I should clarify, Whole Foods is a great place. They carry many vegan and allergy friendly brands, which is really awesome. I just have one issue, their made in store items.
I first went to Whole Foods about five or six years ago. I don’t live super close to one so its not that convenient to go, but when my mom heard that they had a good selection of allergy friendly foods we made the trip. It was cool to be able to go and have pretty much a whole section where I could have mostly everything.
Over those past few years, my mom has gone about once every four to five months and picked me up some vegan desserts and snacks.
Around a year ago, my mom was there and she found the Whole Foods brand made in store section. They had a selection of vegan treats we never knew about. My mom would always buy the Abe’s or Divvie’s (two great allergy friendly brands) desserts that While Foods supplied, but she had no idea that Whole Foods had their own vegan deserts too. So of course she bought these two beautiful chocolate cupcakes.
When she got home I was so excited and I ate one of the cupcakes right away! It was great and it was cool to find anther desert I could have!
A couple months later, my mom went back and picked up some more Whole Foods brand treats. They were marked as vegan and I was really excited. When she got home I took a huge bite and it was great, until I realized something wasn’t right. I was having a reaction. We double checked the packaging, but it claimed the cupcakes were vegan, meaning no eggs, no milk. I should have been fine. We treated the reaction and I was OK, but it was frustrating, where did someone mess up? We ended up calling the store, just to explain what happened in hopes of helping other people who were possibly about to be in our situation. They weren’t sure exactly what happened either, but most likely the cupcake was mislabeled.
If you are selling food, your ingredients and labeling must be correct because that could have been a lot worse. Imagine you gave that to an allergic toddler who cant speak for themselves when somethings wrong.
Even after this experience, I still love Whole Foods. I think its really cool that they carry vegan brands that a lot of normal grocery stores don’t. I just don’t buy their made in store treats anymore. I’m sure it was a one time thing, but why take the risk. I’d rather get what I know is safe, and enjoy that.
Food Allergy Eats 