Barley in gluten free cheerios?

[Shalome]

Cheerios claim to be gluten free and state on their site that wheat, barley and rye are removed! I became extremely!!! ill from Cheerios which happens with barley! Company will not respond to my inquiry! What to do?

[Fenrir]

I don't have any issues eating Cheerios. 

They do meet the guidelines for being labeled gluten-free which means they are under 20ppm. At that level most celiacs will not react to them, but some may. Simplest thing to do is just not eat them. 

And no, there's no barley in Cheerios. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Fenrir

[Ennis-TX]

Cheerios have been hit and miss for years, the mechanically separated grain does mean minor CC is inevitable but is normally kept below the 20ppm in testing. But some boxes to get hot spots with more and go untested as they only test batches. If they make your sick then do what most of us and stay away from them and go with a grain free cereal option....there are many newer cheerio knock offs that do not use oats or other grains now days.

[Scott Adams]

It has been shown that a certain percentage of people have an intolerance to oats. It’s more likely that you are in this category than it is that Cheerios contain gluten to a level that would cause you issues.

“But some boxes to get hot spots with more and go untested as they only test batches.”

Although this claim has been made by different people and groups, nobody has been able to actually verify it in any scientific way, which ought to be very simple to do. If there were hotspots that brought any box of Cheerios over the 20 ppm limit, there would be lawsuits. Any law firm would be able to get 100 boxes of Cheerios and test them and if two were over the limit bring a class action lawsuit against General Mills. So far this has not happened, and I doubt it will happen, because their newer patented separation process removes gluten to 10ppm.

 

[Fenrir]

10 minutes ago, Scott Adams said:

It has been shown that a certain percentage of people have an intolerance to oats. It’s more likely that you are in this category than it is that Cheerios contain gluten to a level that would cause you issues.

“But some boxes to get hot spots with more and go untested as they only test batches.”

Although this claim has been made by different people and groups, nobody has been able to actually verify it in any scientific way, which ought to be very simple to do. If there were hotspots that brought any box of Cheerios over the 20 ppm limit, there would be lawsuits. Any law firm would be able to get 100 boxes of Cheerios and test them and if two were over the limit bring a class action lawsuit against General Mills. So far this has not happened, and I doubt it will happen, because their newer patented separation process removes gluten to 10ppm.

 

There may have been cases where this has happened in the past(before they started using the new separation methods and started labeling gluten-free) but then they also used malted barley in the Cheerios at that time,if I remember correctly. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Fenrir

[Scott Adams]

They actually had an incident and product recall because of a mixed up box car that added wheat to a batch. Unfortunately this happened at the same time they were rolling out their new gluten-free line. It was a major snafu, but it doesn't speak at all to the current safety level of their products. They did correctly handle the recall.

[brigala]

While I've never gotten sick from Cheerios, I choose not to eat them (well, maybe a little bit rarely). I do, however, allow them in my home for the non-Celiac family members to eat. I don't eat much cereal anyway, but I don't allow any non-gluten-free cereal in my house. 

I don't feel comfortable enough with their sorting protocol to make them a regular part of my diet. I've eaten them several times in the past and been fine, but it feels like rolling dice each time.