Terrible. And my partner is gluten intolerant.
We have had stomache aches for a day. THere is not mention of wheat on the label, just “Corn Tortillas”.
Definitely a Shonky Nomination! Avoid!
Welcome @Andrew4
What ingredients are listed on the packaging? Does it mention wheat or wheat by-products or gluten? Does it have a warning about allergens that includes gluten?
I only ask because while they may only contain 15% Corn they may not contain gluten or wheat or similar gluten containing products. It may also declare these on the ingredient list, and if it does it is hard to argue it is undeclared.
As to calling it corn wraps, I agree 15% corn content seems a very flimsy basis for describing them as such. It is perhaps a candidate for shonky status.
If you like you can take a pic of the packaging and post it in this topic, as you are a new user it will limit the pics to one but you can create a couple of posts and add a pic to each.
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Hi @Andrew4, welcome to the community.
The Helgas Corn Tortilla Wrap ingredients on the packaging are as follow:
It clearly states the wraps contain ‘wheat flour’ as the main ingredient and also labels the product as containing ‘wheat’ and ‘gluten’. The packaging also does not claim the product is ‘gluten free’.
Generally if one has a restrictive diet for some reason, ingredient and allergen lists are perused prior to purchase to ensure the manufactured food products doesn’t contain unwanted ingredients.
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Another example of the disparity between the banner title of a food product and the actual ingredients. I agree calling them “Corn tortillas” is a stretch, you would hope that maize would be the leading ingredient but it isn’t. We have seen plenty of examples of this kind of labelling before where the key words in the name don’t reflect the contents very well.
Consider though if it was more true to label and the main ingredient was maize, for argument’s sake say 60% instead of 16%, that would not guarantee there was no gluten or wheat. There is no reason to think that if the label says just “wheat” or “corn” there is no other grain than the one named.
At the risk of being called Captain Obvious the only solution to this is if you particularly care about the contents for any reason then you have to read the contents list on the back. The name on the front of two to five words is never going to tell you all that is in it. If you happen to be allergic to antioxidant 307b you are never going to find that on the front.
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Hello everyone, photo attached,
Thank you for the replies. Yes I accept it is my 100% responsibility to check ingredients for gluten/wheat, I didn’t on this occasion.
However the key issue is not gluten. It is that the packaging clearly shows the label "Corn Tortillas’ and a subheading ‘Bring your favourite Mexican dished to life’.
- Mexican food has a thousands-year old tradition of maize tortillas.
- There is a distinct choice at supermarkets of corn tortillas (tacos, corn chips, tostadas) and flour tortillas (burritos, softer in texture)
- Front and back of packaging shos photos of Mexican dishes that usually use corn tortillas
This is why is a Shonky award candidate, the whole product is completely misleading!
I got a refund at Coles and have written to the company
PS apologies for three attempts at this post
Cheers
Andrew
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I would be very surprised if there were not many other products in the Tex-Mex food shelves that using Mexican naming and images and that have little corn in them. But it gets worse.
Looking more broadly there can be other problems with the name “corn” in the label. This is because the word has several meanings. It can refer to the plant Zea maize and its products.
It can also mean a kernel or seed, gunpowder used to be corned referring to making it granular. Similarly corned beef was (is?) made with large grained salt, ie corns.
In older days “corn” just meant grain, which is how we get admonitions to not muzzle the oxen that treadeth the corn. The ancient writers of the middle east were not anticipating the discovery of maize in the new world but the translators from Greek or Hebrew used the word for grain at the time of translation: corn.
But we are in the supermarket not reading Hornblower novels or the Old Testament. The problem is old usage may not longer be common but not be entirely forgotten.
So we have “corn flour” or “corn starch” that may be maize flour but also may be wheaten. The grain for these products is specified but not necessarily on the main label.
If you are gluten intolerant or just want to sure to get maize you need to check back labels as “corn” doesn’t necessarily mean maize.
I am not trying to excuse the use of misleading names on products but trying to explain that labelling isn’t necessarily clear cut. As always; caveat emptor.
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Wow, only 16%? Hopefully that is not even GMO material.
what about the rest, flour and some other fillings?
Wheat. They are wheat tortillas with 16% corn.
One of the mistakes made, in a world where there is masses produced processed foods, is that what one believes the ingredients a processed product should have, will be very different to reality. Whether this is breads, dairy, biscuits, pastas and the list goes on.
Even if one looks for ‘corn tortilla’ online, many recipes don’t use Masa Harina or limit ingredients to Masa Harina, salt and water. Many online recipes also have wheat flour as an ingredient when corn flour is used in the recipe. Many also don’t use a tortilla press which is common with some tortilla preparation.
In Mexico, different families will also have slightly different corn tortilla recipe which they favour, with ingredients more than Masa Harina, salt and water. This doesn’t make their corn tortilla invalid tortilla. Similar variations occur in other ‘traditional’ cultural foods, as recipes are modified to suit the tastes of the family.
Many foods also don’t have standards which define what a particular food is, what ingredients can only be used or how they have to be made. This allows for individuals and businesses to have unique recipes to suit their own needs.
Are the wraps ‘corn tortillas’, there is enough information to argue they are. Should the word corn be used, it can be as it is the ‘flavouring’ or differentiating ingredient to other similar products. An example being spinach and herb’ wraps. One would expect them to contain spinach and herbs, but a reasonable person would not assume the wrap was made only from spinach and herbs. If one had dietary restrictions, the ingredients list become critical when assessing they are suitable for consumption.
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