Oh dear, Sainsbury’s poor little pizzas are in trouble again. Not, this time, because of their price (see Monday’s post), but because they have ousted the DS mozzarella and tomato pizzas from the freezer cabinet.
The full story comes from Alexa at YesNoBananas who is spluttering with fury at no longer being able to get the one pizza (the DS one) that her son Sid could eat. Sid is highly sesame allergic and they have been advised that he should not have any seeds at least for the moment – but the Sainsbury’s pizzas includes psyllium husk, derived from a seed that Sid should be avoiding.
Read Alexa’s post for the full story – but when she called the Sainsbury care line she was told that the DS pizzas had been discontinued in favour of the JS own brand – a not unfamiliar story in most supermarkets even though many of them, protest that they offer both branded and own label products.
Two problems here.
One is that by excluding branded products the supermarkets are significantly reducing the choice for their freefrom customers who, let’s face it, have a small enough choice anyhow.
The second is that, as Alexa points out, supermarkets have a tendency to be obsessed with gluten to the exclusion of all other allergens. This is not true of all supermarkets and there is a welcome move now to make many of their gluten-free products dairy free as well, but it is certainly true if you have one of the less common restrictions such as egg, soya, nuts or seeds.
OK, we all understand the economics of these things and maybe there are not enough egg, nut and seed allergic people to justify an own label product for them – but surely that is all the more reason to keep those branded products on the shelves which do exclude these more obscure allergens. For the very few, more profitable own-label sales that a supermarket will lose, they will have happy freefrom customers who may not buy their pizzas but who will not doubt buy lots of their other products.
Incidentally, if you would like to try to persuade Sainsbury’s to change their minds about de-listing the DS pizza call 0800 636 262, option 5 and ask them not to delist the DS Mozzarella and tomato gluten-free pizza.
Well, whatever about pushing out the DS pizza, Sainsbury’s have now had the grace to reduce the price of their own label now down to £2.62 if you buy them on line and £2.64 if you buy them in store. Explain that one…. But never mind, the main thing is that the price is somewhat more in reach of those on relatively low incomes. Thank you Sainsbury’s!