A woman demanded answers from Kraft after she found something extra in her gluten-free mac and cheese. Dani (@danicleans) shares her discovery in a viral TikTok, warning those with celiac disease to always check their food–even if it appears to be fine.
‘Double-check your boxes’
Dani films some recently cooked macaroni in a pot. She zooms in closer to reveal a single pale pasta shell among the macaroni. Dani picks it out and shows it to the camera before discarding it. Then the Kraft box comes into view, clearly labeled “gluten free brown rice and corn pasta.”
“Warning to anyone with Celiac, found this shell noodle in my GF Kraft mac and cheese,” Dani wrote in the caption. “Double check your boxes. I’ll report it to Kraft.” Dani’s video earned over 750,000 views as of Saturday.
What is Celiac disease?
Celiac disease refers to the illness where the person gets an immune reaction to eating gluten. “Over time, this reaction damages your small intestine’s lining and prevents it from absorbing nutrients, a condition called malabsorption,” per the Mayo Clinic.
What happens if someone with Celiac eats gluten?
While there’s no way to know whether that pasta shell indeed contained gluten, it’s better to be safe than sorry. When a person with Celiac disease eats gluten, the symptoms usually include diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, bloating, or anemia, Mayo Clinic states. Celiac disease affects people differently, so while some may notice no symptoms after eating a little bit of gluten, others may experience damage for several days. It’s obvious, then, that Dani would issue a warning, even if she doesn’t have the disease herself.
“I’m gluten intolerant, I do not have Celiac,” she clarified in a comment. “Been eating gluten free for about 15 years to help my stomach issues. A little bit of gluten doesn’t hurt me luckily. just a warning to anyone who has celiac disease.”
Northwestern Medicine distinguishes between the two as such: “Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder, whereas gluten intolerance is a sensitivity.”
People who are gluten intolerant have often been faced with a stigma that they refuse to eat gluten for the sake of appearing “trendy.” This often leads to others lacking sympathy when something like Dani’s situation occurs. Which her comments section pretty much proved. Several viewers did not sympathize with Dani, with many telling her to “get over it.”
“I think you will be fine. It’s hardly going to put you into anaphylactic shock,” one user wrote.
Another said, “Me when there’s pasta in my pasta.”
Several others did point out that trusting Kraft to be completely gluten-free was a stretch. One user even claimed that the fine print on the box reads, “May contain gluten.” While The Mary Sue was unable to verify that information online, the Doughnut Lounge asserts that cross-contamination was a risk at Kraft’s facilities.
According to the site, Kraft said, “We take precautions to prevent cross-contact, but we cannot guarantee that any of our products are gluten-free.”
@danicleans #celiacdisease #celiactiktok #glutenfree #kraft @Kraft Cheese ? ♬ sonido original – Vibes by Ley
Kraft Mac and Cheese backlash
This isn’t the first time Kraft’s gluten-free mac and cheese has faced backlash. Last November, a “sauce debacle” took over TikTok, where several Kraft customers claimed their gluten-free boxes came without the cheese packet. One customer with Celiac disease went viral after she bought several boxes of the GF version of mac and cheese, only to find all of them were missing the cheese packets. After plenty of back and forth with the company, TikToker Abby was finally sent a care package. But not before she expressed her disappointment with Kraft and the way they handled the situation.
“This makes it not feel like a comfort food anymore,” she said in her video. “This does not feel safe. This feels more isolating. This is not helping my relationship with food.”
The Mary Sue reached out to Kraft via email and to Dani via Instagram direct message.
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