Aldi's

[Tina73]

Just went to Aldi's they have gluten free frozen food now!

[kareng]

great! Like what? Did you get anything to try?

[BlessedMommy]

Ditto to kareng, what did you find there?

 

I've tried some of their other things like their gluten free crackers and pasta. So great to see their selection broadening!

[kareng]

Ditto to kareng, what did you find there?

 

I've tried some of their other things like their gluten free crackers and pasta. So great to see their selection broadening!

Are they good? I really have never been to Aldi, but there is one very close to me.

[BlessedMommy]

Yes.

 

Their brown rice pasta is only $1.89, which is the best non-salvage price that I've seen anywhere. 

[LauraTX]

Has anyone been able to get information about the types of facilities and equipment these are processed on?  I looked on their facebook page a few days back and there were a ton of people posting on there that they called corporate asking these questions and got nowhere.  To me, the cheap price point is suspiciously low, and the few good tries I have given Aldi, I have not been impressed with the quality of their products.  So, I have yet to go try any of their new gluten-free products.  I have read in multiple places that it is a limited time test run, and if they sell well enough, it may become a permanent offering.  However, if they weren't proper gluten-free products I am sure I would have heard negative reactions by now.

 

Here is a blog post where she shows the flyer and products so you have an idea of what they have... she gives thumbs up on a good bit of them, too.

 http://www.imaceliac.com/2014/05/aldi-introduces-new-gluten-free-product.html

 

And another blog post (all that I am linking are not sponsored so they are unbiased) with helpful comments on what is good/not good

http://www.glutenfreebaking.com/public/review-Aldis-Single-Serve-Frozen-Raviloi.cfm#.U3knlfldXeQ

 

If these become a permanent thing, I will probably go try them.  But I just don't know about putting Aldi into my regular rotation... they have great gluten-free labeling practices, but every time I feel like I waste money on cruddy stuff.  Maybe I am just spoiled, haha!

[BlessedMommy]

The brown rice pasta that I was referring to that is sold by Aldi's is certified gluten free and has the symbol on it indicating so. 

[StephanieL]

From the LOOK of them, I think that the cookies, soft cereal like bars  and granola is repackaged Enjoy Life  but I do not KNOW that.  I haven't opened them yet but they sure do look like it based on the ingredients. 

[BlessedMommy]

You know, now that you mention it, the granola looks VERY similar to the Enjoy Life Very Berry Crunch granola. Hmmmm....Maybe I should do a blind taste test on them. LOL!

[africanqueen99]

I bought one of everything that's certified.  The cookies and the granola must be Enjoy Life (the taste is spot on).  The kids liked the mini pancakes (not as well as fresh "mom made", but good enough to eat before school).  The pepperoni pizza wasn't bad - not that frozen pizza is ever good, but the cheese was horrible (and my kids prefer cheese).  The younger two *really* liked the granola bars - we used to be a huge granola bar family before celiac and haven't been able to find one that they all like since DX.  Oh, my pasta lover (would eat pasta every day pre-DX) hated the frozen ravioli.  I think it was Cesar's - it tasted just as bad.

 

I think I'm going to go back and get more granola before they run out...

[lovemybabies]

I have tried aldi: baking mix , yellow cake mix, chewey bars, chicken nuggets, ravioli and mac and cheese... All Great!!! Like their mac better than annie's... It may be a temp thing, so please write them to bring it back so you can try it!! Aldis sells things cheaper than other places bc they keep over head costs low... No bags, few employees, limited service, deposit $.25 for a cart. They are a world wide company though, and I love their stuff!! Hope you do too!

[LauraTX]

FYI the frozen blueberry pancakes are being recalled because they are labeled dairy free and they contain milk.  No risk if your only concern is gluten.  

https://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dtPy9L13QeKksKMc8XAS6VO3JvK2M&authuser=0&ned=us&topic=m  (taken from our article section)

[come dance with me]

We only really like the muesli from Aldi in the gluten free range, not impressed with other things.

[hipretty]

Aldi had gluten-free cookies IDENTICAL to enjoy Life's brand soft cookies. The Brownie (with chocolate chips)  and Snickerdoodle cookies. I am Not entirely sure they are not enjoy life's brand... rebranded for Aldi as EVERYTHING, taste, texture, size even the plastic tray they sit in is exactly the same (except for the outside wrapper).

 

They have brownie mix (not tried yet) to bake and Frozen pizza and Ravioli. The gluten-free Pasta was $1.50 a bag (Where do you see gluten-free priced that way) and no difference in quality than any National brand that is gluten-free and already established.

 

They told my hubby they are testing out their gluten-free line to see how it does...so if you have an Aldi near you RUN and buy these high quality well priced gluten-free products and show them we are out there, and appreciate NOT being gouged by companies taking advantage of our dietary needs.

 

Be well!

Love & Light,

 

Tee

[maximoo]

My DD did not like the pizza but did like the brownie cookies. And she is very particular abt cookies so its a good sign.  Alas, I went to Aldi (7 mts from me) today & the gluten-free offerings are all but GONE! I snagged 2 bags of glutinos pretzels for $2.50 ea.  They usually sell for over $5 elsewhere.

The cashier told me the gluten-free line  was a test run n she didnt know if any items would come back. Im sure the test run did well, as the gluten-free items dwindled everyday. We all hope the items come back.

[LauraTX]

I heard somewhere... I don't recall now, some gluten-free blog... but Aldi decided to make the gluten-free items permanent and they will be back near the end of the year, and a few stores in the Northeast will permanently have them starting now.

[africanqueen99]

I emailed Aldi asking them to consider keeping their gluten-free line in their regular offerings and this was their response...

 

 

  

June 23, 2014

Reference:  397755

Dear Mrs. XXX,

Thank you for contacting us regarding the availability of our LiveGfree products. 

 

Select test stores in the Chicago, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New York areas will continue to carry a variety of LiveGfree products for the remainder of the year.  A companywide roll out of the most popular items is scheduled for later this year.

 

Thank you for being an ALDI shopper!

 

Sincerely,

 

ALDI Customer Service

 

Yay!  Aldi isn't in my regular rotation, but I would totally make a trek there regularly for many of their gluten-free foods.  Granted, I have two Aldis in a ten minute drive...so it's not out of my way.

[kareng]

I emailed Aldi asking them to consider keeping their gluten-free line in their regular offerings and this was their response...

 

 

Yay!  Aldi isn't in my regular rotation, but I would totally make a trek there regularly for many of their gluten-free foods.  Granted, I have two Aldis in a ten minute drive...so it's not out of my way.

Wow! Are you me? Lol. Close Aldis. Never go there but would to check out the gluten-free stuff.

[africanqueen99]

Wow! Are you me? Lol.

I don't know - are you a middle aged housewife slowly going insane by the army of kids you created?  The minions are driving me mad!

 

[BlessedMommy]

Aldi's has a variety tray of hummus ("hummus quartet") now that's gluten free. Yum!

[Georgia-guy]

All this Aldi's talk is making me anxious. I've had many people on here say that Aldi's is great food and prices, but the closest one to me right now is 35 miles.

[SMRI]

Just stopped by our Aldi.  They had quite a bit of gluten-free foods.  I did not check the freezer case because I wasn't looking for freezer food but they had the "granola bars", cookie mixes, cupcake mix, and all-purpose flour, several varieties of chips (vege, potato, etc.) and everything seemed to be about $2.50.  The Aldi by our old house was so horrible I haven't been to one in a few years so I was glad to see this one was clean and I felt comfortable shopping there .  Most of their products, gluten-free or not, seemed to just be repackaged other stuff so it's probably the same food, just different boxes.  This is an Aldi in a smaller town in the middle of nowhere so your Aldi might have their gluten-free stuff back now.

[Rosiesallergies]

Does anyone have any good or bad information about the Aldi's Gluten Free product line? Most of the products are also free of nuts and soy. But there's no information about if it's made on shared equipment with other allergens. And it's not easy to track down contact information. I've sent an email to corporate, but I haven't heard anything back yet.

So far we love the pizza, granola, chocolate cookies. But the rest of the family can't try them until we find out about other allergens.

[SMRI]

I just posted on another thread about Aldi today .Their gluten-free products, the ones I bought are all certified gluten-free,  From what I'm reading on the packages, they do not process on shared equipment.  Someone got an email back from Aldi on the other tread on this topic.

 

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/107698-aldis/

 

It doesn't address the labels but they did get a response.  With the holiday weekend, it might take a while for them to catch up.  It also appears that these products are reboxed gluten-free products from other companies that do have info.  Check out the other thread.

[kareng]

I just posted on another thread about Aldi today .Their gluten-free products, the ones I bought are all certified gluten-free, From what I'm reading on the packages, they do not process on shared equipment. Someone got an email back from Aldi on the other tread on this topic.

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/107698-aldis/

It doesn't address the labels but they did get a response. With the holiday weekend, it might take a while for them to catch up. It also appears that these products are reboxed gluten-free products from other companies that do have info. Check out the other thread.

Just want to address the " re- boxed" thing. Companies don't usually buy a packaged item and take it out of the package and put it into their packaging. That would be expensive and have many health code issues. The most common thing is - a factory makes a product and puts it in different boxes, wrappers, etc depending on which company is buying it. Sometimes, a factory might sell large lots of something - like a tanker truck full of processed milk - to be packaged at the companies factory.

I don't know a lot about Aldi, but I believe they are a large, international chain. It is possible they have their own factories and large contracts with other manufacturers.

To further explain- there is a margarine factory here. They make the same margarine but it gets put into different wrappers and then boxes depending on the retailer that is buying them. They make a brand name and a several store brands.

Looks like one branch of Aldi owns Trader Joes, too.

https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=edit_post&f=30&t=109218&p=929273&page=

"Aldi mainly sells exclusively produced, custom-branded products (often identical to and produced by major brands[30]"