Plant Based Plastics

[kareng]

I saw this company on Good Morning America. They make plastic out of plants. They mentioned wheat, corn & soy. I thought I would email them. I didn't hear back and thought they were blowing me off like many other companies do. I got this response today. I don't think it answers every question we might have but the fact that they are thinking about allergies is a good start.

Hello Karen,

Thank you for your inquiry. Your question has led to some important clarifications for our marketing department regarding the types of starches that are being used in our products. Although some of our marketing materials and language have listed wheat as a type of starch that may be used in our bioplastic products, our products are in fact wheat-free and gluten-free. We do not use wheat, rye, barley, etc... Additionally, we do not have plans to include wheat products in the future. We will be updating our language accordingly.

We do, however, use corn starch in many of our products, and it is important to note that corn is commonly used in many bioplastic products. This could be a concern for people with corn allergies or sensitivity.

Our research and development team continues to develop new bioplastics that do not rely on food-crops, including algae-based bioplastic products. We anticipate that the bioplastics industry will continue to go in this direction in the future.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Nicole

On 4/26/11 9:45 AM, "Karen" .net> wrote:

Question or Comment

I have Celiac Disease. This means that I have a severe imune reaction to gluten (wheat, rye, barley). I am active on a support forum - Celiac.com. I'm sure the use of wheat in plastics, especially food related plastics, will be a topic of discussion because of the GMA appearance.

What people will want to know is if any gluten or wheat proteins could leach out into our food or mouths. Corn and soy are also issues for many with food allergies and Celiac.

If you could send me an explanation I could copy and post, that would be great.

Thanks you

The name of the company is Cereplast.

[Lisa]

Thanks Karen for looking into this!