Search Results - tea

Thank You to Thomas Grace & the Bia Diagnostics Team from Gluten Free Watchdog

Gluten Free Watchdog was born a little over 12 years ago. This endeavor came to fruition because of the encouragement of Thomas Grace, CEO at Bia Diagnostics. We had recently completed a study on gluten cross contact in naturally gluten-free grains. While I had access to labs for testing, I wanted to make state-of-the-art gluten testing accessible and understandable to interested consumers with celiac disease and other gluten-related disorders. Thom's positive reaction when I told him what I hoped to...

Open letter to General Mills’ Gluten-Free Cheerios Team on Behalf of the Gluten Free Watchdog Community

Dear General Mills' Cheerios Team, Your recent recall of 13 lots of Honey Nut and 4 lots of Yellow Box Cheerios and subsequent explanation of how these products made it to market has raised many questions. One of the biggest concerns is the apparent discrepancy between what you told the community about your testing protocols and what you were actually doing. It is important that you provide a thorough and honest explanation. What you were actually doing You stated to me in an...

Green Tea & Possible Gluten Contamination

Many of you may have heard about an FDA study published in June entitled, “Survey of Tea for the Presence of Gluten.” Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration conducted this study. What follows is a brief summary of the situation. Background: A health care professional recently sent out a mass email with a link to the aforementioned study abstract on PubMed. The email suggested (in my opinion) that gluten contamination found in the study was coming from the tea bags...

New Gluten Threshold Study from Australia

In Brief: A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Dose-Response Study to Assess the Gluten Threshold Dose in Celiac Disease was conducted by a team of researchers from Australia and recently published in the journal Gastroenterology. A primary goal of the research was to determine the minimal dose amount of gluten required to cause an immune response--specifically an interleukin-2 (IL-2) response in adults with celiac disease adhering to a gluten-free diet. Among other objectives, the researchers looked at the lowest observed immune effect level...

Gluten-free and wheat-based crackers hung out together: Will the Nima Sensor pick up any cross-contact?

One of Gluten Free Watchdog’s criticisms of the Nima Sensor is that it is unlikely to pick up uneven cross contact in a food sample that has not been homogenized—ground up in a blender for example—prior to testing. To help address this issue the Nima Now team suggests using, “the teeth on the bottom of the capsule cap to dab food from different areas of your plate.” Let’s see how well that works… A labeled gluten-free mini rice cake and a...

Gluten Free Watchdog testing experiments using the updated Nima Sensor 2026

Gluten Free Watchdog is not planning an in-depth assessment of the “new” Nima Sensor. We will test products as issues are brought to our attention. To that end, we tried unsuccessfully to update the first generation Nima we purchased years ago. Unfortunately, it is too old to receive firmware updates. As a result, a new Nima and two boxes of capsules were sent free of charge from Nima Now. From what we understand, if you have a first generation Nima...

A silly thing is happening with the relaunch of the Nima Sensor

A silly thing is happening with the relaunch of the Nima Sensor. The fact that Gluten Free Watchdog sends samples to the lab Bia Diagnostics for testing using the scientifically validated R5 ELISA is seemingly being used as a talking point to help confirm the validity of the sensor. From the Nima Now website: “That performance was validated by BIA Diagnostics, a globally recognized allergen-testing laboratory whose work is trusted by the celiac community and organizations such as Gluten Free Watchdog.” “For the...

Is the FDA enforcing the gluten-free labeling rule: You be the judge!

On October 1, 2024, the Food and Drug Administration updated the way in which consumers must go about reporting food-related issues to the agency. Instead of contacting an FDA consumer complaint coordinator, reports are now filed with the Human Foods Program either by phone or through the online safety reporting portal. Gluten Free Watchdog also was asked to use the portal. According to an email sent out by the FDA, “This streamlined process will expedite delivery of inquiries and complaints to...

Gluten Free Watchdog 2025 Summary Report

Testing: Testing was commissioned by GFWD and done by Bia Diagnostics, LLC. The sandwich R5 ELISA and cocktail extraction were used. When appropriate, the competitive R5 ELISA also was used. Most samples were tested in duplicate; oat samples were tested in triplicate due to the heterogeneous (uneven) distribution of potential gluten cross contact. Findings: 104 unique products were tested and released in 2025—almost all of them subscriber requests. 75 unique products were labeled/represented as gluten-free. 6 unique products labeled gluten free contained quantifiable gluten...

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...