20
Oct
2025
16
Oct
2025
Heartfelt Thanks and Gluten-Free Tidbits from FNCE
The honor of a lifetime: The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference 2025 recently wrapped. As some of you know, my main reason for attending the conference this year was to accept an excellence in practice award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for entrepreneurship (i.e., the work we do through Gluten Free Watchdog). It is thanks to all of you that this work gets done. As I said pretty much verbatim at the ceremony, receiving this...
06
Oct
2025
Kirkland Signature Roasted Turkey Breast and Yeast Extract
Product warning for Kirkland Signature Roasted Turkey Breast. This product is labeled gluten-free and it contains yeast extract. Based on email correspondence with Costco, the yeast extract in this product may be brewer’s yeast sourced from the beer brewing process. (Brewer’s yeast from the beer brewing process is known as spent brewer’s yeast-- what’s left of yeast once it has been used to make beer. Consequently, spent brewer’s yeast may include gluten from malt and grain.) Correspondence from Costco: “Our supplier uses PHR-YL...
20
Aug
2025
Manufacturers of Labeled Gluten-Free Food, Please Read
Dear manufacturers of packaged gluten-free foods… Ingredients the FDA designates as processed to remove gluten, such as wheat starch and glucose syrup (wheat), may be used in foods labeled gluten-free. BUT if wheat is declared in the ingredients list or a separate Contains statement as required under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act... The word “wheat” must be “followed immediately by an asterisk (or other symbol) that refers to another asterisk (or other symbol) in close proximity to the ingredient statement...
31
Jul
2025
Facts to keep in mind about FDA labeling
Facts to keep in mind about FDA labeling: Just a bit of a refresher. Not all of the labeling nuances are included, so if you have any questions, please ask. Screenshot
30
Jan
2024
Yeast extract confusion redux
In 2019, we wrote about a consumer complaint we received for a labeled gluten-free soup. The product includes the ingredient “flavors (including yeast extract).” Long story short, the consumer who contacted us was told by customer service representatives that brewer’s yeast is the source of the yeast extract. However, she did not receive a definitive answer regarding whether the brewer’s yeast is spent brewer’s yeast. Fast forward to 2024. Gluten Free Watchdog received a consumer inquiry about the autolyzed yeast extract...
21
Jan
2024
Gluten Testing of Food Containing Barley Amylase: Poster Presented at AOMSC 2023
To download the poster presented at the Asia-Oceania Mass Spectrometry Conference, please see: https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PosterAOMSC20230703_AO-MSC_MN_Poster.pdf AOMSC 2023 Poster Abstract Investigation of foods containing beta-amylase for gluten content Mitchell G. Nye-Wood (a), Tricia Thompson (b), Margaret Clegg (b), Michelle L. Colgrave (*a) School of Science, and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia (a) Gluten Free Watchdog, LLC, Manchester, MA (b) Gluten proteins are unique food allergens that are a common dietary component for many...
06
Jul
2023
Gluten-Free Claim Removed from KA-ME Hong Kong Express Rice Noodles
In May 2022, Gluten Free Watchdog (GFWD) reported KA-ME Hong Kong Express Rice Noodles to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) via the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Adverse Event Reporting System (CAERS). At the time, product packaging included a gluten-free claim yet barley amylase was declared in the ingredients list. In February 2023, GFWD submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with FDA to find out what action was taken on our complaint. One of the...
04
Oct
2022
Soy Sauce: More insightful news from FDA based on Gluten Free Watchdog FOIA requests
We recently filed 3 Freedom of Information Act requests with FDA for products containing hydrolyzed/fermented protein. All products had been reported to FDA for facial misbranding by Gluten Free Watchdog. What follows is a summary of the information received from FDA to date. A huge thank you to Adam, one of GFWD’s pro-bono attorneys for filing these requests. FOIAs were submitted for the following products: Three Crabs Fish Sauce. Ingredients list reads, “hydrolyzed vegetable protein.” This ingredient declaration hasn’t been allowed since...
01
Sep
2022