Carando Spiral Sliced Ham

[ebrbetty]

Hi everyone, I bought a carando spiral sliced ham for christmas because I thought I read it was gluten free [except for the glaze pack] but this morning I googled it and read it is not!

has anyone had one? did you have any problems eating it?

thanks very much

Betty

[mrg8610]

Hi: I actually spoke with a woman named Leslie at Carando about a week ago and she assured me that their hams are gluten free but that the glaze packets are not. I mentioned to her that it would be nice if they could start making the glaze packets gluten free and she said that she would pass my comments along to management. The glaze is so good so it would be nice if we could start eating it again!

[ebrbetty]

I got an email from them telling me they cannot guarantee them to Be gluten-free!! I'm taking my ham back to the store

[purplemom]

Oh No!! Now I don't know what to do...I bought this ham yesterday. The ingredients looked fine. Help!!!

[ebrbetty]

heres the email I recieved, its from the same woman you spoke with..two different answers!! I don't know what to do either!

Dear Elizabeth:

I know this is a long email, but please bear with me and read to the end. :-)

Thank you for contacting Carando Foods as we value your comments and concerns. Consumer reactions are a very important part of assessing our customer's needs and maintaining the quality we strive for in every Carando product. However, we cannot absolutely guarantee that any of our products would be gluten free. Spice formulations from our suppliers and secondary suppliers, can change from time to time and still be correct under USDA labeling requirements. Because of this, along with the possibility of cross contamination from the secondary suppliers to our own main ingredients, we cannot absolutely guarantee that any of our products would be gluten free.

We wish we had a different answer for you and others who have contacted us, but we just cannot guarantee that a product, at any given time would not contain the ingredients you are questioning.

Farmland Foods (owner of Carando) does offer a new line of "All Natural" fresh pork items. The "All Natural" is stated on the label, along with no antibiotic residues, no added hormones, no artificial ingredients and minimally processed. While it does not have a gluten free guarantee on the label, perhaps you can better evaluate if this fits into any information that you may have.

If you have a question about a specific ingredient listed on our product labels, you can direct your questions to Sandy Gronau, with our Quality Assurance Team. You can reach Sandy at 1-800-831-1812 x7469. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM CST. She would need to know the exact product you have - a UPC # is helpful, the ingredient and what your concern is. Sometimes she is able to answer a question to a consumer's satisfaction regarding gluten and whether they are comfortable trying a particular product. At this time, we just do not "guarantee" our products to be gluten free. For example, many consumers inquire about modified food starch. We primarily use corn but a small number of our products use a potato based modified food starch. Also, the dextrose in our products is corn based.

And, the glaze packets for our Spiral Sliced Hams contain wheat.

Also, a great website to learn what the USDA defines as "natural flavorings", "spices", etc. please go to www.usda.gov as there is a lot of information available about what companies can use as ingredients under those guidelines. If you enter "natural flavorings" and the word "pork" in their search area you can pull up the information. I've attached an article from this website.

I do hope that our labels become more concise in the future, but for now I hope this information is helpful. Have a great day, and again, thank you for contacting us!

Sincerely,

Leslie Thomas

Consumer Services

Carando Foods

PO Box 20121

Kansas City, MO 64195

[purplemom]

I'm not going to take a chance now. I'll never be able to sit down to Christmas dinner and relax knowing there is a chance my family will be sick!! I saw a boars head ham at the store that I am going back to get right now. It said gluten free right on the label. The only problem is it was $30...yikes.

Merry Christmas!!

[mrg8610]

Hi: After reading the e-mail you received from Leslie, I am furious that she implied to me that the ham was gluten free. She did the CYA thing, but basically told me that all ingredients were safe and that there was no chance of cross contamination becuase the only things produced at the slaughterhouse were the hams. I actually have spoken with her twice about two different hams (one hickory smoked and another one) and both times she told me that they were okay. I actually wrote down some of the things she said. She told me that "all modified food starch is either corn or potato and the dextrose is corn based" She them went on about this website that she found, www.usda.gov that specifies what can constitute natural flavorings for pork and they can only be ginger, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, garlic oil and celery seed or salt (I couldn't write fast enough). She didn't tell me which of those they used (I assume that they are secrets) but she certainly totally led me to believe that there was nothing used in the hams that would be unsafe. I will definitely never buy another carando ham as they don't seem to care about their consumers.