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By Fred, February 2, 2010 10:46 pm

Photos of the defendant, Seelig / Gleason, as the injunction stopping him from selling Gluten Free products and ordering his website be taken down. Photo taken by WRAL, property of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

A preliminary injunction was granted in the case of North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Plaintiff v. Paul Evan Seelig a/k/a Andrew Jeffrey “Jeff” Gleason d/b/a Great Specialty Products, defendant.

Excerpts below:

29. The Defendant has committed much of his adult life to defrauding and victimizing people, most recently endangering their health and safety;

30. The Defendant is not engaged in an honest business enterprise, but rather, is engaged in a scheme to defraud particularly vulnerable, sick people;

32. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture brings this lawsuit on behalf of the people of this State who have been or soon may be victimized by the Defendant’s illegal conduct;

33. These people, especially those with Celiac Disease and Gluten intolerance, are particularly vulnerable to injury and harm by reason of the Defendant’s business activities;

Summary of the findings - the Defendant is ordered to accomplish the following within one day;
1. Provide a list of all of his ingredient, product and bread suppliers.
2. Share a customer list (presumably so they can be notified of the issues with the bread products).
3. Provide samples of all of the products to the State.
4. Permit the State to inspect all facilities.
5. Take down his website and all advertising.

Further, the defendant must include, in all capitals and in bold print, “THIS PRODUCT(S) IS NOT GLUTEN FREE.”

Bail was set at $100,000 as the court considered Seelig / Gleason a flight risk.

GlutenFreeRaleigh coverage from the courtroom is here.

NBC 17, Raleigh News coverage here.

WRAL coverage of the story is here.

A copy of the original court filing against Seelig / Gleason and Great Specialty Products is here.

Comments (1)

By Fred, January 28, 2010 5:38 pm

TED is a nonprofit that puts together conferences where the speakers talk about bold, challenging ideas.  At the July 2009 event, they invited Ms. Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, to talk about how food shapes modern cities.  It’s a fascinating presentation in which she walks through the history of modern cities, with a focus on London, and outlines how food has impacted the shape, size, and distribution of mankind.

Ms. Steel introduces the concept of a Sitopia, or “food place” - borrowing from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, or “ideal place”, from his 16th century book.  The sitopia she describes is a place where people live in concert with, and in full knowledge of the source and impact of their food.  It flows well with the concepts of Michael Pollan, for those who have read his books as well.

She states,

[You] Can’t have it without people who think about food, who plan ahead.  We need these people, they are part of a network.  Without these kind of people we can’t have places like this [the sitopia].

Could that be what we, people who have CD, or who pursue the GFD, are?  Like it or not, we think about food a lot.  Much more than the average individual.  And we are certainly part of a network - both our own networks as we share information on food, and as part of the non-GFD communities in which we participate every day.  All our colleagues know that we are food sensitive.  We are the de facto food experts in any gathering.

Sitopia already exists in little pockets everywhere.  The trick is to join them up.

We couldn’t agree more.

We can use food as a really powerful tool to make the world better.

Thanks again, Ms. Steel - these are the kind of bold, challenging, ideas, that we like to hear.

Comments (3)

By Fred, January 20, 2010 10:57 pm

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Safety takes an unprecedented step in the legal defense of those with Celiac Disease.

Pursuant to past posts here, and at the GFCF Cookbook, about Great Specialty Products [dot] com.

This action is being brought to stop the dissemination of false and misleading advertising previously made and now being made by Defendant Paul Evan Seelig, alk/a Andrew Jeffrey “Jeff” Gleason, d/b/a Great Specialty Products (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Defendant Seelig” or individually referred to as “Gleason” or “Great Specialty Products”), using, inter alia, the internet website www.greatspecialtyproducts.com (hereinafter referred to as the “Great Specialty Products’ website”) and via telecommunications. Said advertisements falsely and misleadingly state and misrepresent that certain bread products sold by Defendant Seelig via the Great Specialty Products’ website are and were gluten-free when, in fact, said bread products contain gluten that causes harmful physical reactions and other serious health-related problems when consumed by people who have, inter alia, Celiac Disease.

This is taken from the first page of File No. 10CV001020 issued on Wednesday, January 20 at 3 PM against Paul Seelig, the Plaintiff, by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

We will link to the full document as it becomes available.

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By Fred, January 11, 2010 10:41 pm

Would you like a gluten-shaker? Answer = No.

No, we don’t want a gluten shaker on your table.  That would be a bad, unused, item.  However, in reading two articles today from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal on efforts to curb the use of salt in foods, we see a template that could be applied to the food industry’s use of gluten.

Per Ilan Brat and Maurice Tamman’s well-researched article, “Food Makers Quietly Cut Back on Salt: Companies Find Consumers Respond Better When Sodium-Reduction Isn’t Emphasized on Labels”, “Salt is an inexpensive ingredient that enhances sweetness and diminishes bitterness in flavors. It keeps packaged foods fresh longer, plumps up canned vegetables and helps hold together hot dogs.” For anyone with CD or who pursues the GFD, these words sound familiar. Salt is an inexpensive ingredient, like gluten. Salt enhances the product, in the same way gluten enhances the chewiness and texture of foods. Salt is important in extending shelf-life, and we are all well familiar with the challenges of keeping GF food products edible without the assistance of refrigeration.

Salt is a mineral.  Gluten is plant derived.  Salt has merited its own book and has arguably driven the course of world history. Grains, the wheat, rye and barley, which produce gluten, made the fertile crescent and agriculture changed humanity’s course.

The articles make great points; (i) consumers expect low-salt products to taste worse, but are okay with it if phased in, (ii) general health improves by reducing salt to minimal levels, (iii) everyone wins with salt added only where necessary, (iv) there is increasing awareness at the policy level about the negative impacts of too much salt being used for the general population.

For the gluten-avoidance community to catch up with the salt-avoidance community we need better quantification of the negative impacts of gluten.  We see the beginnings of that for those with CD in insurance-related studies, but we will benefit from other studies of other specialty diet populations.

In closing, we highlight an excerpt from the WSJ article with salt modified to [gluten] - think about what it would mean:

Consumers’ prejudices about reduced-salt [gluten] products and taste are also complicating food-makers’ efforts.

In one 2007 test in Holland, Unilever found that consumers expected to like one powdered-soup mix purported to be lower in salt [gluten] less than another, even though they were actually identical, says Mr. Balentine, of Unilever.

“Once you start saying you’ve taken salt down [gluten out], it’s basically equal to, ‘It’s not going to taste good,”‘ he says.

New technology is driving many salt [gluten] reductions by helping maintain the saltiness [texture] of products with less sodium [no gluten]. Some companies are deploying new meaty-tasting compounds that boost saltiness flavor without sodium [gluten] or cooling agents that make the tongue taste salt [texture] better. Others are using materials that smell salty [have the same texture] without having any sodium [gluten], says Mr. Eilerman, of Givaudan.

It makes for a nice read, doesn’t it?

Comments (0)

By Fred, December 15, 2009 10:46 pm

Biaggi’s gets brought up anytime you get two people with CD or on the GFD together in RTP. With over 20 restaurants and a long history of catering to those with special diet needs, they have done a fantastic job of making their meals easy, safe and tasty. I ate here for the first time this past Saturday and as part of a big party, was able to get them to bring out a gf pepperoni pizza as an appetizer. It was the best fresh GF pizza I’d ever had in a restaurant; all of my colleagues said it tasted like normal pizza.

As an entree I had the Grilled Chicken Pietro. Not something I ever would have ordered 4 years ago, prior to my CD diagnosis; however there are same tastes I’ve just started to miss. It was great. Even better, it has stayed great as a left over.

Comments (3)

By Fred, December 14, 2009 10:33 pm

I grew up in Oklahoma where bagels were not common.  I remember eating my first one in 5th grade at the New York Bagel Store, which is now closed. It is rare for me to get hungry for a bagel, but something about being on the road a lot recently and the unusually cold weather has had me focused on finding a good GF bagel.

First up are two options; Glutino and Against the Grain. To begin with, both are worth the purchase. While I prefer the Against the Grain, they are both good. The Glutino bagels were purchased from the Whole Foods here in Chapel Hill, while the Against the Grain were bought at a Whole Foods in Bedford, MA.

Key when preparing the GF bagels is reheating, and this is where the Against the Grain may have had a bit of an advantage. They appeared to have been frozen more recently, and I was able to let them all thaw out at once. In general, they were lighter and fluffier with a consistency close to that of a conventional English muffin. I tried several thawing methods; microwaving, overnight on the counter, overnight in the refrigerator, and it didn’t seem to matter. I prefer my bagels heated in the oven and both browned well.

Against the Grain ingredients: Tapioca starch, milk, eggs, mozzarella cheese, canola oil, sesame seeds, salt, sesame oil

Glutino ingredients: Corn mix (corn starch, skim milk powder, evaporated cane juice, salt, glucono-delta-lactone, pectin, sodium bicarbonate, sodium alginate, modified vegetable cellulose), water, tapioca starch, margarine (palm oil, palm kernel oils, soy lecithin), skim milk powder, evaporated cane juice, liquid egg whites, safflower oil, liquid yolks, guar gum, yeast, salt, thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, riboflavin, iron, calcium

Both were great. Are there other brands you recommend?

Comments (24)

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 20, 2009 8:10 am

Unite for GFD Education!

Just when we thought Zach at Gluten Free Raleigh couldn’t do anymore to help those with recent CD diagnosis or those who pursue the GFD, he has topped himself.  Today he’ll be presenting this petition to the City Council to increase awareness of the big eight food allergens and gluten.

Please take the time to sign up to the petition here.

Comments (1)

By Fred, October 18, 2009 1:51 pm

Scary Halloween Costume for CD / GFD (This product contains wheat and gluten)

There is no shortage of postings on the reactions caused by wheat and gluten to those with CD; at yesterday’s Whole Foods vendor fair we saw many who were recently diagnosed and as is common they all spoke about how much better they now felt being on the gluten free diet (”GFD”). I was first diagnosed in 2006 and am frequently surprised at my reaction to seeing wheat; my wife notes that I recoil like a shiver, seeing a snake, or like I’ve touched something hot. This has clearly been a learned reaction.

Because of that I had to stop watching Saturday Night Live off of my DVR this afternoon; the entire show was sponsored by Bud Light’s new Golden Wheat variety. I’ve got nothing against Anheuser-Busch Inbev; I’m on record that Redbridge is one of my favorite GF beers. I respect GE and NBC’s creativity in looking into novel methods of sponsorship. It was just too much everytime they through the logo up on screen.

We frequently hear from those on the GFD or with CD about dreams, sometimes even nightmares, that involve accidental gluten ingestion. The challenge of having to avoid this pesky protein works its way deeply into the psyche and becomes a significant part in one’s personality. The best way to address problems like avoiding gluten is to be meticulous, enumerate the variables and take a quantitative approach.

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By Fred, October 16, 2009 7:05 am

Thank you, Whole Foods

We’re looking forward to the Gluten Free Vendor Fair this Saturady, October 17, from 11 AM - 3 PM at the Whole Foods in Raleigh, address below.  There’s a longer description from Gluten Free Raleigh available here. The event should have plenty of information, products to sample and local experts on all things GF.

3540 Wade Ave
Raleigh, NC 27607
Phone: 919.828.5805
Fax: 919.828.5825

map & directions| Store web page

We’ll be there with our usual demo materials and coupons for a one month free trial.  Let us know if you have any questions!