Test For Gluten In Food

[foodphobic]

Hi:

I just received an update from CSA, and the first topic was a home test kit for gluten. I got really interested until I read the rest and realized it was a home test kit for gluten intolerance. I don't need that. I already know I have it. But that got me thinking.

I have been diagnosed for a few months now, and as yet, I have not been tempted to "cheat." I have tried my best to stay gluten free, because when I eat the wrong thing, I go through some sort of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde transition that lasts a minimum of 24 hours. It's pretty dramatic. It effects my nerves, my sense of well-being, my attitude toward life, my ambition, and makes me impossible to be around, so it's also effecting my relationships and my ability to do my job in an appropriate manner. I realize now that Celiacs was doing this to me for some time on a milder level, but once I started eating properly, when I make a mistake, I am totally out of control. That happened to me last week. I was 9 days gluten-free, and then I ate something that was listed in the Blue Binder as okay, but clearly wasn't. They must have changed the formula, and when I dug the can out of the trash, the label listed things that could go either way. I went to work Friday, and I was an absolute beast to everyone. It was mission critical that I come in Friday, or I would have stayed home and just been miserable by myself. So today, I am doing damage control.

Anyway, when I read that little headline this morning, I thought it was a God send. A way to test your food to see if it's safe. Iwould be a tremendous aid to Celiacs to be able to test for gluten in products themselves. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult, but I'm not a scientist. In my mind, I see taking a tiny sample of the food, pouring a drop of something on it, and waiting to see if it turns periwinkle blue or something. Maybe I watch too much CSI, but a product like that would free Celiacs to risk travel and restaurants again, and it it wasn't unreasonably costly, there would be a market for it.

Since it is such an obvious solution, I'm sure it must have been thought of and abandoned for some reason, but I am curious as to why it isn't possible or feasible.

Wendy

[lovegrov]

There is such a beast but it's way too costly, doesn't work on some types of things and doesn't measure below a certain level. From everything I've read it sounds uselesss. You could probably find it by doing a search.

richard

[Sharon C.]

I was just wishing for the same type of thing this morning. I had a box of corn cereal that seemed perfectly safe for my son in my shopping cart this morning, but then I put it back because although NOTHING was unsafe on the list, I worried about trace amounts of contaminants from the conveyor. Also, for example, on Lays plain baked chips it says, "This product is naturally free of gluten." But then, on their other baked chips with flavorings, like the Pizza one, there is no such statement even though the ingredients list NOTHING about wheat, etc, or about traces of anything. I sure wish there was a test.

[tarnalberry]

Yep, there is a home test. It takes about five minutes, and costs about ten bucks a piece, and doesn't detect rye or barley proteins. There just isn't a terribly good business case at this point to try to develop cheap, rapid tests for home use like this given the population and the technology issues. :-/

[artmeg55]

What really bugs me is when I KNOW that I have been careful and cautious of what I eat and I still get symptoms. I usually blame "modified food starch." If the FDA couls be made to mandate accurate detailing of accurate food ingredients, we could avoid such matters. But until then, we will suffer the consequences. It would be so easy (but so boring) to maintain a diet of single ingredient foods.

[VydorScope]

  Sharon C. said:

I was just wishing for the same type of thing this morning. I had a box of corn cereal that seemed perfectly safe for my son in my shopping cart this morning, but then I put it back because although NOTHING was unsafe on the list, I worried about trace amounts of contaminants from the conveyor. Also, for example, on Lays plain baked chips it says, "This product is naturally free of gluten." But then, on their other baked chips with flavorings, like the Pizza one, there is no such statement even though the ingredients list NOTHING about wheat, etc, or about traces of anything. I sure wish there was a test.

Just as a side note, some of the Lays chips (like the yummy Stax) are produced on seprate gluten free lines... check this thread...

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