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Simple Mills and Made Good Foods Products May Contain Gluten Levels Above the FDA's Allowable Limit of 20 ppm


Scott Adams

9,804 views

The findings from a study conducted by Moms Across America found gluten exceeding 20ppm in products made by Simple Mills and Made Good Foods. Celiac.com has reached out to both companies about the study, but so far has not received a response. To date, a formal recall for these products has NOT been issued.

Key Findings - Gluten in "Gluten-Free" Products:

  • Three of the samples, namely Simple Mills Brownie Mix, Made Good Foods Vanilla Cookies, and Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers registered gluten levels above the 20 ppm allowed by the FDA (31.7 ppm, 56.1 ppm, and 59.4 ppm, respectively) - Each of these products were also certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), which certifies products as gluten-free if they are below 10 ppm. A product recall should be issued for these products, as they exceed the FDA's level of 20 ppm for gluten-free products.
     
  • Three additional samples had levels of gluten above 10 ppm: Jovial Spaghetti (10.6 ppm), GoMacro Berry Granola Bar (15.9 ppm), and Shar Pretzels (14.3 ppm). This level of gluten is considered safe for celiacs according to the FDA, however the GoMacro bars and Jovial pastas are also certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), which means they are breaking the certification rules of the GFCO. Likewise, these products should also be recalled per the GFCO's guidelines for gluten-free certification.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A13):
Celiac.com contacted Moms Across America and found out that the lab used in this study was Health Research Institute Labs, who used the Romer Agrastrip Gluten G12 test, which is highly accurate at detecting the 33-mer peptide of gliadin down to 4ppm. The scientists at HRI carried out the tests in duplicate to ensure accuracy and reproducibility of the results, so currently Celiac.com does not believe that there is a good reason to doubt their findings. 

Hopefully recalls for the products will be issued soon, so that celiacs are not exposed to excessive.

Read more at: 

simple_mills_brownie_mix.webp

11 Comments


Recommended Comments

alltheceliacquestions

Posted

I have always read that the level to be certified gluten free is 20ppm. Could you share where you found the 10ppm level?

Scott Adams

Posted

Some of these companies have GFCO certification, and for this they must test below 10ppm. 

Lauraferleo

Posted

Just last week I bought a simple mills premix for banana cupcakes and my celiac son had a strong reaction, I thought maybe he is allergic to almonds too, they should check this too.

 

trents

Posted

On 6/20/2024 at 2:24 PM, alltheceliacquestions said:

I have always read that the level to be certified gluten free is 20ppm. Could you share where you found the 10ppm level?

"Gluten Free" is an FDA standard that requires less than 20ppm of gluten. "Certified Gluten Free" is a GFCO standard that requires less than 10ppm gluten. GFCO is a third party internationally recognized certifying body.

Scott Adams

Posted

Yes, there are several gluten-free certifications out there (one is the GFCO), and the usual standard they claim is 10ppm, however, recent findings indicate that even the GFCO's higher standards may not ensure that foods they certify are gluten-free:

 

@Lauraferleo Simple Mills may have issues and is included in this article:

 

GFhappygirl

Posted

I recently purchased Simple Mills crunchy almond flour chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chocolate chip cookies and had reactions to both.  I learned of my gluten sensitivity 3 1/2 months ago and struggled with finding gluten-free foods but, with my husbands help, I have felt better than I have in many years.  After eating these cookies my symptoms returned and even he noticed the difference.  These cookies should not be marked gluten free!  I bought their crackers at the same time and will not eat them.  It is not worth affects.  It is difficult enough to navigate a gluten free diet without being deceived into eating something that brings back your symptoms. 

Aretaeus Cappadocia

Posted

It should be noted that Gluten Free Watchdog has voiced concerns about the methodology used by MomsAcrossAmerica's lab for their gluten testing. I don't have access behind their paywall, but here are 2 relevant public posts from them on this topic. (tldr: GFWD seems to believe that MAM's lab could have gotten false positives and they explain why they believe this. They also say they contacted MAM to resolve the difference but MAM did not cooperate with their request.)

https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/correcting-the-record-gluten-free-watchdogs-testing-of-trader-joes-gluten-free-almost-everything-bagels/

https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/test-result-from-moms-across-america-on-trader-joes-gluten-free-almost-everything-bagels-possibly-false-positive/

Scott Adams

Posted

Besides my deep dislike of their site's paywall model, they have NEVER responded to their early claims of Cheerios not being safe or gluten-free due to a post they made with their "hot spots" theory. Millions of boxes of these are sold weekly, so what happened that that big concern of theirs? They promised follow up on it, but never delivered. If their goal is to protect the celiac public, why not focus on an item that would be dangerous to so many celiacs? What is their position on this now? 

PS - and that is old news, by the way. 

Aretaeus Cappadocia

Posted

yes, definitely old news by now. I posted in response to a reply posted on this topic this week.

Sticking with the original story, I googled product recalls related to MAM's original claims. Did not see any so I am guessing MAM's claims of gluten contamination did not hold up to scrutiny. Trying to be objective about that whole controversy, to me GFW's posts read more like "science first" and MAM's read more like "advocacy first". I am a scientist so I tend to trust science.

As to GFW's paywall model I am agnostic. This site has no paywall but does sell advertising and endorsements. I like getting information that I can from both sites and I realize I have to pay for it one way or another. So far GFW has not sufficiently made the business case to me to convince me to sign up and pay cash.

As to the Cheerios story, I haven't followed it closely so I don't have enough knowledge or viewpoint on it. When I was diagnosed with Celiac "I did my research" as they say and between my potential sensitivity to oat avenin and the frequent wheat contamination of oats I just swore off oats for good. Cheerios were probably my favorite breakfast cereal, but that's in my past life now.

Scott Adams

Posted

I don't want to boost their link, but if you wish to go down that rabbit hole here are some old comments on our articles:

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/are-gluten-free-cheerios-really-unsafe-for-celiacs-r3903/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-18332 

 

 

Aretaeus Cappadocia

Posted

Thank you for the info but I'm really not interested in going down that rabbit hole.

If General Mills labels Cheerios with "gluten free" I am inclined to trust that, at least until someone meets a high standard to prove them wrong, which neither of us has seen.

I'm still not going to eat Cheerios (or any other form of oats) for the foreseeable future because I don't know if I am sensitive to avenin. If my followup biopsy in a couple years shows that my intestine has healed, I'll probably discuss with my Dr how to determine if I can safely eat oats. For now I don't want to add this variable into my equation.

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