Open letter to Trader Joe’s about their “gluten-free” rolled oats on behalf of the Gluten Free Watchdog community

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

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  • daniel sadkowski Reply

    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?

    November 8, 2024 at 1:48 am

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