So Dominos Pizza has jumped on the gluten free bandwagon and is offereing a gluten free pizza. Fantastic, until you read the small print that says your meal may contain traces of gluten. Now I find this disclaimer to be very confusing. Does the gluten free base contain traces of gluten? Or will only the toppings have gluten? Is a trace amount of gluten supposed to be ok? Possibly gluten free, certainly doesn’t sound as enticing as gluten free.
Veronica is up on her soapbox talking about Dominos and coeliacs. I was more than happy to leave this debate in her capable hands until I received these tweets.
@frogpondsrock @Pizza_Dominos is doing the best they can in providing meal options 4 a variety of target groups.
My grand daughter isn’t a target group. She is a little girl with Coeliacs. Gluten damages her intestines, it gives her stomach pain and diarrhoea.The damage to her intestine takes three weeks to heal during which time she cannot absorb any nutrients from her food at all. Can you imagine not being able to eat for three weeks? How ill you would become? How much weight you would lose? A target group bah.
Then there was this @ reply that I only saw by chance.
@Pizza_Dominos @frogpondsrock thank you for your comment. Someone will be in touch on Monday to discuss
Ok? How exactly will they be in touch with me to discuss? I dont have an email address listed on my twitter account. Will @Pizza_Dominos tweet at me once or twice and think that is enough? Will they hope that because I don’t respond to their tweets that I have forgotten, or that I am busily ordering takeaway poison for my grand daughter right this minute.
Gluten free means gluten free. It doesn’t mean sort of gluten free-ish, or we would like it to be gluten fee so we can capture a niche market. I smell a marketing ploy that hasn’t been properly thought out.
Talk to me Dominos and we will see what comes of this. Explain your position and I will publish it here. My teenage son loves your pizzas but as I am the one that pays for them, I think he will be going through a bit of a Dominos free stage.
*edited, it has been brought to my attention that Dominos wasn’t responsible for the tweet referring to target groups. It was Andrew sticking up for Dominos and he would like me to get my facts straight.Or my tweets straight in this case.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Since you’re reposting Veronica’s Dominos piece, I’ll repost my comment:
Hey Dominos. I’d like to order 10 gluten free pizzas. Here’s a check* for $200.
*While I will do everything possible to insure there are funds in my bank account at the time you cash my check, I may fuck up and the check could possibly bounce. Sorry Dominos.
P.S. If it bounces, contact me on twitter @Wanderlust_kbx. Maybe I’ll see your tweet.
@ Kristin I liked your comment when I read it on Veronia’s post and I like it here as well. *snort*
I haven’t re-posted Veronica’s post it just looks the same because we are shirty with Dominos and the image is the same. I was going to leave Dominos alone until their tweets got my back up.
Sounds like they need to CLARIFY what “traces of gluten” would be. Is it like the peanut-free stuff that is made on equipment that also processes peanuts? (That CANNOT be eaten by people with peanut allergies?)
Some people like Woodjie have allergies but not serious deadly ones. If, say, my son were to drink a glass of milk he’s ALLERGIC to milk, but likely wouldn’t hurt him any. His allergies are not so severe that we worry about someone accidentally touching butter and then touching him… but because he HAS allergies, we avoid milk and eggs.
We are just BLESSED that even though we have to look out for allergies, that we do NOT need to do the freakout dance if something slips in.
HOpe that was clear… maybe they make it for people who can tolerate a little cross-contamination but not SERIOUS gluten problems.
I don’t know until they BOTHER RESPONDING though. Hm. I’ll be watching the blogs and see what they say.
@ Mrs C. I will be interested to see what they have to say as well. It will probably just be a politically correct form letter rattled off by a junior employee in their public relations dept. I think that Dominos expected to get a pat on the back for making a gluten free range of pizzas. I dont think they were expecting Veronica to take issue with their small print.Or me to take issue with their tweets. In Australia you cant say that something is Gluten free unless it is 100% gluten free.
Way to go Kim!!
I left my comment on this subject on Veronica’s blog.
How bizarre Domino’s deciding to take this up on Twitter. Is there a way to check it is Domino’s? I would imagine their lawyers may have something to say about their approach urging them to stop this form of communication bearing in mind they could have potential lawsuits pending.
I admire the Australian strict law on this – in my humble opinion it either is or isn’t. Or in the case of Domino’s it seems, they cannot guarantee cross contammination on the base, if one wishes to just eat one of those. mmm sounds tasty – not. The non-gluten free toppings would make the gluten intolerant unwell – coeliac ill, ill.
I think someone in the marketing department will be regretting this campaign, particularly as Veronica is taking them to task!
I cannot abide this kind of target marketing ad campaign. Perhaps their next will be aimed at those with heart disease with a little friendly heart on the ad banner. Removing a little salt, using a lower fat cheese. I suppose they could even make them smaller. In all probability in doing that they will add sugar and all manner of stuff increasing the liklihood of diabetes. Perhaps they could have a diabetic friendly pizza – only those no doubt would be the one’s that forgot to mention that they raise cholestorol.
Whatever next – an EDS friendly pizza. ha ha.. go on Domino’s I dare you.
Jokes aside. Its not funny. Imagine the excited child/teenager who had been promised finally to be able to eat that which their peers scoff only to find out that they have the option of eating it and being ill for weeks, or not eating it and feeling the isolation again of being different.
Gluten free means just that. For some reason this whole thing has got me cross – false promises perhaps hit a moral high ground for me. I am not sure what has annoyed me more the disclaimer on the base or the idiot who couldn’t even give gluten free toppings suggestions.
The stupid thing is that what Domino’s claim to be pizza’s bear little resemblance to the real thing anyhow. Having sat in Italy Florence, Milan, The Riveria and more;living for a time with an Italian family, eating the authentic stuff albeit some years ago I can honestly say, watching the real thing being made, eating & enjoying the wide variety of variations depending on regions, Domino’s is little more than glorified cheese on toast anyhow. Fine if you like it but to call it Pizza in the first place is a joke.
I am afraid to say the gluten free option is little more than a marketing ploy – why should they care really care about the reality of living with coeliac or associated intolerances when they are probably responsible for a great deal of ill health in the nation as a whole already simply by other campaigns, buy one get one free, bigger and better than the rest. bla bla bla.. To me this may as well read, get them started early and they will be hooked. They should look at the health of the nation and hold their corporate head in shame.
So to Domino’s – you can stick your gluten free – not pizza’s where the sun don’t shine.
Oh yes and just because I am such a nice person I’ll add a please for good measure.
I hope your beautiful grandaughter faced with a Domino’s pizza shouts as loud as she can. – I CAN’T LIKE THIS.
rant… rant….. I bet there are more multi-national companies claiming similar – root them out fellow bloggers and whisper to Veronica that they are doing it. You will regret your folly. Twitter it and you are in for double the trouble.
I’m off at last, still muttering. Another can of worms in blogging land.
You tell ’em Kim, it’s a serious issue and they need to lift their game.
This absolutely incenses me. I will no longer eat, or allow my children to eat at Dominos. If their idea of selling something gluten free means that it may contain traces of gluten or have been contaminated with gluten then that is just not good enough. They obviously don’t realise how ill people with ceoliacs can become. I was shocked when I read Veronica’s post about poor Amy’s intestines bleeding.
Also, if they take that attitude with all of their allergy information it could kill my son.
How can they be so stupid?
I’m almost tempted to go back onto twitter to tell them what for.
If Dominoes are serious they’ll get you to DM them a way they can contact you, but they probably already have contact details from both yours and Vonnie’s blogs.
Remember the problems I had in that Wetherspoons pub? Wetherspoons clearly knew they were in the wrong but also knew there wasn’t much I could do about it unless I fought for years under the weak DDA law. However, revenge is sweet as I still get multiple blog hits a day from the google search terms ‘wetherspoons + complaints’ wetherspoons head office etc.
The internet is changing forever the way big companies have to react to such issues, as they can decide to ignore them or blame the customer as much as they wish, the multiple accounts of bad treatment never leave the internet.
I hope Dominoes will do the smart thing, contact you and Von to discuss your concerns then liase properly with the Celiac associations to produce a properly gluten free pizza. Now that really would win them tons of fantastic, free publicity.
Lots of love to you all, BG Xx
hey i was the one who posted the tweet “@frogpondsrock @Pizza_Dominos is doing the best they can in providing meal options 4 a variety of target groups” i do not represent them, i am simply sticking up for them. Get your facts straight before you criticise others please. I understand your argument, everyone deserves an opinion, but please edit this blog to make it clear as to what Dominos has to say, not what my opinion is.
It’s all marketing. They’re trying to be green / pc without actually looking into what it is they are offering. By stating “might contain traces” they are simply stating they may have a gluten free pizza to begin with, but once it reaches their store it is no longer gluten free, because let’s face it, a pizza establishment is anything but. They have flour/ gluten everywhere. NO WAY they can guarantee a gluten free product!
Bottom line: bring people in – look like your reaching out to “target groups” … think: “we’re being nice to the “handicapped” ”
The reality?: they haven’t put an ounce of thought or true research into what they are offering, and knowing that, they put in the small print to cover their butts. They see someone with celiacs disease as nothing more than a potential untaped market – they don’t see the person.
I would be surprised if you ever heard from them.
Mega-conglomerates don’t really care about the customer. The bottom line is all profits. — Why do you think there has been such a surge in food allergies within the last 20 years?
Cheap food produced quickly is their bottom line.
(I should probably state I’m a chef, and organic / slow food is my hot topic, and I have the degrees to prove it. I also have family members who have celiacs disease.)
Watch the DVD “The Future of Food”
Dominos should be ashamed for jumping on the band-wagon half-assed. And Andrew, if they wish to commit to a campaign they need to do their homework. Either they ARE gluten free, or they ARE NOT. There are NOT MAYBES when it comes to celiacs disease. There is NO excuse. For a pizza chain that employs teenaged staff; most of whom are NOT educated on celiacs disease; to promote and offer a product with the potential to seriously injure / damage a customer if not handled properly, is blatant evidence that the customers wellbeing is NOT their number one concern, but rather their profits are.
Establishments have been SHUT DOWN for cases of salmonella, rat/ insect infestations. Both of these have the POTENTIAL of seriously harming a patron – so I ask you, with the knowledge that we have, how is it feasible to state that “may contain some gluten” in a product promoted to be “gluten free” is any less harmful? Would you eat something with a label stating “may contain salmonella” if you just had a kidney transplant?
I didn’t think so.
If they were “doing the best they could” there would be a guarantee the product IS gluten free, and not “well, maybe”. PERIOD.
Get YOUR facts straight.
Sorry for the rant frogpond.
@ Andrew It is a shame that you seem to have deleted your tweets defending dominos position.It means that I couldn’t verify that it really was you. But I will accept your word on it.
My position is a very simple one. In Australia you can not say something is gluten free when it isn’t.
It is against the law.
I love this post, Kim and I need to go read all the comments. I have wondered — when there are households with folks who have Celiacs who have to ban all gluten for ALL family members just to keep cross contamination from happening — then how can a restaurant that serves gluten containing food, who employs people who couldn’t care one whit if cross contamination happens, declare ANYTHING they serve to be 100% gluten free.
I, too, take offense that this is a marketing tactic. I personally can eat a little gluten and not get sick, but that’s because I don’t have celiacs. Would they serve “Diabetic Friendly” food that contains sugar?
I love you, Kim. I love that you and Veronica have taken Dominoes to task! Keep it up!!
Quite simply, this is false advertising. Thought about pasing it on to Consumer Affairs? Gluten makes people so sick and whilst I know for most it’s not necessarily going to kill them like a nut allergy can, it’s so totally destructive to immunity and overall health.
My friend’s son had sever reactions over the Yuletide, one requiring an Epi-pen. There is nothing more terrifying than watching someone in the throes of anaphylaxis. It’s some damn quick. If you’ve never known someone who’s been so allergic to a food or product, you just simply don’t comprehend. Keep on Dominos backs.
My daughter, Veronica is waiting to hear back from Dominos and if she isn’t happy with their response she is going to the ACCC.
On ya, Kim.
This is quite possibly wildly inappropriate, but I just wanted to say thanks for adding the No Clean Feed link, its something I was alarmed about and meaning to look into, and then I came here and saw the link, so that was handy.
Sorry I haven’t weighed into the Domino debate, although I will say that I think their pizzas suck….
Hi There,
Thankyou for your feedback regarding Domino’s Gluten free bases.
Domino’s Gluten Free base and 13 gluten free pizza options have been approved by the Coeliac Society.
A considerable amount of work has been done to provide products suitable for Coeliacs, including:
1. The pizza base only being endorsed by The Coeliac Society. It is made in a gluten free endorsement and tested to contain no detectable gluten.
2. Identification of gluten free toppings.
3. Detailed in store handling procedures to eliminate contamination approved by The Coeliac society.
The Coeliac Society are confident that with these matters in place, there should be no concern regarding the safety of Domino’s pizzas marketed as gluten free.
At Domino’s, we have added a warning on our Gluten Free advertisement about the possibility of contamination, as a precautionary measure.
We have worked closely with The Coeliac Society to eliminate errors but at the same time we have been cautious in our advice.
If you have any more queries regarding our Gluten Free pizzas please feel free to call our Headoffice on 07 3633 3333.
Regards,
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises
Oh Look, a form letter. Now why aren’t I surprised. Well done Dominos
I have closed comments on this post because I cant be bothered dealing with all the ridiculous anonymous comments. I will say this V.E.R.Y S.L.O.W.L.Y so that you understand.
This post was about FALSE ADVERTISING.
It is ILLEGAL to advertise that something is Gluten free when it isn’t.
Simple.
End of conversation.
All comments relating to this topic on any other posts on this blog will be deleted because quite frankly I have had enough.
@Kristin
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*wipes tears away from my eyes*
Go on ‘today tonight’ about it. Then they will chase Dominos down with a camera in hand.