Trader Joe’s responds to Gluten Free Watchdog’s meeting request about gluten-free rolled oats

Bottom Line:

Gluten Free Watchdog reached out to Trader Joe’s asking for a conference to discuss how to make gluten-free claims on Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats reliable. Trader Joe’s response was basically, no thank you. Trader Joe’s believes their oats are in compliance with the gluten-free labeling rule. They are calling the results of testing commissioned by Gluten Free Watchdog false positives.

They write in their response letter, “Certain gluten tests interact with some other non-gluten ingredients, resulting in false positives, so this may be the reason for the false positives in your test results.”

This despite the fact that…

• according to previous correspondence with Trader Joe’s, Gluten Free Watchdog and Trader Joe’s used the same assay to test this product—the R5 ELISA, which is the same test FDA uses.
• the only ingredient in Trader Joe’s gluten-free rolled oats is oats. In other words, there are no other non-gluten ingredients that could possibly be causing false positives.
• when Trader Joe’s gluten-free Almost Everything Bagels reportedly contained high levels of gluten, it was Gluten Free Watchdog who demonstrated the results were likely false positives due to other ingredients interacting with the assay (i.e., the G12 ELISA). 

Before responding to Gluten Free Watchdog, Trader Joe’s should have done their homework.

Additional Information:

Gluten Free Watchdog test results for Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Rolled Oats

2024 results:

https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/product/trader-joes-gluten-free-rolled-oats-2024/1372

2022 results:

https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/product/trader-joes-gluten-free-rolled-oats/1162

Post on Moms Across America and non-specific protein binding:

https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/test-result-from-moms-across-america-on-trader-joes-gluten-free-almost-everything-bagels-possibly-false-positive/