Author - Tricia Thompson

29 Jan 2014

Restaurants & Gluten-Free Labeling Claims

Rhonda Kane, MS, RD and I received permission from the Food and Drug Administration to post a statement on restaurants and gluten-free labeling claims. The statement was drafted by Rhonda, a former Consumer Safety Officer with the FDA. Current FDA staff reviewed and slightly revised this statement and granted me permission to post the revision at glutenfreedietitian.com. This process started back in September at the International Celiac Disease Symposium where there was a lot of confusion about whether restaurants were covered under the gluten-free labeling rule. At...
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01 Jan 2014

Can Individuals with Celiac Disease Drink Barley-Based “Gluten-Removed” Beers such as Omission? A Gluten Free Watchdog Special Report

To write this report on the safety of of barley-based gluten-removed beers, Gluten Free Watchdog consulted with experts in mass spectrometry, ELISA testing, and amino acid sequencing of gluten proteins. We are very grateful that they generously shared their knowledge so that this information could be passed along to you. To access a pdf of the report please click here.
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03 Dec 2013

Gluten Free Watchdog Special Report: Gluten Contamination of Spices

Gluten Free Watchdog tested brands of domestically processed spices that appear to be the most widely used by the gluten-free community based on inquiries made to subscribers of Gluten Free Watchdog. Gluten Free Watchdog focused primarily on testing the spices that tested at or above 20 ppm in the Canadian survey. These spices (all ground) are clove, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mace, sage, thyme, and white pepper. Gluten Free Watchdog also tested leaf basil (dried), garlic powder, curry powder, and Italian seasoning...
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01 Dec 2013

Gluten Contamination of Gluten-Free Foods Sold in the US

Thomas Grace and I recently published two years worth of testing data from Gluten Free Watchdog in the journal Practical Gastroenterology. The pdf is available here. Excerpt: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released the long awaited rule on the labeling of food as gluten-free. Labeled gluten-free food regulated by the FDA and sold in the United States must contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten. The objective of this evaluation is to assess the actual gluten content...
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26 Nov 2013

Do retainers contain gluten?

Do parents of children with celiac disease really have to worry that their children's retainers contain gluten? Amy Jones, MS, RD and Tricia Thompson, MS, RD Many of you may have heard about the article “An Orthodontic Retainer Preventing Remission in Celiac Disease” recently published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. In short, this is a case presentation of a 9 year old girl diagnosed with celiac disease. IgA tTG at diagnosis was 172 U/mL (normal defined as < 20). The authors state...
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23 Oct 2013

Survey on Rice Consumption: Impact on Inorganic Arsenic Intake

Poster Presentation from ICDS: Survey on Rice Consumption among US Adults with Celiac Disease: Impact on Inorganic Arsenic Intake If we missed seeing you at ICDS2013 here is the link to the poster. Brian and I also presented on the issue of arsenic and rice at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference. Full size poster which looks best on screens and can be printed letter size with "resize to fit." Letter size poster which...
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12 Jul 2013

Omission Beer: The controversy over gluten-free labeling of malt-based beverages continues

Update July 12, 2013. I don't know about all of you but I am getting a little fatigued from the beer “issue.” BUT … Last evening I was forwarded some documents related to Craft Brew Alliance (Omission). According to the email included with these documents they are not considered confidential and will be in the public domain soon (when they are, I will post the links). When I have more information regarding how the scientific community views the information contained in these...
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15 May 2013

Hair styling products: Must they be gluten-free?

If you have celiac disease, do you really need to worry about ingesting gluten from hair styling products? Let's take a logical look at this issue. Remember that parts per million of gluten is a proportion—ppm tells you how many parts out of a million parts are made up of a contaminant (e.g., gluten). If a product (food or hair wax) contains 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten it contains close to 0.6 milligrams of gluten in each ounce of product....
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14 Jan 2013

Product Alert Good Greens Bars

Good Greens Nutrition Bars and Greek Yogurt Bars are labeled gluten-free and contain the ingredient “wheat sprout powder” or “wheat sprout” in the ingredients list according to information on the manufacturer website and product labels. Wheat sprouts with the germinating seed still attached should not be eaten by people with gluten-related disorders, including celiac disease, dermatitis herpetiformis, and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. While sprouting starts the process of breaking down gluten, harmful gluten peptides may still remain. I first learned about Good Greens...
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