Gluten Free or Not Gluten Free? The results are in. Recipe
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Gluten Free or Not Gluten Free? The results are in.
A short time ago (a few weeks), Shawn got glutened. We traced it back to a questionable product I had cooked with. I sent this product to the University of Nebraska's Food Allergy Research and Resource Labs to be tested, to make sure this was the culprit.
It is a widely held belief that gluten (gliadin) does not survive the distillation process in alcohol's. The product I had tested was organic pure vanilla extract. The questionable ingredient in it was "organic alcohol".
This is a link to the original article http://theglutenfreespouse.blogspot.com/2010/06/surprise-youve-been-glutened.html
The UK has a food labeling of 20ppm (20 parts per million) rule of thumb and anything with 20ppm or less can be labeled "Gluten Free".
This is ridiculous!!
No wonder people still get sick.
The United States has no rule of thumb, rather it is left up to the individual companies to decide their parts per million for "Gluten Free" labeling.
I feel that if you are going to label something "Gluten Free" then it should be truly Gluten Free and not just Low Gluten. This policy of labeling items "Gluten Free" when they contain trace amounts of gluten is intolerable. It is making people sick.
The results of the test...
"Dear Mr. Christopher,
My laboratory has completed the testing of the Full Circle Organic Pure Vanilla Extract sample
that they received on Thursday, July 12th, 2010. The laboratory tested this product for gluten with
a specific commercial test method designed to detect small traces of this food component.
- Full Circle Organic Pure Vanilla Extract 15ppm
- UPC 36800 30388, Lot 1101003C Best By 20Apr2012"
I would like to state that this product was not labeled "Gluten Free". It was however in the Gluten Free section of the grocery store. I have never had a problem with the pure vanilla extract that sits right next to this one on the shelf (it is labeled "Gluten Free") Both have the same listed ingredients except for the "organic alcohol".
Shawn is very sensitive and 15ppm to him might as well be a slice of whole wheat bread. I am sure many of you are the same.
Be careful out there.