Are Organic Nuts From The Health Food Store Gluten Free?

[ericsnow]

I specifically get hazelnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, and walnuts. They are all organic.

[domesticactivist]

I don't think you can really trust anything from a bulk bin. For instance, we were buying almonds from a health food store and they were out. So the guy got a new box to fill it, but he used the scoop from granola to put the almonds into it. Many nuts are run through shipping that is cross contaminated as well.

That said, we do buy nuts and have not experienced any glutening symptoms from them. However, we buy them with no additional processing, then we go through the process of making them "crispy." We rinse them first, then soak them in salt water and rinse them again before dehydrating them. I like this post for explaining that process: Open Original Shared Link

[gleegan]

I specifically get hazelnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, and walnuts. They are all organic.

Eric, that has been a big concern for me, too. I mainly get almonds and walnuts from the bulk aisle in Whole Foods and another health food store near me in Philadelphia. I asked the people who work there and they told me that they can't guarantee anything. After hesitating for a long time, I found that it's pretty impossible to find any nuts that are GUARANTEED not to have gluten in them and I feel much safer getting organic (only) nuts from Whole Foods or from another health food store I trust. The only other option for me was to not get nuts at all, so I felt like this calculated risk was worth it.

[gleegan]

I should add that I don't get any roasted nuts or nuts with anything mixed in with them - just the nuts themselves.

[GlutenFreeManna]

nutsonline.com offers many varieties of gluten-free nuts and other products like dried fruit. Here is what they say on their website about how they make sure their nuts are gluten-free:

1.We analyzed our ingredient lists, vetted our suppliers, and got facility certificates ensuring non-contamination, whether it be an ingredient or a production aid.

2.We completely segregated our production lines to eliminate the possibility of any cross contamination with gluten.

3.We established policies and procedures to ensure compliance and began randomly testing product in our gluten-free production room.

4.We decided to not just voluntarily comply with USDA federal guidelines, but we got certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization.

5.Yay! You will see the gluten-free logo on each product page that is gluten-free.

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Personally, I would not trust anything from a bulk bin or anything that just says "organic"--most organic companies produce organic wheat products as well. I would want to know if that is the case and if they were on shared lines with their nut products before just trusting that the nuts are okay based on no gluten ingredients. It is volunatry for companies to diclose whether things are made on shared lines so just because a package does not have that disclaimer doesn't mean it's automatically safe.

[eatmeat4good]

Yeah, I second the NutsOnline people. I have ordered many times and never get sick from their gluten free stuff or their nuts and nut flours.

[Juliebove]

They are from mine! The owner is has celiac. She freezes the nuts and packages them up as needed. You would have to ask at your health food store.