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Getting Glutened By Hero Jam

ive

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ive Rookie
ive
Posted

Hope this story will help someone. I wish I knew that even jam might contain traces of guten, it would save us a lot of money because in the search of the source of gluten / cross-contamination we changed all utensils, all pots and frying pans, most of small appliances, and recently even dinnerware and silverware. My toiletries are gluten-free. I cook almost everything from scratch. Our household (me and my husband) is completely gluten-free and I still felt that I was getting glutened somehow.

This weekend it was time to buy a new jam and we usually go to another store for that because all other jams we consider to be too sweet and this one (Hero jam) doesn't have that much sugar in it. Just by habit I read ingredients, see glucose syrup in it and it hits me: just today I read on this forum that glucose syrup might be derived from wheat! It might be my jam! Of all things I have always thought that jam would be safe and I did not associate glucose syrup with wheat. So I came home, e-mailed Hero North America and today I got the following reply: "The glucose syrup is made from wheat. However the amount of gluten from the glucose syrup is extremely small. (Less than 100 ppm)."

I guess I react to this small amount of gluten. Here is their website Open Original Shared Link

I am glad to finally figure it out and hope that now I will recover faster.

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Takala Enthusiast
Takala
Posted

Oh, good grief. :angry:

Does anyone know of a safe, gluten free brand of jam or jelly that also does not have artificial flavoring or coloring or any of that weird crap in it ? Sugar is okay. You know, plain sugar, like things used to be made of back in the ancient times.

Lisa Mentor
Lisa
Posted
Oh, good grief. :angry:

Does anyone know of a safe, gluten free brand of jam or jelly that also does not have artificial flavoring or coloring or any of that weird crap in it ? Sugar is okay. You know, plain sugar, like things used to be made of back in the ancient times.

Smuckers Jams and Jellies are all gluten free. I don't know what you consider "all that weird crap", though. Regarding Glucose Syrup, if it is derived from wheat, it would be required by law to be listed on the ingredients, such as "Glucose Syrup (wheat), in the United States.

..............................

Corn syrup

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Tate & Lyle brand Corn Syrup being moved by tank carCorn syrup is a syrup, made using corn starch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. A series of two enzymatic reactions are used to convert the corn starch to corn syrup. Its major use is in commercially prepared foods as a thickener and for its moisture-retaining (humectant) properties which keep foods moist and help to maintain freshness. Because of its mild sweetness, corn syrup may be used in conjunction with highly-intense sweeteners.

Corn syrup is used to soften texture, add volume, prohibit crystallization and enhance flavor. [1]

The more general term glucose syrup is often used synonymously with corn syrup, since the former is most commonly made from corn starch.[2] Technically, though, glucose syrup is any liquid starch hydrolysate of mono, di, and higher saccharides[3] and can be made from from any sources of starch; wheat, rice and potatoes are the most common sources.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a variant in which other enzymes are used to convert some of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup is sweeter and more soluble.

Until recently, a corn syrup variant used to be sold in the retail market, say in supermarkets, had a high glucose content. HFCS is also appearing in retail products. The largest and most popular market in the United States for corn syrup is Karo Syrup, a fructose/glucose syrup.[4]

It is in trend for corn syrup to be flavored with vanilla extract.[citation needed]

ive Rookie
ive
Posted
  • Author
Regarding Glucose Syrup, if it is derived from wheat, it would be required by law to be listed on the ingredients, such as "Glucose Syrup (wheat), in the United States.

I live in Canada and unfortunately Canada doesn't have allergen laws like in US. It is not required by law to list wheat or any other allergens here in Canada. Some manufactirers do that voluntarily, unfortunately not all of them. I realize that in US this situation would not be possible. However, this Hero company is based in Switzerland and they do supply jams to USA as well, I wonder if they have different labels in US.

I just never associated glucose syrup with gluten and wheat. I thought that this is just sugar dissolved in water. If not for this forum it would never have occured to me that jam might contain gluten. By the way, it is now a week since I stopped eating it and I do feel much better.

Takala Enthusiast
Takala
Posted

Well, at least the Smucker's website is good at listing ingredients and ease of navigating the site. Open Original Shared Link

I was looking recently at jellies and the first few jars of Smuckers I picked up either had food coloring, (the low sugar marmalade) "natural flavors" or corn syrup in them. When I am in a hurry or tired if I pick up 3 or 4 different flavors of a brand and see it has those things, I tend to put it back on the shelf, if I can't get my built in memory chip to kick in with "did I look this company up on the internet already?" :blink:

It looks like the "simply fruit" kind of Smuckers (fruit syrup, the fruit, lemon juice, pectin, natural flavors) would work if the natural flavors are trustworthy.

I pulled up the Simply Fruit Marmalade page and it has fruit syrup, orange peel, orange juice, lemon juice, pectin, natural orange flavor.

Open Original Shared Link

The question is why does the store not stock that, which I would have taken home, and instead had the stuff with the

"WATER*, SUGAR, ORANGE PEEL, ORANGE JUICE, FRUIT PECTIN, CITRIC ACID, LOCUST BEAN GUM*, POTASSIUM SORBATE ADDED AS A PRESERVATIVE, CALCIUM CHLORIDE*, NATURAL ORANGE FLAVOR, YELLOW 5*, YELLOW 6*. *INGREDIENTS NOT IN REGULAR MARMALADE."

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted
Oh, good grief. :angry:

Does anyone know of a safe, gluten free brand of jam or jelly that also does not have artificial flavoring or coloring or any of that weird crap in it ? Sugar is okay. You know, plain sugar, like things used to be made of back in the ancient times.

There are a couple that I use one is Crofter's Organic and the other is the Polaner All Fruit and that one is marked gluten-free (in very tiny letters). It is so hard to find jams and jellies that don't have all kinds of stuff in them. I avoid high fructose corn syrup in addition to gluten and had a real hard time finding one that was just fruit.

  • 4 weeks later...
Chevelle Rookie
Chevelle
Posted

So, can HFCS possibly have gluten in it? Or is it exclusively corn?

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Juliebove Rising Star
Juliebove
Posted
So, can HFCS possibly have gluten in it? Or is it exclusively corn?

It's corn, but it's very bad for you. Plain corn syrup, not so bad. High fructose, very bad!

ThatlldoGyp Rookie
ThatlldoGyp
Posted

Thank you so much for the warning! I just e-mailed the company to say, "way to go!" for using wheat!

Anyway, it is so easy to make your own jams. I mean, seriously simple. And if the pecting fails, you now have syrup, lol! So usually I make my own. Strawberries are in right now where I live and I have a good dozen jars made this afternoon. You should look into it. Simple, really easy and you KNOW it is safe!

When I want something different, I always have "Welch's" stuck in my head. They are listed as gluten-free in Cecelia's as well.

  • 5 years later...
mlapvillegas Newbie
mlapvillegas
Posted

I buy ST.DALFOUR jam/jelly. The ingredients in one of the many flavors I have is: cranberries, blueberries, concentrated grape juice, fruit pectin. That's it! And they have more than a dozen flavors. My favorite is the Royal Fig.

kareng Grand Master
kareng
Posted

This topic is from 2008. 

 

Any info about products mentioned 7 years ago should be checked to see if it is still accurate.

  • 1 year later...
legcard Newbie
legcard
Posted

I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 1981 after Celiac pushed my body to malabsorption which took my almost 6 ft frame down to 124 lbs. In the last 30-plus years, I have become a label reader. While there are lots more choices for gluten free, there are still some

differences in company's definition of Gluten Free.   So when I found Blackberry Jam by Hero at the market and noticed the Gluten Free

on the front label,I grabbed it.  I sometimes have it on toast 2 or 3 times a week when I have gluten-free bread or rice cakes in the house. I even tried the blackberry Hero in plain yogurt - yummy.

I was sick 2 days in a row this week.  A single attack is pretty rare since I am very careful. So a second day really knocked me down. I could not think of anything that could have eaten that would cause the attack. Then as I was about to add jam to my toast this morning, I decided to read the label on the Hero jam.  What? What is "wheat syrup"?  And how can those two words exist on the same label with the words "gluten free"?  

I found this topic on celiac.com from 2008 and still there are questions about if Hero jam is really gluten free seven years later.

 

Any ideas, comments or advice?

Linda

psawyer Proficient
psawyer
Posted

It is likely glucose syrup. That is a highly refined sugar that is gluten-free even if made from wheat as the original source.

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