27
Nov
2018
02
Nov
2018
Reminder: Pick Through Your Lentils for Errant Wheat and Barley!
We continue to receive reports of errant gluten-containing grains in bags of dried lentils sold in the US. Health Canada just issued a recall on a brand of lentils for undeclared gluten. As a general reminder, under US GIPSA standards (Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration), lentils are allowed to contain a certain percentage of foreign grain, including wheat, barley, and rye. As a precaution, please make sure to pick through dry lentils carefully and rinse them very thoroughly under running...
30
Oct
2018
Why mechanically and optically sorted “gluten-free” oats continue to keep me up at night
If you are new to the gluten-free diet and are unfamiliar with the cross contact issues associated with oats and the differences between purity protocol and mechanically/optically sorted oats, please see the following articles before reading this post https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/oats-and-the-gluten-free-diet-qa-part-1/ and https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/oats-and-the-gluten-free-diet-qa-part-2/ Many labeled gluten-free foods contain oats supplied by providers of mechanically and optically sorted oats. Recently a consumer reached out to me regarding the labeling on a gluten-free snack bar containing oats. The label read, “"Contains ... wheat** **Trace amounts...
16
Oct
2018
Updated Testing Protocol from General Mills for Labeled Gluten-Free Cheerios
General Mills uses standard oats that have been mechanically and optically sorted to remove wheat, barley, and rye in their labeled gluten-free Cheerios. Finished product testing (As reported to Gluten Free Watchdog and confirmed October 12, 2018) General Mills is producing gluten-free Cheerios using what they term “validated gluten-free flour.” General Mills determines gluten-free status of a “lot” of oat flour via a lot mean. Further, General Mills determines gluten-free status of a “lot” of gluten-free Cheerios via a lot mean. In both cases, General...
09
Oct
2018
Please do not panic: The research abstract on the Nima Sensor and gluten-free restaurant meals presented at the ACG annual meeting is misleading
Yesterday evening I was just about to close up shop when three messages arrived almost simultaneously asking about a research abstract presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting entitled “Gluten Contamination of Restaurant Food: Analysis of Crowd-Sourced Data.” According to the abstract, study authors, including physicians from the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University “analyzed data from a portable gluten detection device (Nima), collected across the USA during an 18-month period by users (n = 804) who opted...
18
Sep
2018
Sometimes that “not quite right” looking gluten-free food turns out to be gluten-free
Sometimes that “not quite right” looking gluten-free food turns out to be gluten-free and sometimes it does not. Latest incident. We recently tested two pretzel sticks that looked different from the rest of the pretzel sticks in a bag of gluten-free Snyders's of Hanover pretzels. They were longer, thinner, and darker than the other pretzels (see photo). GFWD asked SH to test the errant pretzels but they declined. SH will not test any product once packaging has been opened. This is due...
17
Sep
2018
When an individual is maligned because his scientific opinion is at odds with the commercial messaging surrounding a food-testing gadget we have a problem
Background: As many of you know, Gluten Free Watchdog has been independently testing, assessing, and writing about the Nima Sensor for gluten for a couple of years. Third party testing data was recently released. As a result, we provided an update to our position statement on the testing gadget* (we are not able to recommend it). In our post we included the following statement from Adrian Rogers, Senior Research Scientist at Romer Labs about the Nima Sensor and the third party...
10
Sep
2018
A Bit of Good News from the FDA on Gluten-Free Labeling Issues
We've received a bit of good news from the FDA but before you get too excited continue reading to the end of the post... Gluten Free Watchdog periodically sends emails to FDA updating them on possible facial misbranding* related to the gluten-free labeling rule. An email sent on August 14, 2018 stated in part: "I dealt with two product issues yesterday. A sauce labeled gluten-free yet containing beer with barley and malt listed as sub-ingredients AND a cookie labeled gluten-free containing spelt…...
06
Sep
2018
Gluten Free Watchdog’s Updated Position Statement on the Nima Sensor for Gluten
Please also see: Tricia Thompson, Adrian Rogers, Johnna Perry. Consumer-Led Investigation into Potential Issues That Arise When Testing Dairy Matrixes for Gluten With the NIMA Sensor. Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, 2023; qsad092 https://doi.org/10.1093/jaoacint/qsad092 At Gluten Free Watchdog we are not able to recommend the Nima Sensor consumer testing gadget* for gluten. Third party testing data released yesterday by Nima Labs has further solidified our position. This testing data confirmed what we've noted in our own testing with this gadget. There is no...
21
Aug
2018