Celiac.com 04/12/2011 - Paul Seelig was found guilty today of 23 counts of obtaining property by false pretense after a two-week trial in Durham, NC. The jury found that he illegally represented baked goods as gluten-free, but they actually contained gluten. Mr. Seelig received an 11 year prison sentence for his crimes, which included the sickening of more than two dozen customers, one of whom had a premature delivery that was possibly caused by her involuntary gluten consumption.
Seelig's company, Great Specialty Products, purchased regular gluten-containing items from companies in New Jersey such as Costco, and then repackaged them in his home kitchen and sold them as "gluten-free" at the NC State Fair, various street fairs and via home delivery. Seelig claimed that his baked items...

Celiac.com 01/31/2019 - The popularity of gluten-free and allergen-free foods is on the rise, and that’s generally good news. In theory, that’s good news, as it means more products, better selection and lower prices. However, it seems that the proliferation of gluten- and allergen-free products also means higher rates of allergen contamination.
We’ve written about the upswing in gluten contamination in foods labeled gluten-free, but it appears as though the problem of allergen contamination in products labeled allergen-free is neither restricted to America, nor restricted to gluten.
The latest information coming out of New Zealand shows that food recalls due to allergens have quadrupled over the past five years, with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) leading 144 i...

Celiac.com 07/12/2024 - The Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) has long been considered a gold standard for gluten-free certification, offering rigorous testing and certification processes to ensure that products meet strict gluten-free criteria. However, a recent study conducted by Moms Across America has raised significant concerns about the reliability of GFCO's certification. The study found that 15% of randomly tested GFCO-certified products contained gluten levels above the organization's threshold of 10 parts per million (ppm), prompting a re-evaluation of GFCO’s procedures and standards.
Understanding GFCO Certification
The Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) is a program under the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) and is dedicated to certifying g...