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By Fred, January 4, 2010 7:21 am

A recent New York Times article discussed the adventures of a pair of students from Manhattan’s Trinity School as they collected DNA samples for analysis by Dr. Mark Stoeckle of Rockefeller University.

The most fascinating mention in the article was that one in six (11 out of 66 to be precise) of the typical household food items were mislabeled, ”including sheep’s milk cheese that was in fact made of cow’s milk, venison dog treats that were made of beef and sturgeon caviar that was actually Mississippi paddlefish.”

Because of the differences between animal cell structure and those of plants, DNA barcoding, as discussed in the article, still is a long way away from being helpful in our efforts to identify wheat, barley and rye to avoid gluten.

Creating mechanisms by which consumers can double check manufacturer’s statements about food contents creates interesting dynamics in any setting. As such mechanisms become more socially acceptable and a fact of life for complex supply chains, such as the food industry, they will benefit those of us who pursue specialty diets.

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By Fred, December 13, 2009 10:08 pm

[UPDATE 12/15/2009 4:30 PM: We received feedback from the EZ Gluten manufacturer. We were informed that the EZ Gluten reading of high is not a clear indicator of > 200 ppm. A 'High' reading is simply a relative indicator, and the only clear ppm reading from the test is the < 10 ppm of a low reading. 'High' may indicate higher or lower than 200 ppm.  Further, the 3rd party test that was used was not the 'AOAC approved' test; rather it was a modification of the AOAC OMA 991.19 that has been modified to go down to 5 ppm.  As a point of transparency, our errors are left in with strikethrough.]

Five (5) different products which had a ‘Gluten Free’ product claim from Great Specialty Products, a physical and online seller of GF products, show high levels of gluten based on seven (7) different gluten tests.  Six were over the counter test kits, one was sent off to a 3rd party lab for independent confirmation.  We purchased two products, a white-bread loaf, and a sourdough loaf from Great Specialty Products - a website (greatspecialtyproducts [dot] com), and formerly a physical store, based in North Carolina.  Both samples, when evaluated with an EZ Gluten Kit, showed ‘High Gluten’ (photos and details below).  We were present for two other samples (a dinner roll and another white-bread loaf) when other EZ-Gluten Kits were run and showed ‘High Gluten’.  Two others shared results which were not run in our presence, which both showed high gluten.  For an EZ-Gluten kit, a reading of ‘High Gluten‘ indicates 200 ppm or more.

One of these six samples was sent to a 3rd party lab for independent testing, it too found ‘High’ levels of gluten.  For the [3rd party] AOAC approved test, High levels of gluten meant 80 ppm or more.  As of this writing, seven (7) different tests show products from Great Specialty Products to be high in gluten as defined by the relevant test.

EZ Gluten has shown 'High Gluten' on 6 Great Specialty Products breads.

A summary of the results are listed below:

• White Loaf / Delivered 12.7 / Tested 12.10 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm (JN)
• Sourdough Loaf / Delivered 12.7 / Tested 12.10 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm (JN)
• French Dinner Rolls / Delivered 12.3 / Tested 12.5 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm (JN)
• Sourdough Loaf / Delivered 11.25 / Tested 12.3 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm
• Flour Tortilla / Delivered 11.25 / Tested 12.3 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm
• Multi-Grain Bread / Delivered 11.25 / Tested 12.3 / EZGluten EZG90529-9 / Result = High Gluten, >200 ppm
• French Dinner Rolls / Delivered 12.3 / Tested 12.10 / 3rd Party AOAC Quantitative Gluten ELISA / Result = High Gluten, >80 ppm (JN)

We believe the likelihood of contamination of these samples since delivery is very low; they were handled by individuals with CD or by establishments that are well-versed in GF food preparation.  Chain-of-custody for each of these samples has been recorded.  For the four samples marked (JN), we have retained frozen representatives.  All users of the EZ Gluten kits were experienced in their use and photos of their use have been retained.

Product Delivery

The products were delivered door-to-door, but had no labeling, nor an ingredient list. We called a Food Compliance Officer at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (”NCDA&CS”), who stated that if such a delivery had occurred, it would be a violation of North Carolina State Law.  NCDA&CS further stated that the same laws would be applied to an online retailer as would those that applied to a physical store.  North Carolina law also supports Federal law in relation to following GMP and allergen labeling.

Re-Packaged Desserts

In past weeks, Great Specialty Products had an area on their site titled, “Gluten Free Specialty Desserts.”  Two desserts from this area had been delivered to a customer with the original wrappers from the primary manufacturer, an un-associated private-label food manufacturer.  When the original manufacturer was called, they stated that their products were not gluten free.  Website photos from the non-gluten free photos were being used to promote the Great Specialty Products desserts, again the Great Specialty Products were represented with a Gluten Free product claim.  The original manufacturer immediately set about correcting the situation.  It appears that this portion of the site has now been removed, an archive of the page can be found here.

Notification

Prior to this post Great Specialty Products was informed that based on the results we had received that their products contain gluten.  We attempted to ask questions about ingredients and the source of their product claims.

Final Comments

Several products from Great Specialty Products have been to have high levels of gluten in contrast to their product claims of 'Gluten Free.'

As someone with CD on the GFD, I am immensely grateful to any group that makes GF products.  We recognize that kits have their weaknesses, that suppliers may provide ingredients that are out of spec, and that accidents do happen.  We routinely run EZ Gluten kits when it is difficult to tell if ingredients have gluten or not.  The kits were run in this instance after the products were delivered unlabeled without an ingredient list.

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By Fred, October 12, 2009 7:35 am

Nothing like a little butter and milk to go with the muffins.

I grew up in Oklahoma where we didn’t have many high end grocery stores; Oklahoma City still lacks a Whole Foods even though they are headquartered a mere five hours away in Austin, TX.  My first trip to a Harris Teeter was in Charlottesville, VA, and I thought it was one of the nicest grocery stores in the world.  Living now in Chapel Hill, where we have every flavor of high end grocery store, Harris Teeter is solidly in the middle; nicer than a Food Lion, but still not as high end as Whole Foods or as hipster-friendly as Trader Joe’s.

Nonetheless, these are some great blueberry muffins.  As you can see in the photos, the lead ingredient is a teff flour. Based on what we are seeing out of the major ingredient manufacturers, teff is here to stay, not just for those of us with CD and/or pursuing the GFD, but for mainstream food products as well.

What other GF products are you seeing from groups that don’t normally stock a wide range of GF products?

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By Fred, October 8, 2009 7:30 am

Going Global with the GFD

The Czech Republic is not a friendly place to visit for those of us who pursue the gluten free diet (”GFD”).  CD is not widely diagnosed. Flour is put in practically everything, and as I found out, literacy isn’t the highest even if you have a trusty “I’ve got CD and pursue the GFD cards.” (Thank you as always, to the people at www.celiactravel.com).

The search results in our Juno Nutrition food database when you look for products that are Czech. As always, we show an aggregate safety result in the Gluten Summary.

To prepare for the trip I went down to the local Czech restaurant, Klara’s, in Cary, NC. As usual, I went to visit around 2 in the afternoon, just the right time for management to still be around, but after the lunchtime rush so you can sit and talk. Klara had heard of CD and knew of the GFD for her customers, but hadn’t ever gone through her menu in detail. We spent about an hour going through each item on the menu. Klara was kind enough to tell me if which items were GF, which items would always contain gluten, and which items might be made to avoid gluten and how to ask for them.

We walked away with 66 products; 27 okay / 1 unknown / 28 avoid. It was extremely helpful and it led to my first trip to Praha and Liberec where there was no accidental gluten exposure.

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By Fred, September 9, 2009 7:30 am

Terms and abbreviations matter, especially for CD and the GFD

We’ve spent a lot of time lately reading the scientific and medical literature around Celiac Disease (“CD”) and ways to improve conformance to specialized diets, particularly the Gluten Free Diet (“GFD”). We’ve always used GF to denote Gluten Free, however, we were pleased to see how widely these abbreviations were used across continents and scientific fields.

It’s essential to use consistent and precise language in everything we do here at Juno Nutrition because of all of the different fields and disciplines we work with. There are a lot of complex things in pursuing the GFD, the least we can do is use a common set of abbreviations.  Terms like CD and GFD dominate the scientific and medical research literature that weighs on our health; we should do our best as a community to exercise the same consistency.

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

From The Analects of Confucius, Book 13, Verse 3 (James R. Ware, translated in 1980.)

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By Fred, July 17, 2009 7:31 am

The New Scientist had a great article on the accuracy of calorie counts in food labels written by Mr. Bijal Trevedi. Labels matter. Any issue about items like calories, arguably the most important number on the label, provide huge guidance in how we can expect the gluten labeling to work for those of us with Celiac disease.

Here are a few great quotes;

“Yet according to a small band of researchers, using the information on food labels to estimate calorie intake could be a very bad idea. They argue that calorie estimates on food labels are based on flawed and outdated science, and provide misleading information on how much energy your body will actually get from a food.”

“”Food texture might be as important a factor for preventing obesity as taste or food nutrients,” Oka and his colleagues concluded (Journal of Dental Research, vol 82, p 491).”

Again, here at Juno Nutrition we are 100% focused on ensuring that the food information that people pursuing a gluten free diet use is as accurate as possible. We should look at these issues with calories and try to understand how they will map to our own issues with Gluten.

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By Fred, July 16, 2009 7:17 am

Thank you, Ms. Betty Croker

Great to see these in a regular grocer

If you are gluten free, it’s hard not to love the Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix. It tastes good, which we all expected. More importantly, it is a top tier food manufacturer bringing a GF product to mass market grocery stores around the world. We thought we’d add our review to the mix, although there are plenty of good ones out there, including this one from Gluten Free Chapel Hill.

In the past year, there were 613,000 Google citations of Betty Crocker, when you add “Gluten Free” to that, the total shrinks to 15,700, for 2.5% of the total. In total Google hits for Betty Crocker are just over 2 million, with only 1.5% of those in total including the phrases “Gluten Free” or “GF”. That’s a pretty big search in just the past year. It’s great to see General Mills embracing our dietary concerns, and it is great to see that we’ve reacted with appropriate enthusiasm.

So how did they taste? They were great. They were good hot, but as we all know with GF baked goods, the real test is how they work the next day. They held up great. In fact, they disappeared in less than 3 days. The only item that was noticeable was the sandy sound of the mix in the bag - but you know you’re being hypercritical when your major issue about a baked good is the auditory performance of the mix in the bag!

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By Fred, July 3, 2009 11:18 am

Know your Toolkit

We’ve been surprised how many times we’ve been asked about our views on home gluten test kits.

Before we answer, let’s look at the field: Every day people with Celiac disease have to make food decisions in which they must avoid a protein that is found in the second largest food crop in the US. This molecule, which is less than 400 nanometers in size, is actually quite tasty, so the rest of the population really likes to eat it. It gets better – it isn’t one little protein, but two smaller sub proteins, each of which show up in different tests, and they look like many other proteins.

The odds are stacked against us. They were stacked against us in the ten years on average just to get diagnosed. Now, the odds are stacked against us in staying healthy.

We have a limited toolkit. Some benevolent food makers are good enough to make a statement, despite the regulatory burden and countless other issues, in which they declare that their products are gluten free. Our second item in the toolkit is to be an old fashioned gluten-sleuth. Ask the waiter. Ask the chef. Go back to the kitchen and read the labels yourself. Email the manufacturer.

Gluten Home Test Kits are the third piece of gear in the toolkit. Just like manufacturers who make statements or like the questions we ask of the patient wait staff, there are weaknesses in this tool. Some show gliadin, others show glutenin.

The tests may have varying degrees of sensitivity and the locations where they are administered may not be the perfect laboratory setting. But they are a tool, and even an imperfect tool is one that should be mastered.

Are we for test kits? Absolutely, we are for any tool that helps us be active in avoiding gluten in our diet and staying healthy.