17
Jul
2023
07
Oct
2015
Open letter to General Mills’ Gluten-Free Cheerios Team on Behalf of the Gluten Free Watchdog Community
Dear General Mills' Cheerios Team, Your recent recall of 13 lots of Honey Nut and 4 lots of Yellow Box Cheerios and subsequent explanation of how these products made it to market has raised many questions. One of the biggest concerns is the apparent discrepancy between what you told the community about your testing protocols and what you were actually doing. It is important that you provide a thorough and honest explanation. What you were actually doing You stated to me in an...
09
Jul
2015
Green Tea & Possible Gluten Contamination
Many of you may have heard about an FDA study published in June entitled, “Survey of Tea for the Presence of Gluten.” Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration conducted this study. What follows is a brief summary of the situation. Background: A health care professional recently sent out a mass email with a link to the aforementioned study abstract on PubMed. The email suggested (in my opinion) that gluten contamination found in the study was coming from the tea bags...
17
Jul
2026
Why I started Gluten Free Watchdog and how I learned what good testing takes
I still remember where I was when Gluten Free Watchdog became more than just a thought exercise. I was out for a walk, talking with Thom Grace, the CEO of Bia Diagnostics, LLC. We had worked together on the pilot study, “Gluten contamination of grains, seeds, and flours in the United States” and I very much wanted this type of information to be read by more than the scientific community. Thom was so supportive and more importantly he believed in...
11
Jun
2026
Gluten-Free Surprises on a Walking Vacation in the Cotswolds
We were fortunate enough to go on a family vacation in England this spring, walking about half of the famed Cotswold Way that goes from Chipping Campden to Bath (or vice versa). This trail runs through the most beautiful Cotswold villages, farmland, and woodland. Unbelievably, even though we were walking, I actually gained instead of lost weight. And that is a good thing! With a lot of research and advance planning, I was able to eat ample breakfasts, lunches (when an...
14
Apr
2026
New Gluten Threshold Study from Australia
In Brief: A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Dose-Response Study to Assess the Gluten Threshold Dose in Celiac Disease was conducted by a team of researchers from Australia and recently published in the journal Gastroenterology. A primary goal of the research was to determine the minimal dose amount of gluten required to cause an immune response--specifically an interleukin-2 (IL-2) response in adults with celiac disease adhering to a gluten-free diet. Among other objectives, the researchers looked at the lowest observed immune effect level...
01
Apr
2026
Gluten-free and wheat-based crackers hung out together: Will the Nima Sensor pick up any cross-contact?
One of Gluten Free Watchdog’s criticisms of the Nima Sensor is that it is unlikely to pick up uneven cross contact in a food sample that has not been homogenized—ground up in a blender for example—prior to testing. To help address this issue the Nima Now team suggests using, “the teeth on the bottom of the capsule cap to dab food from different areas of your plate.” Let’s see how well that works… A labeled gluten-free mini rice cake and a...
05
Feb
2026
Gluten Free Watchdog testing experiments using the updated Nima Sensor 2026
Gluten Free Watchdog is not planning an in-depth assessment of the “new” Nima Sensor. We will test products as issues are brought to our attention. To that end, we tried unsuccessfully to update the first generation Nima we purchased years ago. Unfortunately, it is too old to receive firmware updates. As a result, a new Nima and two boxes of capsules were sent free of charge from Nima Now. From what we understand, if you have a first generation Nima...
22
Jan
2026
A silly thing is happening with the relaunch of the Nima Sensor
A silly thing is happening with the relaunch of the Nima Sensor. The fact that Gluten Free Watchdog sends samples to the lab Bia Diagnostics for testing using the scientifically validated R5 ELISA is seemingly being used as a talking point to help confirm the validity of the sensor. From the Nima Now website: “That performance was validated by BIA Diagnostics, a globally recognized allergen-testing laboratory whose work is trusted by the celiac community and organizations such as Gluten Free Watchdog.” “For the...
16
Jan
2026