<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Judy Tillinger <JSTmagpie @ AOL.COM>, referring to the Wall St. Journal article on fries which was posted yesterday, said: >After digesting that article i am left wondering: are mcDonald's fries ok? I shared your concern, and again spoke with my contact at McDonald's who is researching the "natural flavors" and "spices" in the ingredient list (see my post of October 8th or write to me for a copy, McDonalds does claim their fries are GF). She still did not have an answer, so I tried to contact their bulk fries supplier myself. I was actually quite lucky, and spoke with the head of research and development. He was not willing to be quoted for the record, so I will not give his name or company, but his comments were quite helpful: 1) Generally, fast food chains purchase their fries from one or more of about five major fries companies. Each chain has their own secret recipe which the vendors use to make up batches of fries. The oil is purchased from a different set of vendors. Therefore, for a particular chain to comment on whether their fries are GF, that chain must check with each of their several potato and oil vendors. 2) McDonald's is known amongst the fries vendor industry as a chain which does NOT use "coated" fries. The ingredients used, at least for this particular vendor, are GF, including the "natural flavor" and "spices" -- however since I was speaking with only one vendor, and he does not sell McDonald's their oil, this should not be interpreted as an absolute validation of McDonald's claimed GF status. 3) The real surprise was that he said the average amount of gluten in one 4 ounce serving of their CLEAR COATED fries -- the new type being tested by Burger King, not McDonald's -- was under one tenth of a milligram! This means over 100 servings of fries would have to be consumed per day to approach the 10 mg daily gluten consumption often quoted on this List as the lowest limit for which there exists a scientific study showing intestinal damage. Again I must caution that this was for one (albiet very large) fries vendor, and may not be true for others. And each celiac must make their own decision about their personal daily gluten limit. Ten milligrams is very roughly the amount of gluten in one-50th of a slice of my favorite whole wheat bread. 4) Due to consumer concerns, this vendor expects that all gluten (and all milk derivates) will be removed from the formula for clear coated fries within 60 days .... although it may take months before these new fries trickle out into the marketplace. I do think our List subscribers and the non-internet celiacs have had an impact by complaining to Burger King about their stealth fries test. 5) He cautioned that there are NONCLEAR coated fries with thick breaded batters which contain a great deal of gluten. These are not the regular french fries served at chains, but specialty fancy fries. They have not received consumer complaints about the gluten content, since they are obviously coated. Of course, if you eat regular fries which have been cooked in the same oil as these fancy fries, there will be a cross-contamination issue. Re-reading this post, it sure seems complicated to determine if fast food fries are acceptable for a GF diet! As the parent of 3 kids under 10 years old, fast food chains are more important to me that I would like to admit. As long as I cannot prepare fresh french fries at home, I guess I will have to put up with the complexity. Bill Elkus Los Angeles