Time today for a little rant. What’s new? The topic is demos. You know, where ladies stand behind a table in your grocer’s aisle, complete with a hair net and gloves. They offer little samples of various food products, coupons and more. Many people love food demos and even go to Costco every Saturday to “lunch” on the samples. Companies do food demos because if consumers try the product we may like it or simply feel guilty and agree to buy an item from that kindly lady behind the table.
99% of the time I avoid food demos, whether or not my allergic child is with me. In fact, I really try not to make eye contact and have been known to avoid aisles completely if it means I can bypass a demo. When I have stopped, I’m inevitably disappointed, if not downright ticked off. Sometimes I can see right away that there are food allergens that we need to avoid in the product but other times I have heard allergen information from the presenter that’s not even close to the mark. As an example, several years ago Nestle came out with a new Real Dairy product line of ice cream. Of course, we Canadians know that Nestle has several peanut free chocolate bars on the market here so hope surged within me that I just might be able to get a delicious new ice cream that was safe for our whole family.
So, I made eye contact (first mistake), and sailed up to the sweet lady behind the counter, pointed at the Allergy Aware sign that she had out on the table and said, “What are the food allergens in this product?” The response was, “This product is made from cream.” Outwardly I sighed but my inner mind was screaming “No kidding, Einstein!”
After requesting for and reading the label on the sampled ice cream, I pointed out to that sweet lady that the peanuts and nuts in the products would be a major allergen issue and perhaps she might want to be aware of that for other people asking about allergens. I then walked away, vowing never to stop at a food demo again, and I haven’t. Unless it’s a wine tasting but that’s another story altogether.
Bottom line: I don’t trust demos for special dietary needs. It’s not that I think these companies or sweet ladies they’ve hired are evil, it’s just that demo staff are not meant to stand in for a company when very specific questions must be asked. And from a company point of view, I’d like you to try our products but I’d much rather put a fully wrapped, well-labeled product in your hand, let you read the ingredients and decide for yourself whether you’re comfortable giving it a try.
Are there some of you out there who do stop at demo tables? Am I being ultra paranoid? Or would you rather have a sealed, wrapped product offered at a support group or conference any day over the sweet lady at the grocery store? Let me know what you think.
October 29th, 2009 - 4:00 pm
No, I don’t think you’re being paranoid! For the same reasons you have cited, I always go out of my way to avoid the food demos. I have read so many labels in my lifetime that I can almost taste the food as I read the ingredients. If they deemed it profitable to do away with food demos, I wouldn’t miss them!
January 22nd, 2011 - 2:06 pm
I came across this post when trying to find information regarding the responsibility to disclose allergen information by supermarkets giving customers free samples. I work in a small supermarket chain in Rhode Island, USA.
Last week we had a young girl vomit while shopping with her parents – she had a nut allergy, and the cookies we offered customers to sample at our un-manned coffee station contained a chocolate-hazelnut ganache. To the blind eye, the cookies appeared to be plain chocolate. The packaging did not specify “Chocolate Hazelnut”; they simply said “Chocolate Ganache.” Upon reading the ingredients, one would find that hazelnuts were, in fact, listed as an allergen (along with coconut). Fortunately, her allergy to nuts was not severe and the embarrassment of vomiting amongst dozens of shoppers was the worst of her problems. I shudder to think what may have happened had her allergy been severe.
So Alana, a few questions to you as an Allergy Mom:
First and foremost, should one expect that all free samples or demos have some sort of signage that declares possible food allergens? Even if the packaging is present?
Secondly, in the above case, who would you say would hold (the most) responsibility for the situation? The store, for not having warned customers that (any of) their samples may contain allergens, or the girl’s parents, for not having kept an eye on her (as the majority of my colleagues have argued).
I regret to say that our store managers did not take the incident as seriously as myself and a handful of other employees; they felt it was the parent’s fault for not keeping their daughter with them while shopping. If it were one of their children with food allergies, I feel it’s safe to assume that they wouldn’t be so quick to take the blame if they were in a similar situation. Without an actual law citing that retailers are responsible to display signs stating that any free samples may contain allergens, I have no chance of winning my argument. However, I would love to hear your reactions as a mom whose family has several allergies.
Thanks for your time.
Justine Mayerhofer
N. Kingstown, RI
January 25th, 2011 - 12:18 pm
Hi Justine,
You pose some really good questions without easy answers. I find in situations like these we tend to fall back on legal arguments to absolve ourselves of wrongdoing and while that’s valid in one sense, the old adage, “just because we can, doesn’t mean we should” can also apply.
So the short answer is no, the store does not have a legal obligation to post allergen warnings. In fact, as the mother of an allergic child, I find these signs ineffective since anybody can be allergic to any food, whether it’s a top food allergen or not so the ingredients must still be read. That the store provided the cookie package/ingredients with the items is appropriate.
At the same time, do parents have an obligation to watch their child (allergic or not) and protect them from harm? Of course they do. Any allergic parent should be reading any food ingredient label before they allow their child to have something, regardless of the title of the food product in front of them. The vast majority of food allergic parents do not allow their children to take an open sample from an unmanned station, whether the label is okay or not because there is still risk of cross contamination. And do we allergic parents educate our children about taking food without us? Absolutely!
Now having said all that, let’s look at the realities from a common sense viewpoint. We’ve all known situations when kids get out of sight, pick up things, lick things, and eat things, all in the seconds that it takes for us to pick up a bunch of bananas in the produce aisle.
I don’t know the age of the child who had the cookie or the circumstances but, beyond the legalities, I believe that any store has the responsibility to keep open samples out of the visibility and reach of young children. A tall cart where the top surface is not visible to a younger child stops that child from reaching the cookies without parental permission or hurting themselves with a hot beverage. And we haven’t even begun to address how to control the hygiene issues that arise from open samples with both children and adults.
I think the bottom line from your comment though is that your managers haven’t treated this incident as seriously as one would hope, regardless of blame. I would expect that any conscientious company would reflect on this situation and consider what they would change so that a similar incident does not happen again. This is simply in their best interest and, most importantly, is in the best interest of ALL of their customers.
Alana