Amy's Kitchen

[MaryJones2]

I've been buying Amy's frozen meals for my husband recently and noticed that some of them say "no gluten ingredients" and others say "gluten-free" so I asked if there was a difference and here's their response:

Thanks for your email. I can certainly understand your confusion. There is actually no difference. As we reprint our labels, "gluten free" will be added to all of our gluten free meals.

The FDA states that a gluten free meal is to be tested to 20ppm. Here is more information about how our meals are made that you I think you might find of interest.

Our gluten free products contain only the ingredients listed in the ingredient statement. There are no hidden, unlabeled ingredients. We understand that it is critical that these products be free of gluten and we take this very seriously.

A wide range of activities and cross-checks are completed to ensure that cross-contamination and/or inadvertent use of the wrong ingredient does not occur. Examples include:

- Full shift manufacture of products with complete clean-up of all food contact surfaces between products. Pieces of equipment that come in contact with the food are cleaned and sanitized prior to the manufacture of the next product.

- Separate item numbers for all ingredients; these are checked by two individuals on receipt of the ingredient and three people on use of the ingredient to confirm the correct item is used.

- Use of colored tags, papers and containers in production as an addition visual check to ensure intermediate components are not interchanged.

- Designated areas for flour use to control airborne gluten and minimize its spread.

- Bar code readers at packaging lines to ensure correct package is used with each product.

- Spot screening of ingredients and finished products at University of Nebraska (FARRP - Food Allergy Research and Resource Program) to confirm there are no unlabeled allergens (utilize tests for gluten, soy, milk and peanuts).

[Lisa16]

Thank you for posting this!