Open letter to Trader Joe’s about their “gluten-free” rolled oats on behalf of the Gluten Free Watchdog community
Dear Trader Joe’s,
In September of 2024, Gluten Free Watchdog commissioned testing on 6 bags of Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats. Results ranged from < 5 parts per million to 120 parts per million of gluten. Full results are available at https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/product/trader-joes-gluten-free-rolled-oats-2024/1372. These results were shared with you but you have chosen to not respond.
We also tested a bag of Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats and Trader Joe’s organic gluten-free rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds that were part of a consumer illness report. The gluten-free rolled oats tested from 66 parts per million to > 80 parts per million of gluten. The organic gluten-free rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds tested from 42 parts per million to > 80 parts per million of gluten.
Gluten Free Watchdog also commissioned testing on Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats in 2022. Results ranged from < 5 parts per million to > 80 parts per million of gluten. Your reply stated that you had no reason to believe your product was mislabeled. As “proof” you provided lot-specific test results for the batch tested by Gluten Free Watchdog. This “proof” consisted of your third-party lab testing one single extraction from the entire lot of oats.
You state on your bags of gluten-free rolled oats that the oats are “pure, gluten-free oats—grown in dedicated oat fields and packaged in a gluten-free facility.” If this is what you believe to be an accurate characterization of the oats in this product, you may want to request more information from your suppliers. The oats you are receiving contain gluten at levels not allowed in foods labeled gluten-free. Continuing to ignore the test results provided to you by Gluten Free Watchdog—testing done by an ISO accredited lab that specializes in testing food for gluten–is putting your customers with celiac disease at risk.
Maybe this is something you should care about.
Tricia Thompson, MS, RD
Founder, Gluten Free Watchdog, LLC
Comments (3)
It’s all about the almighty dollar, Trader Joe’s and other Stores that supposedly sell gluten free products and don’t should be heavily fined and or shut down and they all should supply a gluten free ingredient sheets for their customers to read and take home if they choose too and Shame on the Feds and State Inspectors who don’t enforce this Crisis?
It really is sickening! No matter how careful we are, we regularly get sick from cross contamination in so-called “gluten free” labeled food. I’m in my eighties now and after years of digestive issues, finally learned that I need to avoid all gluten! Even the tiniest bit makes me sick! Many of the well-known brands make me sick in spite of being labeled gluten free? I feel so bad for children who are enticed to eat cereals that are making them sick! Whatever happened to truth and honesty? Why is so much of our food supply making us sick?
The reason why our food supply is making us sick is called “economies of scale” and it’s the way society is going right now. Some people M&A all of the, say, packaging facilities, making bigger “shared” ones rather than dedicated ones, which they then rent out as a service. The people doing these transactions have numbers in mind, not humans. To them, the physical integrity of 1% of the population is simply one of the risks included in their calculations, and it’s one that has a much lower impact on their quarter margins than a monopoly on a service. This in turn restricts possibilities for gluten-free businesses, which have to either have their own facilities, which is not feasible in most cases, or find one that is still dedicated, which is becoming so difficult that most businesses either close down or can’t be certified anymore. And it’s the same for transporting raw materials, milling, processing, and so on. These difficulties encourage dubious importations (a government investigator called me yesterday becaus eI made a complaint against one), literal certification logo faking, and unverified “gluten free” claims such as this one here. Because the GF market is there but the means to cater to it are becoming more and more restricted.