diff --git a/core/app/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller.rb b/core/app/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller.rb
index befa8efd842..43431f69df1 100644
--- a/core/app/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller.rb
+++ b/core/app/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ class BaseController < Spree::BaseController
       helper 'spree/admin/navigation'
       layout '/spree/layouts/admin'
 
+      before_filter :check_alerts unless Rails.env.development?
+
       protected
         def check_alerts
           return unless current_user and should_check_alerts?
diff --git a/core/spec/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller_spec.rb b/core/spec/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c3e4c70e70e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/spec/controllers/spree/admin/base_controller_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Spree's rpsec controller tests get the Spree::ControllerHacks
+# we don't need those for the anonymous controller here, so
+# we call process directly instead of get
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe Spree::Admin::BaseController do
+
+  controller(Spree::Admin::BaseController) do
+    def index
+      render :text => 'test'
+    end
+  end
+
+  before do
+    controller.stub :current_user => Factory(:admin_user)
+  end
+
+  describe "check alerts" do
+    it "checks alerts with before_filter" do
+      controller.should_receive :check_alerts
+      process :index
+    end
+
+    it "saves alerts into session" do
+      Spree::Alert.should_receive(:current).and_return([Spree::Alert.new(:message => "test alert", :severity => 'release')])
+      process :index
+      session[:alerts].first.message.should eq "test alert"
+    end
+  end
+end