New Gluten Free Cookies Are Not!

[loraleena]

Last night I was at a Boston area Whole Foods. They have new gluten free cookies by a company called Herrons (I think). Anyway they had chocolate chip and ginger spice. The front of the box said gluten free and suitable for Vegetarians and celiacs. So, I turned the box over and started reading ingredients. Guess what the first ingrediant was?? Wheat Starch!!!! On what planet is wheat starch gluten free?? I then picked up the ginger spice ones. This product said gluten free and wheat free. These cookies were made with corn and where gluten free. This company does not know that gluten free has to be wheat free. Holy crap. I took the product the customer service, and the man who helped me was quite concerned. He told me he would let the person who does the ordering know. I also suggested they contact this company who does not appear to understand what gluten free is. I am also going to try and contact them. Just wanted to warn everyone. These cookies were 7.99 a box and had a silouhette of a women eating a cookie on them. Stay away!!

[VegasCeliacBuckeye]

FYI,

Lately, there have been a fe companies that claim that processed wheat starch does not actually contain any gluten (due to the way it is processed and filtered).

Personally, I have not ventured a try in that arena, but that is what a number of companies have said.

I wonder if GIG or CSA has an opinion on this...

[Lauren M]

In England, they use wheat starch in "gluten free" products. Yeah, anything with the word "wheat" in it... I would be leary...

- Lauren

[Ursa Major]

They claim the same in Germany. I was (well, still am, I guess) a member of a German celiac forum. Many of the members said they weren't getting any better, even though they were 100% gluten-free. I suggested they'd cut out any products with wheat starch to see if it made a difference. The people who were part of the bigshot celiac disease organization in Germany who were on that site were very insulting to me, and told those other people not to listen to me, because I didn't know what I was talking about. And that if they weren't getting any better on the diet (which included wheat starch), that must mean that they weren't really celiacs but must have something else, because otherwise they'd have gotten better already. I was soooooooo mad! And never went back. Who needs it.

I heard that there was a celiac disease conference in Finland, where they served a lot of stuff with wheat starch, and many of the people who came from North America reacted to a lot of the food and got sick.

So, personally, after reading a lot about this kind of thing, I wouldn't touch anything with wheat starch with a ten foot pole. They also claim that wheat germ oil doesn't contain gluten. You tell my skin that, I react terribly to shampoo that has it as an ingredient.

[Nantzie]

Ursula, that's horrible!!!! To think that we hear how much more understood celiac is in much of Europe, and to see that some countries are even worse off than us. Yikes! We go to Germany every few years to visit family there. I think I'll be shipping a box of food and supplies over there before we go rather than risk having to rely on too many things there. Those poor people... Ouch!

Back to the cookies. I hope that this was a case of a misprinted ingredients list, which happens from time to time I'm sure, and not an outright disinterest in the long- and short-term health of their customers.

I remember one time, very, very early on in eating gluten-free (the first week I think). My husband hadn't made a stroganoff thing that he makes, which I love, in months. It uses Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, and I was so excited about him making it that I even put it out on the counter for him while I was helping him gather the ingredients so he could make it. After I ate and started itching like I had poison oak, I looked and it had wheat starch of course. Two days of stomach issues too.

How do those people have the b@lls to tell celiacs that wheat starch is okay? Give me a break!

Nancy

[lorka150]

i googled them out of curiousity (Heron is the brand) and they are Ireland-based.

[Guest cassidy]

There needs to be some sort of regulation for what gluten-free means. It is hard enough to figure out what to eat, nevermind having to make sure that gluten-free really means gluten-free. I'm glad Amy's took gluten-free off their products and now say no gluten ingredients.

Personally, I don't think products that have a high risk of cc should be able to be labeled gluten-free. gluten-free should mean no ingredients that contain gluten, no gluten in the facility. No gluten ingredients should mean no ingredients but gluten is in same facility. I love those labels where it states if gluten is in the same plant, I think eveyone should have to do that.

As far as the cookies, I hope Whole Foods didn't have anything pointing them out as a gluten-free food.

[Tim-n-VA]

Since gluten is technically the protein on the grain, IF they can reliably separate the starch from the protein it is gluten-free. I've only been reading this board for about two months but it seems that celiac frequently comes combined with a wheat allergy and if you are one of those people you obviously shouldn't have the wheat starch either. We each have to make decisions on what we think is safe for us and/or worth the risk but I don't think their is anything inherently wrong with labeling something gluten-free that contains wheat starch.

[tarnalberry]

Starch is starch, protein is protein, and in theory, if you can separate the wheat protein from the wheat starch, you can have wheat starch that is gluten free, just as tom-in-va said. The process is the problem. They do seem to be able to do this to CODEX standards (which I don't think are stringent enough), and I thought down to 20ppm, but I don't remember rightly.

US definitions for gluten-free are coming in 2008.

[jaten]

US definitions for gluten-free are coming in 2008.

Please, please let it be <20ppm, NOT <200ppm. When I eat food that measures less than <20ppm I never react; I cannot say the same for the greater allowance.

[loraleena]

I did not know that about wheat starch. Anyway I wouln't touch it anyway. Whole foods did have it labeled gluten free with a sign. It says gluten free on the box, but not wheat free.

[TinkerbellSwt]

I, personally, stay away from anything that has the word wheat in it. I know how lousy I feel when I ingest anything with gluten in it and it just isnt worth it for me. My foods have to be totally gluten free. This is just my personal view. I know I have heard of people being able to digest wheat starch safely. I am too much of a scaredy cat.

[KaitiUSA]

Yea I stay away from anything with the word wheat in it. I not only have celiac but I have a severe allergy to wheat. You always have to read the label because policies are different everywhere....wheat starch in my opinion is far from gluten free