Christmas Goodies

[Cupcakery]

This is my first posting, because I thought it wise to consult with the experts- you guys! As the mom of a Celiac daughter in college I'm also a bakery owner who's been offering gluten free products and have a question- we're making lots of gluten free goodies for Christmas but the question of oats (as a baking ingredient) keeps coming up- what is the latest consensus on oats? Clearly they don't contain gluten but it sounds like the potential for contamination is pretty great- We purchase ours from an Amish organic supplier but need to know if we should get them somewhere else?

Until now, we've just avoided the use of oats altogether...

Dawn

[happygirl]

Any regular oats are not safe for any Celiac.

Only a small number of brands have gluten free oats that are not grown or manufactured in a way that allows for contamination.

Even when using gluten free oats, there is a small percentage of Celiacs that still cross-react to avenin, the protein in oats that is similar to the gluten containing 'parts' of wheat/rye/barley. I think the latest # was about 10%.

Open Original Shared Link

Other info that has been posted on this board:

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This is taken from another post of mine/tarnalberry's on another thread, about the same subject.

Here's what I know, and it seems like there are two issues at hand (this is all simplified, maybe someone else can add more!)

1. Most commercially grown oats (including Quaker) are grow in fields that are rotated with wheat/gluten. So they believe in the processing, wheat can get mixed in, which would explain why some people react to oats. There are some oats (McCann's is one brand) that is purposely grown in non-wheat rotated fields and has been said to be safe, by experts...but others disagree.

go to www.celiac.com and on the right, do a search for "oats" you will see the following articles, plus about 30 more

https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodi...-06106158051.62

https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodi...-06106158051.62

https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodi...-06106158051.62

https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodi...-06106158051.62

2. another thought is along the lines of the fact that the oat protein is structurally similar to the gluten protein, so that is why some react. Other experts say it causes damage in all.

Some people on the board eat uncontaminated oats, and others do not.

and tarnalberry wrote:

"There's a two-fold issue with oats:

1) no mainstream available-in-the-US brand of oats are free of contamination, or have contamination at levels regularly below the 200ppm CODEX standard. there are two companies in the US and one in Canada that grow, mill, and transport gluten-free oats that are not contaminated, but are much more expensive.

2) regardless of contamination, approximately 10% of celiacs react to the oat protein, avenin, with a classic celiac reaction themselves. there is no test to determine if you react to pure oats themselves."

from: Open Original Shared Link

[Juliebove]

You need to buy gluten free oats. But they're expensive!

[lpellegr]

I got the gluten-free oats and chowed down on a batch of oatmeal scones, and unfortunately found out that I can't eat oats even if gluten-free. I had the same reaction from those that I had from any other gluten source (although I figured I was already screwed and went ahead and ate the rest, my last taste of oats). For folks like us, you might want to keep oats out of your products to avoid cross-contamination of the oat-free products. And to think I ate 3 bowls of Cheerios a day for 30 years before I made the connection.

[ThatlldoGyp]

You have to go with specifically gluten-free oats (not McCann's, they openly admit that there might be cc issues).

We will pay the higher price for a good gluten-free cookie, don't worry, lol!

Anyway, I would put a an extra warning that they are gluten-free,however, if the consumer has not tried a specific oat trial, then perhaps they would rather enjoy something else at this time.

My doc suggests no more than 1/4 cup per week for at least a month to see how your body is going to react. Of course that was years ago, but he hasn't said anything differently as far as I know.

I wish I knew where you lived, I would gladly give up the lab work that I do now to immerse myself in helping start up a gluten-free bakery section of a local bakery! You could "pay" me in stale cookies, lol!

sorry for all the edits, my laptop is going nuts for some reason!

[wschmucks]

If you are making these and selling them, I would not use oats. We Celiacs are already nervous to eat anything in a package-- especially at a bakery, resturant, etc. You want your costumers to always have a good experience when they buy food from you. Because of our severe reaction, if we have a bad experience I will garentee that you will loose a customer for life. I would just leave it out to be safe and help your gluten-free customers to trust your company-- cuase if they do, you will see them every day :-) Thank you so much for including gluten-free products at your bakery! We all appreciate it!

[glutenada]

These folks sell oats that are certified gluten-free.

Open Original Shared Link

I bought a huge box and have been making all kinds of cookies and eating bowls of oatmeal. YUM!

No Bake Cookies. One of my personal favorites and finally, I can enjoy them again!

[leadmeastray88]

Why not use quinoa flakes instead of oats? I can't tell the difference in my baking!

[Gemini]

This is my first posting, because I thought it wise to consult with the experts- you guys! As the mom of a Celiac daughter in college I'm also a bakery owner who's been offering gluten free products and have a question- we're making lots of gluten free goodies for Christmas but the question of oats (as a baking ingredient) keeps coming up- what is the latest consensus on oats? Clearly they don't contain gluten but it sounds like the potential for contamination is pretty great- We purchase ours from an Amish organic supplier but need to know if we should get them somewhere else?

Until now, we've just avoided the use of oats altogether...

Dawn

Oats are safe for many Celiacs as long as they are certified gluten-free oats. As long as customers know they are buying a particular food that contains gluten-free oats, they can make that decision for themselves. I have no problems consuming oats and I'm sure many like me would be thrilled to have a gluten-free bakery that will use oats in their goodies! It's high in fiber and one of the better foods you can eat so I wouldn't hesitate to use them!

[tarnalberry]

Thanks to happygirl for pasting in half of my response already! Whoohoo! Less work for me!

My opinion as a celiac shopper - I avoid oats. If you told me they were certified gluten free oats, I might reconsider (had I yet tested out gluten-free oats ). So, you absolutely would lose my sale by including oats without them being specifically gluten free. You still might lose my sale by adding gluten free ones as I'm not comfortable with oats yet. If you can have both options (but avoiding the "look at all this gluten free stuff, yeah it's got oats but it's gluten free! oh, you're avoiding oats? well, there's three things over there that don't have oats" thing, which just annoys the crap out of me), that'd be even better.