Testing Oat Products Using the Nima
Please watch the video Using Nima to test heterogeneous samples such as oats before watching this video. It is available at https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/using-nima-test-heterogeneous-samples-oats/. In the current video I test a box of “gluten-free” Cheerios from the 2015 recall and a carton of regular Quaker oats using Nima. Both of these products are highly likely to be contaminated with gluten and are not recommended for persons with gluten-related disorders regardless of test results using the Nima. My intention in testing these two products is to demonstrate that foods with uneven gluten contamination are not good uses of the Nima in my opinion. My hypothesis is that the Nima will show a smiley face for both products because of the very small sample tested–in the case of Cheerios the sample size is 1/2 of a crushed Cheerio and in the case of Quaker oats the sample size is a few crushed flakes. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Comments (4)
Thank you Tricia! Excellent video and very pertinent information.
I’ve been wondering about the NIMA and how it works. So you have to have a new, clean capsule for each sample one wishes to test in the NIMA correct? And those capsules run about $5 per?
Thanks, Ann. Yes, the capsules are single use. Price varies depending on the number ordered per month. More information is available at https://shop.nimasensor.com/products/subscriptions.
Tricia, your information is clear and easy to understand. After watching your video, I viewed 2 from Beyond Celiac where they were demonstrating the use of NIMA. The first test involved Thai food (noodles and a separate fried looking soy/tempeh protein. As the NIMA sample is limited to a pea size amount, one is taking even smaller amounts if trying to test several food choices at once. And then you won’t know which food item has gluten in it. Or one uses several testing vials for one meal – which can significantly add to the cost of the meal. NIMA may be helpful in “one-off” food choices, but I wonder about an entire meal, a potluck picnic or buffet settings. I think we are still going to have to be our own best detectives.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Bonnie. You may be interesting in this post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-good-your-measurement-result-ronald-niemeijer