Dannon Company Letter

[happy4dolphins]

March 31, 2006

Dear Nicole ,

Thank you for contacting The Dannon Company, Inc. We sincerely

appreciate

your interest in Dannon yogurt products and gluten.

Dannon yogurt products are characterized as either gluten safe or not

gluten

safe. Our Dannon Plain Lowfat, Plain Nonfat and Plain Natural are all

gluten safe. Plain DanActive (formerly called Original DanActive) is

gluten

safe. Vanilla, Strawberry and Blueberry are not due to the presence of

natural flavors. All other Dannon yogurts cannot be designated as

gluten

safe because the natural flavor systems used might have ingredients

added to

stabilize the flavor. The stabilizing ingredients may be derived from

gluten sources.

For our valued consumers that may have allergenic risks associated with

gluten, our products are not specifically formulated to contain gluten

but

we cannot guarantee that the alcohol portion of the natural flavor

system is

always derived from corn and not from oats, rye and barley.

We hope this information is helpful to you. As an additional resource,

you

may wish to visit the website: www.celiac.com. Once again, thank you

for

contacting Dannon.

Sincerely,

Lisa Moore

Consumer Response Representative

Ref#:756702N

[schuyler]

Thanks for the info. I used to love Dannon's fruit flavored yogarts, and I was wandering if I could have them again. I wish they didn't contain gluten!

Danielle

[darlindeb25]

The Dannon company has given that same answer for 5 yrs now--my sister contacted them too. Anyone where they carry Dean's dairy products must be careful too. They state that the products are gluten-free but do not state that they have dedicated lines, which is just as important. Colombo, and most Yoplaits are gluten-free, just watch for the obvious, like crumbs they add for crunchiness. Deb

[VydorScope]

"Dannon yogurt products are characterized as either gluten safe or not gluten safe"

THe fact they are redefining and making up terms is enough of a red flag for me to aviod all thier products.

[lovegrov]

Based on their answer, it would appear to me that the only gluten threat is the possiblity that the grain alcohol MIGHT come from wheat. However, if distilling alcohol removes any gluten threat, there would be no gluten in the alcohol.

Obviously I can't guarantee anybody that Dannon is absolutely 100 percent gluten-free, but based on this answer I would eat it, just as I would drink a distilled alcohol from wheat.

richard