Quite a few people contacted me recently (on March 6th 2023) mentioning how they were unclear on the Bella Italia menu with regards to gluten-free desserts specifically – namely their cookie dough served with vanilla gelato and caramel sauce. So is it safe to eat or not?
The problem
As soon as I got this information, I went to check the Bella Italia website to see where the confusion had emerged from.
On the Bella Italia online menu as you can see above, the cookie dough dessert clearly states that it is gluten-free with a ‘GF’ logo’ next to its name.
Also, if you tick the gluten-free box on the online menu (top left), it greys out all the gluten-containing options, leaving the cookie dough, chocolate/strawberry Dough Chi balls and brownie (not pictured) as gluten-free options. No problems here so far.
However, if you click the ‘i’ for additional nutrition and allergy info on the cookie dough dessert or Dough Chi balls (see image below), it states that each contains ‘Cereals with Gluten (Oats)’. Also if you use the ‘allergen filter’ and select ‘does not contain gluten’, all three dessert options fade out as though they contain gluten, which you can see in the image after the next.
From looking at this, I can definitely see where the confusion has come from. Though clearly labelled as ‘GF’, these products state they contain cereals with gluten through the fact they contain oats, but do not mention at any time that these oats are gluten-free.
In case you didn’t know already, oats are contaminated through farming methods, so won’t be gluten-free unless otherwise stated. Overall, this situation just isn’t clear enough in my opinion.
This left all of us left with the same question: are these options gluten-free and safe to eat or not?!
Bella Italia’s Response
So I contacted Bella Italia’s head office on the 6th of March first thing in the morning to see if they could provide some clarity. Fortunately Bella Italia were really fab and contacted me for my number to discuss and I spoke to them twice over the next couple of days on the phone.
It was really nice to chat through my thoughts and they were happy to take on board some of my suggestions too. They’ve now sent me over this to share with everyone too.
Here’s Bella Italia’s official response regarding this specific situation:
Thanks very much for getting in touch regarding the Cookie Dough on our dessert menu. We’re aware that there has been a bit of conversation about this online so we’re happy to be able to clarify the situation and answer your concerns. Feel free to share this information with your followers, we’re happy for you to say the information has been provided to you by Bella Italia. We will also be reaching out to any consumers who have got in touch with us asking similar questions.
We appreciate how important it is for coeliacs (and anybody else following a gluten free diet) to have clarity about what they’re eating. Before we go into detail about our Cookie Dough, we can reassure your readers and followers that they can be confident anything labelled as Gluten Free on our menu is indeed Gluten Free. Whenever a guest flags to our serving staff that they are following a GF diet, our teams can check a box on their ordering tablet or at the till which immediately masks off any non-GF options, making it impossible for them to order a non-GF item. Similarly on our website, you can check the GF box and that only shows GF options. Whenever a GF order is made, we have strict processes in our kitchen to ensure that the food is prepared in a way which eliminates any risk of cross-contamination.
To go into more detail specifically on our Cookie Dough, we can guarantee that this is Gluten Free. It is made with Gluten Free Oats, in a 100% Gluten Free factory, which sources its Oats from segregated oats suppliers (ie, no risk of contamination with other cereals in cereal silos and bagging facilities). It is then prepped in our kitchen under our allergen standard operating procedures, which we know from testing maintains the GF status of ingredients. The legal threshold for qualifying as “gluten free” food (in line with Coeliac UK guidance) is less than 20 parts per million gluten. Our supplier goes beyond this and guarantees a lower threshold, under 5ppm gluten (below detectable limits).
The confusion around our Cookie Dough, we believe, stems from the fact that our specific allergen information for Cookie Dough states that it contains “Cereals with Gluten (Oats)”. As oat is an allergen, we have to list that, however, the confusion is probably caused by the fact that the gluten free oats still fall under the category “Cereals with gluten”. This is in keeping with the grains category within allergen legislation, which requires all grains to be labelled as “Cereals with Gluten.” So, even though the oats in question are gluten free, they have to be labelled as “Cereals with Gluten (Oats).” We appreciate this might cause some confusion, particularly as coeliacs are used to checking detailed allergen information to be clear about what’s in their food, but people can trust that any product labelled with our easy to understand GF logo, is indeed Gluten Free. When we next update our menu, we are looking to call out in the description that it is made with Gluten Free Oats, to help eliminate any doubts people may have.
We hope this information is useful. We treat our gluten free products with utmost care and aim for a pleasant experience for our coeliac guests, and we can only apologise to any guests if this hasn’t been completely clear during their visit.
Please do let us know should you have any further questions or require any additional information.
A little breakdown…
In case the cookie dough part wasn’t already clear enough, here’s a little more info.
According to Food.gov, food businesses need to tell customers if any of the food they provide contains any of the 14 allergens by law. And as one of the 14 allergens here in the UK is ‘cereals containing gluten’ (which includes oats) Bella Italia must to state these products contain oats even though the oats are gluten-free.
However, the initial problem on the Bella Italia website simply stemmed from not mentioning that the oats are gluten-free; plus, we also can’t read the full ingredients list to check for ourselves. But as you can read in the response above, the oats are in fact gluten-free and the product is made in a dedicated gluten-free factory.
And as they mentioned in their response, they’re looking into updating the menu on their website to clarify that the cookie dough and Dough Chi balls contain gluten-free oats, in addition to the allergen declaration of oats. Which would certainly be helpful and clear up any future confusion!
So long story short, there’s nothing to worry about in terms of these products being unsafe for a gluten-free diet.
My final thoughts
Now, I’ve had this hunch over the last 3 days I’ve been looking into this, ever since I looked at the Bella Italia menu. I recognised the name ‘Dough Chi’ as a product that’s made by the gluten-free brand Doughlicious which you can find in Waitrose, Tesco and on Ocado.
The name ‘Dough Chi’, which features on the Bella Italia menu with a ® next to the name, is also a registered trademark of Doughlicious, a brand which makes their products in a 100% gluten-free factory in London. And not surprisingly, the Dough Chi and cookie dough that Doughlicious makes also contains gluten-free oats (either through gluten-free oat milk or gluten-free oat flour).
So it’s my educated guess that these (and the cookie dough dessert) are made and supplied by Doughlicious, being products which, when you check the ingredients, are most definitely gluten-free despite containing oats (as they’re clearly listed as being gluten-free oats).
You can read more information on gluten-free oats in general over on Coeliac UK here.
I hope that provides further reassurance, in addition to Bella Italia’s response, that these products are in fact gluten-free and safe to eat on a gluten-free diet.
I must say, I also really liked the idea of servers ticking a ‘gluten-free’ box on their tablet or till which masks any options that aren’t gluten-free, making it then impossible to order a gluten-containing dish. It’s a great example of how technology can make the process of eating out safer and easier for us gluten-free folks.
I hope to see Bella Italia update their menu swiftly to indicate that the cookie dough and Dough Chi balls contain gluten-free oats, because whenever oats are mentioned, gluten-free folks must have assurances that they’re gluten-free. But until then, please point anyone wondering to this post for clarification.
As a gluten-free person of 10+ years and an ambassador of Coeliac UK, my mission is to be as helpful to those on a gluten-free diet as possible, so if you ever come across any other issues like this or you need help with something specific in the future, be sure to let me know. I’m here to help you!
Becky xxx
