Anywhere To Buy G-f Grains In Bulk Quantities?

[MarsupialMama]

Looking for a place to buy gluten-free grains in bulk that are 100% NOT cross contaminated. Does anybody know of a place?

I can't even trust the expensive little bags in the health food store that say gluten free because of the deceptive labeling. Besides the fact that we will go broke....

But my daughter is so sensitive to cross contamination that the slightest speck of dust will give her reactions for a month, and it takes a few months for her to gain her weight back. She is only 2 and we can take NO chances.

Where do dedicated gluten-free facilities buy THEIR grains?

4 out of 5 people in our family have gluten issues, so we need to order in large amounts, but my daughter is on her death bed practically with CC so there is no sense in buying bulk that is "potentially CC'd".

Any help would be a lifesaver right now!

[JennyC]

We buy Bob's Red Mill products, some of which in 25 pound quantities. Their products with a gluten free symbol are produced in a gluten free facility, but I don't know much about where they get their grains. Maybe you could try calling them.

Open Original Shared Link

[kenlove]

We like Tom Sawyer Flour

Open Original Shared Link

really a great product from a dedicated facility. Not grains but for breads we think its the best

ken

Looking for a place to buy gluten-free grains in bulk that are 100% NOT cross contaminated. Does anybody know of a place?

I can't even trust the expensive little bags in the health food store that say gluten free because of the deceptive labeling. Besides the fact that we will go broke....

But my daughter is so sensitive to cross contamination that the slightest speck of dust will give her reactions for a month, and it takes a few months for her to gain her weight back. She is only 2 and we can take NO chances.

Where do dedicated gluten-free facilities buy THEIR grains?

4 out of 5 people in our family have gluten issues, so we need to order in large amounts, but my daughter is on her death bed practically with CC so there is no sense in buying bulk that is "potentially CC'd".

Any help would be a lifesaver right now!

[lbd]

You might consider cutting out grains altogether and filling her diet with fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and good meats instead. There are no grains that are essential to health, so if CC is such a huge issue for your little one, you might want to try that route. Best of luck to you and your little girl

Laurie

[dilettantesteph]

I have been working on this same question for the last couple of months. I have been testing the grain I get with home test kits. With something like grain that you expect to be only contaminated on the outside you can use a large sample size and get down to 0.5 ppm or so. I haven't yet found a source for amaranth.

Sorghum grain you can get from Twin Valley Mills: www.twinvalleymills.com. It was also a lot less expensive than the contaminated sorghum I got elsewhere, only $15 for 30 lb! The shipping was a lot more $25. They grow other grains, but I think they keep the sorghum separate. They even sent a reply envelope with the self seal tape so you wouldn't have to lick it. It grinds up nicely in the coffee grinder and has an almost whole wheat taste.

Teff I got from The Teff Company: www.teffso.com. It is an exclusive teff place and it was $2.60 a pound including shipping for something like 25 lbs. Also grinds in the coffee grinder. Tested negative, < 0.5 ppm.

Millet from eden organic. It tested negative, < 0.5 ppm, but I don't think it is an exclusive facility.

Quinoa from Ancient Harvest. It is only $3 a lb delivered. Much cheaper than the health food store. Exclusive. There isn't even any wheat grown in the vicinity. Haven't tested.

Corn meal, I have ordered from Kinnikinnick. I haven't gotten it and tested it yet. It is an exclusive facility. The people who work there aren't even allowed to bring lunch. I tried grinding my own popcorn and broke the coffee grinder. America's Best did test negative, however.

I got wild rice from eden organic too and it tested negative.

Flax seed I get from Arrowhead Mills. Tested negative <0.5 ppm, but not an exclusive facility. Their corn meal tested positive, but only faintly, less than 5 ppm.

Buckwheat: Birkett Mills is an exclusive facility. www.birkettmills.com. They have Pocono and Wolffs brand which you may have seen in the health food store. I haven't tested it.

Montina is expensive, but you can get the flour in the health food store. It is an exclusive facility. www.montina.com, not tested.

Rice, I've been eating Lundbergs, haven't tested it.

I have been really enjoying cooking with whole grains. It really rounds out our diet and makes us feel more normal.

Hope that helps. I had a really hard time finding some of those places. If anyone knows of a good amaranth source, I'd love to hear of it. Nuworldamaranth tested positive about 0.5 ppm only so not a problem for people who are not sensitive, but not good for us.

I wonder how many gluten free dedicated facilities really use absolutely gluten free grain. (Based on how often their products have made me sick!)

Hope your daughter gets better.

[RiceGuy]

I tend to agree that your daughter doesn't necessarily need grains, though I guess we're all different. Some can do without them and feel healthy. I found I needed them.

You can get many grains (and flours) at barryfarm.com, though I do not know about the CC. Many of their products are certified gluten-free, but I believe that pertains to the facility where they are processed, and not the field where they're grown. I'm sure they can tell you more than I can, if you call or email them.

Thanks dilettantesteph for the links! It's always good to have more sources.

[MarsupialMama]

WOW!! This is awesome information! I feel like we have some kind of hope now!

I have not been able to find the source of my daughter's glutenings, but I just read a post about the playground where goldfish-contaminated hands get all over the playground equipment. Sheesh.......How do you even LIVE in this world and let kids be kids with celiac issues? It's like trying to live in this world without plastic! Good luck! It is nice to know that somehow, even though my Little has to avoid so many "normal" things, that she can at least eat at home in peace without getting sick.

Where do you get the at home testers? That would be a lifesaver around here!

[lbd]

You also might want to check out the "super-sensitive celiac" thread on this forum. Maybe there were some recommendations on there about brands/foods, etc. that were OK for these folks.

laurie

[dilettantesteph]

WOW!! This is awesome information! I feel like we have some kind of hope now!

I have not been able to find the source of my daughter's glutenings, but I just read a post about the playground where goldfish-contaminated hands get all over the playground equipment. Sheesh.......How do you even LIVE in this world and let kids be kids with celiac issues? It's like trying to live in this world without plastic! Good luck! It is nice to know that somehow, even though my Little has to avoid so many "normal" things, that she can at least eat at home in peace without getting sick.

Where do you get the at home testers? That would be a lifesaver around here!

[dilettantesteph]

Those tests have been very helpful around here. I get them at www.elisa-tek.com. They are called EZ Gluten. They are expensive. They are only sensitive to 10 ppm, which isn't enough for us. There are some things that you can do to make them more sensitive.

What you do is dissolve up your sample in a solution, wait for it to settle, take off some of the solution off the top and put it in a test tube with a stiff paper like thing which soaks up the solution.

To make it more sensitive you can usually get away with twice the sample size. If it is something like a grain or nuts which you expect to be only contaminated on the outside and don't dissolve, you can use 10 times the sample size. Whatever will fit into the tube. Then you shake to dissolve up any gluten that might be coated on the outside. That will make it sensitive to 1 ppm.

I also leave it to soak up the solution for twice as long. I figure it soaks up twice as much that way. Some one else here noticed that if you look at it again the next day, sometimes you will see a positive that wasn't there the day before. My son got sick one time from something that was tested on site at under 5 ppm. It barely tested positive with twice the sample size and looking at it hours later. He had only a small serving. Some celiacs are sensitive to very small amounts of gluten. I think fluorescent lights work best for looking at it, and I also use a magnifying glass.

They don't work for some types of tumeric. It causes a false positive. You need to watch sample size for acidic samples. Too much acid will cause a false positive. They also don't work soy sauce, the gluten pieces are broken up too much during the fermentation process and you get a false negative. That might also be true for vinegar, because I've gotten sick form vinegars that test negative with a 2X sample size.

Hope that all helps.

[MarsupialMama]

Okay, so i know that certain spices (onion, garlic, etc) are are mixed with flour to keep them from sticking together, but do they do this with tumeric too? Or would it have gluten from c/c? I feel like there is nothing left for us to eat, simply because she is SO sensitive to the slightest thing. Like, how do people even live like this?

Thank you for the website - that's awesome. I think I will get a few to test some grains so we can get something. We are off dairy and soy too, so like the only thing she eats that can put weight on her is baked potatoes with lots of olive oil and nuts, which, who knows! Could be c/c'd.

By the way, I've heard that papaya can help digest the gluten. Not that I would feed my child gluten and then papaya with it to "cancel out" the gluten, but it has seemed to help her a lot. When we took her off gluten we started feeding her lots of papaya at that time (just for digestion...didn't know that it may help the gluten issue). Come to find out, she was still being glutened form Rice Dream and Quaker Rice Cakes, which will give her terrible reactions now, but I'm thinking the papaya may have helped neutralize it back then because we were seeing improvements in spite of the gluten.

Wow, what a life.

[dilettantesteph]

Okay, so i know that certain spices (onion, garlic, etc) are are mixed with flour to keep them from sticking together, but do they do this with tumeric too? Or would it have gluten from c/c? I feel like there is nothing left for us to eat, simply because she is SO sensitive to the slightest thing. Like, how do people even live like this?

Thank you for the website - that's awesome. I think I will get a few to test some grains so we can get something. We are off dairy and soy too, so like the only thing she eats that can put weight on her is baked potatoes with lots of olive oil and nuts, which, who knows! Could be c/c'd.

By the way, I've heard that papaya can help digest the gluten. Not that I would feed my child gluten and then papaya with it to "cancel out" the gluten, but it has seemed to help her a lot. When we took her off gluten we started feeding her lots of papaya at that time (just for digestion...didn't know that it may help the gluten issue). Come to find out, she was still being glutened form Rice Dream and Quaker Rice Cakes, which will give her terrible reactions now, but I'm thinking the papaya may have helped neutralize it back then because we were seeing improvements in spite of the gluten.

Tumeric doesn't contain gluten. It just makes the thing look read the same way that gluten does. That way you cannot tell with that test whether or not it contains gluten. Is that more clear?

Wow, what a life.