23 replies to this topic

[Felidae]

For anyone in Canada:


Dear Ms. L.,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail to Parmalat Canada. We had experienced technical difficulties and we are not sure if you have already received a response. We apologies if you have already been answered and please accept our sincere apologies if you have not yet received an answer.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us regarding our products. In response to your inquiry, recent updates in regulations have changed the definition of what can be declared as a "gluten free" product. As a result of the changes in the regulations, we have reviewed our products and, under the revised regulations, only our Beatrice Sensational Soy Original, Vanilla, Chocolate and Sensational Juice Blends can be described as gluten free.

Thank you for contacting Parmalat Canada.


Sincerely,



Consumer Response,
Parmalat Canada


This is insane! Parmalat produces a ton of dairy products under various names. This would eliminate a lot of dairy that I can purchase at a reasonable price.

[num1habsfan]

Whoa that IS crazy!

~lisa~

[skoki_mom]

That is mental! They are saying there is gluten in their *milk*????????

[2Boys4Me]

Gluten in milk?!?! That IS insane! That doesn't make any sense. And what regulatory updates are they talking about?

Meanwhile, here's the letter I got from Yoplait.

Dear Mrs ____,

We aknowledge receipt your comments concerning the gluten in the Yoplait products.

We want to certified you that all the Yoplait Products are gluten free.

More information about all the Yoplait products are available on yoplait.ca our new Web site.

Once again, thank you for your comments and please be assured that Yoplait is continuously working to be the first to offer consumers innovative products of the highest quality.

Sincerely yours,

Marie-France Laurin
Consumer Service

YOPLAIT

[num1habsfan]

I hope they are wrong, because just when I thought i found enough varieties of food that I can live like a normal human, I dont need some company cutting down that supply, especially not when it comes to milk products!

~lisa~

[Felidae]

Yeah, what a stupid response. I wonder if it is like the warning labe "may have been in contact with gluten"? The Dairyland website lists their gluten free items. I emailed Saputo (parent company of Dairyland) for their gluten-free status too.

[2Boys4Me]

I couldn't find the Dairyland list, I ended up emailing them. No response yet.

[jrom987]

Wow! I am glad that I read this post! I just checked the Yoplait website and this is what they have on it:

Do Yoplait products contain gluten?

We carefully analyze all of our ingredients (presence of wheat, rye, barley, triticale, spelt, oats and malt) to ensure they do not contain gluten. Our products can therefore be safely consumed by people with celiac disease.

I've noticed "modified cornstarch" on the list of ingredients of both Yoplait Creme & fruit and Spring Valley. Has the cornstarch been modified with gluten?

Modified cornstarch is used to stabilize yogourt and does not contain gluten.

And I thought my Yoplait days were over! Thank you for mentioning this!

[Felidae]

I love Yoplait. At least they know what they are putting into their products. What I don't understand about Parmalat is why products like milk and cheese are not gluten-free? Are there products made to a lesser standard or do they just not know what is in their products. As if being gluten-free in Canada is not hard enough. At least we have Yoplait for yogurt and Kraft for cheese!

[2Boys4Me]

I sent Parmalat an email this morning (and left a message after many rings of the phone) and in the email I posted the pertinent part of Felidae's letter from the company and then I said, "Are you saying that all of your milk, margarine, and yogurt products contain gluten?"
I left it at that. Except I did say how I was looking forward to a response soon.
Emailed Dairyland this morning also, and got this reply:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding our gluten free products. Below is out list.


GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS:
Dairyland & Baxter Milk All white & flavoured milks are gluten free except chocolate milk - see below.
Dairyland & Baxter Chocolate Milk Corn gluten only
Dairyland & Baxter Whip Cream Gluten free
Dairyland & Nutrilait Plus Microfiltered Milks (Skim, 1%, 2%) Gluten free
Dairyland Plus Omega Milk Gluten free
Dairyland Ice Cream Mix/Milkshake Mix Gluten free (mix only as sold to customer).
Dairyland Frosted Malt Mix NOT gluten free (has corn, wheat, oat, rye, barley).
Dairyland California Yogurt Mix Gluten free
Pacific & Alpha Evaporated Milk Gluten free
Dairyland & Baxter Sour Cream, Dairyland Yogurts, International Delight They have corn gluten
Dairyland & Baxter Cottage Cheese (Plain & fruit flavoured) Gluten free except the cott. cheese combo fruit does have CORN gluten.
Dairyland & Fraser Valley Butter - salted & unsalted Gluten free
Dairyland & Baxter Egg Nog Gluten free
Dairyland & Baxter Buttermilk Gluten free
Meadowvale Margarine Gluten free
Armstrong & Saputo Cheese: Shred, Cheddar, Light Cheddar, Mozz., Feta, Nibblers, Slices (processed and Provolone), Fat Free Slices, Parmesan Grated Cheese, Saputo Cheese Strings & Saputo Cheese Heads, Saputo Ricotta Cheese, Bari & Stella Whey Ricotta Cheese Gluten free
Saputo Blue Cheese MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF GLUTEN

We hope that helps.

Sincerely,
> Deborah Elke
> Consumer Relations Coordinator
> Marketing Department
> Saputo
>
> Saputo Foods Limited
> 6800 Lougheed Highway
> Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1W2
>
> Tel: 1-800-672-8866 / Fax: 604-581-4106
> delke@saputo.com
> www.saputo.com

I love how there's a typo in the first sentence. And what the heck is corn gluten?!
It's a start. After all that, I decided to let Kellogg's know we need gluten-free cereal too. No response from them yet. The first time I wrote to them I got a letter that said (and I'm paraphrasing here) "We don't make gluten free products and we never ever will so P.F.O."

[shimma]

FYI - Corn does have gluten, which is really just a generic name for the protein in grains. It's not the same protein structure as wheat, rye, or barley gluten, so we can eat it without problems.

[Felidae]

Good, I was hoping someone else would email Parmalat. Maybe the person who responded to me was mistaken. The more people that bug them the more info. I think we'll get. Thanks for the Dairyland list.

[2Boys4Me]

My email from Parmalat was addressed to "Dear Valued Consumer".
Here's the response:
Dear Valued Consumer,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your recent call to Parmalat Canada .

Thank you for taking the time to write to us regarding our Sensational Soy Products. In response to your inquiry, recent updates in regulations have changed the definition of what can be declared as a "Gluten Free" product. As a result of the changes in the regulations, we have reviewed our products and, under the revised regulations, only our Beatrice Sensational Soy Original, Vanilla, Chocolate and Sensational Juice Blends can be described as gluten free.

Thank you for contacting Parmalat Canada.

Sincerely,

Consumer Response,
Parmalat Canada

Of course, I didn't even ASK about soy products. Here's MY response to them:

Thank you for your prompt response, but I am not writing about soy products, I am writing about milk, cheese, yogurt and margarine and butter products. For example, does a 4L jug of homogenized milk also contain gluten? Does your chocolate milk contain gluten? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley (malt), oats, triticale, spelt and kamut. My son cannot ingest gluten, he will get very ill.

I am looking for a list of gluten free products from your COMPLETE line of products, including Astro and Beatrice yogurt, Lactantia spreads, Parkay spreads, Black Diamond cheese and cheese strings, Sargento grated cheese, etc.
I would appreciate a gluten free list for ALL products falling under the corporate entity known as Parmalat. So, a gluten free list for all Beatrice products, all Black Diamond products, all Astro products, all Lactantia products, etc.

Thank you.

We'll see what happens. They need me to buy their products after all. I am a Valued Consumer.

[Felidae]

That's a great email Linda. I looki forward to seeing how they will respond to that.