Nature Valley?

[bridgetm]

This forum has been incredibly helpful to me this week... time for more questions I've only been gluten-free for about a week and just found a pile of Nature Valley peanut butter crunchy granola bars. I keep these around my dorm for between-class power snacks and decided to check the label to see if I should get rid of them or hang on to them. I do not see any obvious gluten ingredients and there isn't a wheat warning. The only questionable thing is the Crisp rice with soy protein which contains rice flour, soy protein concentrate, sugar, malt, and salt.

Should I avoid that small amount of malt? Does anyone know the risk of cross-contamination for Nature Valley products?

[tarnalberry]

They all have oats - unless you have determined that you do not react to oats (10% of celiacs do), you should avoid them. Additionally, they do not use gluten free oats, and EVERY commercially available regular (not certified gluten free) oat supplier has high levels of contamination with wheat.

To answer your particular question, however, YES, you need to avoid malt. It's made from barley (unless it specifically says otherwise, and contains gluten. There is NO "safe, small level" of gluten that you should eat. Contamination can happen, but intentionally eating gluten will just put more in your body than you can't avoid.

[bridgetm]

Okay, thanks. I haven't had any problems with McCann's Irish Oats, but I'm guessing those are pretty pure. Not sure that I want to test my system with Quaker or anything and I will definitely avoid the Nature Valley... My friends who've run out of dorm food are really happy about my cabinet-purging

[tarnalberry]

McCann's has tested at over 200ppm, and themselves do NOT recommend that celiacs eat their oats. :/

If you have *any* lingering symptoms, I'd encourage you to try eliminating them to see if it makes a difference.