as the Health Valley soups.  It’s pretty exciting that there is a chicken noodle soup and a veggie noodle soup for vegetarians. However, the new soup line up doesn’t presently include a cream of celery soup. Therefore, I’ll be buying the Health Valley version like I’ve always done. As the company representative stated to me recently, I’ll “make sure to always read the label if the product isn’t marked gluten-free”. Good enough.

*Gluten-free Cafe is also introducing several gluten-free bars, as listed on Amazon.com.