<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

There have been several messages related to the demise of Kenmei rice
cereal by Kellogg.  I had been involved in the attempts by Kellogg to
make the cereal gluten-free and perhaps some of you might be interested
in what took place.  One of the problems was that Kellogg felt that
they could not afford to assign separate machinery and separate work
space for the production of Kenmei from that which they used with wheat
cereals.  They agreed, however, that they would thoroughly clean their
machines in between the different runs and discard a considerable
amount of the Kenmei that came through immediately after the transition
in order to avoid any contamination with wheat that could not be
completely cleaned from the processing machinery.  This seemed to work
for a while, but I think they may have had some difficulties in keeping
on top of production staff in regard to these procedures and at least
once some evidence of apparent contamination turned up.  I suspect that
these difficulties, along with the fact that Kenmei was evidently not a
big seller among non-celiacs, caused Kellogg to give up on it as a
non-profitable item.  This is unfortunate as many celiac patients
seemed to like Kenmei very  much, but I think you have to see the
company's side of things.  They really did try to make it work, but a
big company has trouble adjusting to niche markets.

Don Kasarda