Certified gluten free made on shared equipment

[RMJ]

Would you eat Certified Gluten Free cereal produced on shared equipment?  I’ve been eating Nature’s Path gluten free cereal.  It is certified gluten free.  Labeling has a statement that it is made in a facility with peanuts, tree nuts and soy.  But the website talks about how they clean their equipment before making gluten free cereals and discarding the beginning of the run (“How are Yur Products Manufactured”).

Open Original Shared Link

That sounds like shared equipment.  After several emails back and forth and finally a phone call I found that their cereals are made on shared equipment.  I think their labeling is legal but quite deceptive, not including wheat in their statement about what is made in the facility.

Would you trust the GIG certification process to ensure that the cleaning is really adequate and that the cereals are gluten free to the certified level?  My antibody levels are super sensitive and I’m having trouble getting my DGP IgA down to normal, although I don’t get symptoms.

[kareng]

Maybe you should ask about testing procedures and levels?  As long as it tests at less than 20 ppm, its legal.  Some will test products at a lower level  than that.  Maybe that would give you some info you could use?

 

Obviously, you do not eat in restaurants. They probably have a better chance of glutening you.

edit - The super sensitives that have been on here in the past would not eat anything processed in any facility. 

 I just realized this was the super sensitive section when I hit submit button.  

[RMJ]

GIG certified foods are supposed to be less than 10ppm.  I only eat in completely gluten free restaurants, or two in my area that have procedures certified by GIG.

[Ennis-TX]

4 hours ago, RMJ said:

Would you eat Certified Gluten Free cereal produced on shared equipment?  I’ve been eating Nature’s Path gluten free cereal.  It is certified gluten free.  Labeling has a statement that it is made in a facility with peanuts, tree nuts and soy.  But the website talks about how they clean their equipment before making gluten free cereals and discarding the beginning of the run (“How are Yur Products Manufactured”).

Open Original Shared Link

That sounds like shared equipment.  After several emails back and forth and finally a phone call I found that their cereals are made on shared equipment.  I think their labeling is legal but quite deceptive, not including wheat in their statement about what is made in the facility.

Would you trust the GIG certification process to ensure that the cleaning is really adequate and that the cereals are gluten free to the certified level?  My antibody levels are super sensitive and I’m having trouble getting my DGP IgA down to normal, although I don’t get symptoms.

3 companies I know say they used shared equipment, yet have gluten-free certifications. I have tried their foods and not reacted, and tested with nima (which is actually hyper sensitive below 20ppm) and not gotten a hit. On a side note I have also reacted to dedicated produced gluten-free foods, and tested them to see them come back positive on a nima . The whole industry thing is like Russian roulette you just got to learn which companies leave you playing with 2-3 bullets in the gun or just 1 lol. Really comes down to finding companies you trust and have good rep. Even then you got a bad lot with some s$#&.....easiest thing to do is not eat anything processed at all.....but sometimes even that fails.

[RMJ]

Thanks Ennis.  

[Ennis-TX]

12 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

3 companies I know say they used shared equipment, yet have gluten-free certifications. I have tried their foods and not reacted, and tested with nima (which is actually hyper sensitive below 20ppm) and not gotten a hit. On a side note I have also reacted to dedicated produced gluten-free foods, and tested them to see them come back positive on a nima . The whole industry thing is like Russian roulette you just got to learn which companies leave you playing with 2-3 bullets in the gun or just 1 lol. Really comes down to finding companies you trust and have good rep. Even then you got a bad lot with some s$#&.....easiest thing to do is not eat anything processed at all.....but sometimes even that fails.

OH for examples of this Last 4 months I have gotten Royal Hawaiian Orchards Natural Roasted Macadamia Nuts, Primal Kitchen Collagen Fuel, and Doctor in the Kitchen Garlic-Onion-Basil-Red Chile Pepper Flax Crackers ALL said they were in the same facility or used shared equipment, but they all claimed gluten free on them. tested with the nima came back safe. And I have been eating them. 
Jump Hemp Foods, High fiber protein powder was labeled gluten-free and made in a dedicated facility....well somehow the crop was CCed I guess it tested positive on the nima. I have since bought the plain protein powder from them and it came back clean......shows even pure foods can be CCed......Funny/scary thought for you. I had to stop shopping at one grocery store for produce, they have a OPEN bakery right next to the produce and flour drifts over the to fresh produce section......yeah I got sick several times before I made the connection. >.> I will go there for eggs tomorrow since they have them on sale for $0.39 a large dozen, and get pictures of this setup.

[RMJ]

Luckily the bakery is at the opposite end of the store from the produce where I shop.  I eat mainly whole foods and rarely eat out.  I do like cereal for breakfast!   Since I don’t have symptoms I don’t know when I’ve been CC’d.  I probably avoid a lot more things than I need to since I can’t tell what is raising my antibodies.  After 5 years my DGP IgA is much lower but  just above the normal range.  All the others started quite high and are now normal.  

[apprehensiveengineer]

On 12/1/2017 at 12:49 PM, RMJ said:

Would you eat Certified Gluten Free cereal produced on shared equipment?  I’ve been eating Nature’s Path gluten free cereal.  It is certified gluten free.  Labeling has a statement that it is made in a facility with peanuts, tree nuts and soy.  But the website talks about how they clean their equipment before making gluten free cereals and discarding the beginning of the run (“How are Yur Products Manufactured”).

Open Original Shared Link

That sounds like shared equipment.  After several emails back and forth and finally a phone call I found that their cereals are made on shared equipment.  I think their labeling is legal but quite deceptive, not including wheat in their statement about what is made in the facility.

Would you trust the GIG certification process to ensure that the cleaning is really adequate and that the cereals are gluten free to the certified level?  My antibody levels are super sensitive and I’m having trouble getting my DGP IgA down to normal, although I don’t get symptoms.

!!!

A few months ago, I had poor experience with GFCO certified corn chips that are made by Nature's Path; I was eating them absent-mindedly and noticed an "off" taste that was definitely not corn. I took a look at the chip, and it wasn't as yellow as the other ones. Spat it out and rinsed my mouth as much as possible. I tried to shrug it off (maybe I was being paranoid and imagined it!), but I did get a bit sick later. All I'd eaten that day was fresh veggies, eggs and rice, which I was pretty sure were ok.

Anyways, I filed a complaint to them, which is not normally something I do as I suspect that I react to stuff under 20 ppm/don't want to cause alarm if I am not certain what product it was that made me sick. As it turned out, my specific bag had been made in the allergen free facility/line (they also make gluten-free stuff on shared lines that they "clean carefully")... however it was revealed by the rep I emailed that they make many of their gluten-free products on the same line. I cannot tolerate oats of any kind, and most of Nature's Path's products are cereals that contain "gluten-free" oats. Previously, I had been totally unaware that Nature's Path even produced the chips I was eating (they bought out a smaller company that used to make the chips).

Anyways, I stopped buying them full stop after this... very unimpressed. Not really a fan of the "we clean our non-gluten-free dedicated lines very carefully" thing (especially coming from a company that primarily produces cereal!), but also pretty unimpressed that the rep I spoke to "lay-splained" celiac disease to me when I asked an informed, clear question. I get it, it's not illegal to call oats gluten-free,  but not all celiacs are able to tolerate them, so it's irresponsible to refuse to be open about their use in your products/facilities.

Anyways... this company's attitude makes me a bit nervous to say the least. You didn't say what cereal you were eating originally, but you might consider the oats thing. I know they make some cereals that are oat-free, but due to the issue I described above, they might be problematic if you're oat sensitive. I personally used to eat those oat-free cereals but noticed that they seemed to bother me (didn't know why, thought it might be some other ingredient) and stopped eating them long ago.

 

[RMJ]

Thank you for that information and idea.  I don’t know if I react to oats because I don’t have symptoms.  I’m actually on a six month trial of pure oats now and am about to have my TTG retested to see if oats affect my levels.  If oats are a problem for me I will definitely have to think about shared-with-oats lines.

[apprehensiveengineer]

Good call - I think a lot more people have issues with oats but don't  know it because they aren't doing bloodwork and "feel fine." I knew I had problems with oats from the beginning as I did the oat challenge ~5 months in, and oh boy... did that mess me up. Same level of sickness as from eating a large amount of wheat, epic DH rash. In a way, this is lucky as you point out... I can sort of do mini-experiments on myself to pinpoint the culprit.

I tried Bob's oats (only brand of gluten-free oats in my area at that time), so I am not sure if those were purity or sorted - they changed their policy at some point and I don't know what their status was when I tried them (2015). However, I think given the magnitude of my response/continued issues with gluten-free brands that use oats heavily suggests that I truly react to avenin.

I've ended up giving up on most gluten-free companies/alternative products as nearly all now use oats and I don't want to risk it. I suppose the thing to do would be to email some companies to try to get a handle on what their shared line situation is... haven't had time to do that yet. Fortunately, there are a few smaller, local companies where I live that stick with "traditional" gluten-free ingredients (ie. no oats at all), so all is not completely lost unless they decide to try to appeal to a wider audience.