Gluten-Free Baking Company Vanishes in the Face of Gluten Contamination Claims

Celiac.com 04/11/2023 - Batter Than Good Baking Co., an Oklahoma baking company that claimed to be gluten-free, has closed down, and apparently left town, after its products very publicly tested highly positive for gluten. 

Batter Than Good Baking's Gluten-Free Claims Challenged

Rachelle Monica, a client of Batter Than Good Baking whose son has celiac disease initially conducted an at-home test when her son became sick after consuming their products. She then asked Gluten Free Watchdog, a group that tests and researches gluten-free products, to run a lab tests which confirmed her suspicions. The laboratory tests of Batter Than Good's Baking Flour found that it contained levels of gluten far too high to be considered mere cross-contamination. 

Batter Than Good Baking Denies Claims

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After a March 9th Facebook posting by Gluten Free Watchdog which stated that Batter Than Good’s Baking Flour tested positive for wheat flour, the company seems to have vanished.

Bex Casillas, the chef and owner of the Batter Than Good Bakery, also took her personal Facebook down shortly after she posted that there had been cross-contamination found due to their “incubator kitchen” at Pioneer Technology Center.

Pioneer Technology Center Responds to Cross-Contamination Allegations

Pioneer then released a statement denying those claims saying “nothing has been baked in the incubator space since February 8th."  

Meanwhile, a former baker at Batter Than Good Baking told FOX23 that no one ordered the flour at the facility except Casillas. She said it was a “proprietary blend.”

Customers with Celiac Disease Outraged

Some customers who had purchased Batter Than Good's products expressed their outrage on social media. Many of them, like Monica's son, had celiac disease, which causes damage to the small intestine which is triggered by foods that contain gluten. She had trusted the gluten-free products, but says they made her son sick when he ate them. 

“If he had continued to eat it, it would’ve put him back in the hospital,” Monica said, showing a doctor's note from Ascension St. John Emergency Center, backing up her claims.

Warnings Posted

Gluten-Free Watchdog's page posted a warning after their test of Batter than Good Baking Co.'s products. The post has more than 700 comments from parents and clients, upset about the results.

“My initial reaction as a parent was how can someone poison a child like that?” said Monica, who thinks it's wrong that someone can label food or a facility as gluten-free, when it's not actually be gluten-free.

“Something needs to be done and it's really hard when it hurts our kids and it seems like nobody’s listening,” she explained. 

Machelle Beard was also a client of Batter Than Good Baking. She also has celiac disease, and says she views the company “100 percent...as poisoning me." Beard says she became sick after eating the baked goods, but didn't think it could be the bakery because of their gluten-free claims. 

“I do believe it was intentional. They were supposed to be a dedicated gluten-free facility, which means there is no chance of cross-contamination,” said Beard. “The testing proves it wasn’t cross-contamination. The testing proves it was just made with wheat,” added Beard.

Efforts to reach business owner, Bex Casillas, via Facebook messenger, email were unsuccessful, and the phone numbers listed there are no longer working. The company appears to have pulled up stakes and vanished in the face of mounting anger and scrutiny over the seemingly non-gluten-free aspect of its "gluten-free" business model.

Read more at Fox23