The Gluten Was "fermented" Out Of The Sauce

[Dee777]

So today I went to a trade show and was lured to a booth boasting gluten-free products. Spices and sauces etc. The first item I picked up was a sauce with soy sauce in it. Second ingredient in the soy sauce was wheat. I emailed the company and they snottily replied that the gluten was "fermented" out of the sauce. Can this be?

Dee

[psawyer]

They clearly do not understand. Hey, if fermentation was all that was needed, we could all drink beer. :angry:

[GlutenFreeManna]

This is why we need better labeling laws. It is possible that the sauce tests at below a certain ppm and therefore the company decided to call it gluten-free. Unfortunately until better laws are in existance "gluten-free" is up for interpretation. IMO the best way to combat this until we have new laws is to "out" the companies that refuse to change their practices of false labeling. We need to spread the word on message boards and other places in the gluten-free community that their products are NOT safe. Please do share the brand name and product so we can be sure to avoid that company.

[Dee777]

The name of the company is Sunset Gourmet. They claim they have been selling this sauce for over 4 years with "no problems". I will copy and paste his reply in a bit! Thanks for your response!

[Dee777]

Psawyer, that is exactly what I just said to my husband lol

[Skylark]

I would snottily ask to see their independent gluten test results.

Personally, if a label says wheat I am not interested no matter what the test results say. What if one batch didn't ferment well???

[Dee777]

I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back here and post the reply I received from Sunset Gourmet. I have copied and pasted it from my email account:

"Hi Dee and thank you for your email. Yes, the Ginger Wasabi Teriyaki is

a gluten free product. We have carried this product in our line for 4+

years and have never had a problem with it. The Wheat Protien is removed

during the fermentation of the Soy Sauce.

Regards,

Perry Bohn

Sunset Gourmet"

This is me again, I am listing the ingredients exactly as they appear on the label affixed to the bottle:

Ingredients: Sugar, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), pear puree, vinegar, soybean oil, water, ginger puree, corn syrup, candied ginger, garlic, honey, apricot, mustard flour, egg yolks, modified food starch, horseradish, salt, ground ginger, wasabi, artificial flavor, potassium sorbate (as a preservative), xanthan gum and calcium disodium edta added to protect flavor.

Their website is sunsetgourmet.ca

Their catalog states that this product is gluten free. I wouldn't want to try it based on the wheat in the soy sauce but I am new to this and maybe paranoid? Am I making too much of this? It just really upsets me that if they have wheat as an ingredient and say it's gluten free then people who are new to the gluten free way of life will believe that there is no risk of them becoming ill by consuming it.

Oh, this is all so confusing for me, but it doesn't help that I'm having a lot of brain fog lately

[RL2011]

I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back here and post the reply I received from Sunset Gourmet. I have copied and pasted it from my email account:

"Hi Dee and thank you for your email. Yes, the Ginger Wasabi Teriyaki is

a gluten free product. We have carried this product in our line for 4+

years and have never had a problem with it. The Wheat Protien is removed

during the fermentation of the Soy Sauce.

Regards,

Perry Bohn

Sunset Gourmet"

This is me again, I am listing the ingredients exactly as they appear on the label affixed to the bottle:

Ingredients: Sugar, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), pear puree, vinegar, soybean oil, water, ginger puree, corn syrup, candied ginger, garlic, honey, apricot, mustard flour, egg yolks, modified food starch, horseradish, salt, ground ginger, wasabi, artificial flavor, potassium sorbate (as a preservative), xanthan gum and calcium disodium edta added to protect flavor.

Their website is sunsetgourmet.ca

Their catalog states that this product is gluten free. I wouldn't want to try it based on the wheat in the soy sauce but I am new to this and maybe paranoid? Am I making too much of this? It just really upsets me that if they have wheat as an ingredient and say it's gluten free then people who are new to the gluten free way of life will believe that there is no risk of them becoming ill by consuming it.

Oh, this is all so confusing for me, but it doesn't help that I'm having a lot of brain fog lately

I would not trust their statement, "We have carried this product in our line for 4+ years and have never had a problem with it.". If you sell food and it starts out with gluten from the wheat then it has the gluten in it when its sold. The only way a food seller should (legally) make a statement like they did is if they do periodic testing at an independent accredited national laboratory. They are being ignorant making that kind of statement to you without actually having the product tested. If gluten is found in their product they would be liable.

I suggest staying away from vendors that are not doing the right thing...

[MTG]

Kikkoman used to say for the longest time that their soy sauce didn't have any gluten in it and that it was safe for celiacs, they even sent a certificate to restaurant that served Kikoman soy sauce stating that in independent test they could find any gliadin. Turns out a lot of people still got very ill and recently they released their own gluten free soy sauce.

Fermenting gluten makes it harder to detect using the test kits available since the proteins are hydrolyzed, it is still toxic for celiacs though.

[Dee777]

Hello again.

I have been thinking about Skylark's post about the tests, and sent an email off to Sunset Gourmet this morning. They were prompt with their reply! My email read in part: (I can be rather long winded )

"As you can imagine, I have to be very careful now about what I eat. For my own peace of mind, would it be possible for you to provide me with the results of any independent gluten test results your company has had performed on your products? Thank you!"

Their reply, in full:

"I am sorry, but we don't manufacture our own products and do not provide our

suppliers information to our customers. Dee, if you are not comfortable

with our claims I would recommend you decline to use the products you are

worried about. We only use large reputable suppliers who go through

rigorous testing to comply with US and Canadian standards. All of our

ingredients are clearly labeled on our products. The item you are

questioning, the Ginger Wasabi, is gluten free but again, if you are not

comfortable, please do not use it. I have family members with celiac

disease that use this product without problems and have done so for many

years.....as do many of our customers. As I'm sure you have noticed, we

have a good number of other items that are gluten free with all the

ingredient listings listed on the jar or box. Once we have our revamped

webiste up in the next few months we will have the ingredient listings for

each of the products on the site as well.

Regards,

Perry Bohn

Sunset Gourmet"

[Dee777]

I would like to thank each of you for your replies and opinions, it helps to know there are others out there like myself who have to battle the hidden ingredient war every time we eat, and it also helps that the majority of you have been at it longer than me and are SO much brighter than I am at the moment LOL

[kareng]

I have family members with celiac

disease that use this product without problems and have done so for many

years.....as do many of our customers. "

I want to get in touch with these celiacs. I have swamp land. the Brooklyn Bridge and a cure for Celiac I want to sell them.

[Dee777]

I want to get in touch with these celiacs. I have swamp land. the Brooklyn Bridge and a cure for Celiac I want to sell them.

No kidding, you could make a fortune! In all seriousness though, isn't it frightening what companies can get away with? I would like to know what the big secret is that they will not share any info from their suppliers, or is this common practice amongst food companies? Does anyone have any ideas?

[RL2011]

Trust has to be earned... or at least backed by large amounts of money or insurance.

[Korwyn]

Trust has to be earned... or at least backed by large amounts of money or insurance.

You're cynicism is showing

[RL2011]

You're cynicism is showing

umm... Yup!

[Skylark]

Oh, my. The reply about independent testing is priceless! "We have no clue but we trust our suppliers. Yeah, that's the story!"

At least we now know to avoid EVERYTHING they label gluten-free. And I feel sorry for Perry's family members.

[Dee777]

Oh, my. The reply about independent testing is priceless! "We have no clue but we trust our suppliers. Yeah, that's the story!"

At least we now know to avoid EVERYTHING they label gluten-free. And I feel sorry for Perry's family members.

I just feel like a fool... I always assumed that if a company labels a product gluten free (or sugar free, caffeine free, soy free, dairy free, whatEVER) that they must have the testing to back it up before they market it as such? And if they had this testing in place, shouldn't it be available to people like you and I to view to reassure our Celiac selves that we are safe when we consume it? I guess I just have an awful lot to learn!

[kareng]

I just feel like a fool... I always assumed that if a company labels a product gluten free (or sugar free, caffeine free, soy free, dairy free, whatEVER) that they must have the testing to back it up before they market it as such? And if they had this testing in place, shouldn't it be available to people like you and I to view to reassure our Celiac selves that we are safe when we consume it? I guess I just have an awful lot to learn!

In the US there is no law about what gluten-free means. We have some great companies that make things and put gluten-free on them because they don't put anything gluten in them. But they don't test. If they had to test, it would be too expensive. For example - a grocery store chain labels canned fruits & vegs gluten-free. The only gluten was someone's lunch in the lunch room.

There is still the problem of companies that label wheat or barley on the ingredients but insist its gluten-free. Just shows we must read the labels.

[Dee777]

If anyone is interested in checking out their other gluten-free products just Google the company name, they have them all listed with a big old "gluten-free" for your shopping convenience and peace of mind!

Seriously, before I found out I had Celiac, I consumed their stuff and it IS tasty albeit pricey. I couldn't tell you if the gluten-free stuff made me sick because for years EVERYTHING made me sick pretty much AND I never paid attention to the gluten factor because I knew nothing about gluten and the whole Celiac problem.

What got me going on this topic with this company was the claim by the representative at the trade show that they found a way to "remove the gluten from the wheat". For about 2.3 seconds my head was spinning, I was beyond elation... I was going to contact my favorite beer brewery, bakeries and soup companies screaming "STOP PRODUCTION! YOU CAN NOW REMOVE THE GLUTEN!!!!"

Then, I came back down to Earth with my mother's words echoing in my head... "If it sounds too good to be true dear, then it IS." And now I'm just bitter.

Dee

[Salax]

It's really too bad that the Celiac Foundation or Celiac.com or the Maryland center for celiac (I think it's Maryland) or someone with some hard core presence couldn't write them a letter that would "slap them around" a bit for there obviously misleading product.

[Dee777]

Yes that would be nice, but would they listen? After all, with Celiac family members and customers who use the products with no. problems obviously they know more than some silly foundation or center!

[11475]

Excuse me if my cynicism is now showing , but it's possible the family members with Celiac don't exist. Dee - thanks for pressing them with your second email - hopefully it saves a few people from eating the company's products and then getting sick without realising why.

[Salax]

Yes that would be nice, but would they listen? After all, with Celiac family members and customers who use the products with no. problems obviously they know more than some silly foundation or center!

I hear ya. But I think that if we take the "will they listen" approach with things like this, we are allowing their behavior from a stand point of "it doesn't matter they won't listen anyway". This to me seems like a cop out. We need to stand up for ourselves, because if we don't companies like this will continue to take advantage of "gluten free". I mean look what this forum has done for Damien whats his name, the chef guy that fed people that asked for gluten-free non-gluten-free food.

Whether or not they listen, we still have a voice that we can scream loud and proud with AND we make that presence that we aren't gonna take that crap from anyone.

That's just my 2 cents any ways.

[GlutenFreeManna]

I hear ya. But I think that if we take the "will they listen" approach with things like this, we are allowing their behavior from a stand point of "it doesn't matter they won't listen anyway". This to me seems like a cop out. We need to stand up for ourselves, because if we don't companies like this will continue to take advantage of "gluten free". I mean look what this forum has done for Damien whats his name, the chef guy that fed people that asked for gluten-free non-gluten-free food.

Whether or not they listen, we still have a voice that we can scream loud and proud with AND we make that presence that we aren't gonna take that crap from anyone.

That's just my 2 cents any ways.

I agree! I think we should flood the company with e-mails and phone calls asking why their "gluten-free" food contains gluten ingredients. Afterall, it's not as if gluten-free soy sauces don't exist. The company could easily make a change to gluten-free soy sauce or wheat free tamrari if they really cared about catering to the gluten-free community. Other companies have made those type of changes without having a law force them to do so. I'm all for getting the laws changed but I also think we have a big voice as consumers. Kelloggs would probably not have released a gluten-free Rice Kripsies unless consumers had asked for it. They either had enough people asking about it over the last few years or they had noticed the gluten-free "trend" that their competition (General Mills) has already been profitting from. That's how companies work--they have to make money and they do that by keeping their customers happy. We may be only about 1% of the population but we have friends and family members that we influence with our opinions. If we tell everyone we know about this company that is claiming to make gluten-free products but really putting gluten in them AND also not doing any independent testing to back up their claims that the Gluten is taken out in processing, our friends and family will be less likely to buy just based on that. Sure, some people might buy anyway, but never underestimate the power of bad press. Negative feedback is 10 times more powerful than a single positive review. Companies know this and they will listen if we assert ourselves.