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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.

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By Fred, January 21, 2010 10:16 pm

Find Zach Becker at Gluten Free Raleigh’s coverage of today’s hearing against Great Specialty Products [dot] com here.

NBC News 17 in Raleigh covered the story as well.

Here is a longer article by the Raleigh News and Observer from this morning, published after the State Attorney General’s office made their initial filings public.  We appreciate the reference.

And again, note our original post on GSP’s products, our subsequent post, and this post at the GFCF Cookbook.

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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, 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.

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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, December 5, 2009 5:45 pm

Sushi is being identified through genetic means

The WSJ just published a great article on the use of DNA ‘barcodes’ for speciation of food products.  Unfortunately, species identification is much simpler in animals than it is in plants.   While the methods employed are not immediately valuable, they do show that clear identification of food products and their components continues to grow as a societal issue.

The article, reported by Robert Lee Hotz, outlines how rapid genetic sequencing is increasingly being used to identify animals for food, environmental and other reasons.  He focuses on a recent test of 68 samples from 31 sushi restaurants in New York and Denver (why would you eat Sushi in Denver?) which found that restaurant patrons weren’t always getting what they ordered.  Lower cost, endangered, and even potentially dangerous fish species were served in their place.

A similar survey in Canada of 18 sushi restaurants found that half the orders were mislabeled.  A 2004 study by the University of North Carolina estimated that 3/4 of all snapper sold in the US was mislabeled.

This also matters for food labeling and species conservation.  Current guidelines restrict the label Grouper to 33 species of fish.

This has profound implications for all of us who are concerned about the presenece of gluten, or other foods, in our diets.  We are not alone.  Almost as important as the health, safety and species conservation aspects of this article is the fact that there are clear economic implications.  It matters what people eat; there is money to be had for those who pay attention.

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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.

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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!

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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, July 13, 2009 10:01 pm

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table top yesterday at the Gluten Free vendor exhibits at the Earth Fare in Raleigh.

The quick summary was:
32 National chain locations with a GF menu identified.
6 Well known grocers
11 Local restaurants that are known to be GF friendly or have a GF menu.

We’ll be putting up the full materials later this week, but wanted to be sure to share the snapshot of the map right away. We loved the feedback and camaraderie it generated.