<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> > Charles I. Searcy wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > Can anyone tell me what the process is to vitamin enrich > > rice? I have spoken with 3 rice manufacturers and my understanding of the problem is as follows: Vitamin enriched rice has added vitamins as would be obvious. The problem is that they just don't sprinkle vitamin dust on the rice, they must use a carrier to disperse the vitamins evenly. This carrier is typically grain based or corn based, but most (if not all) rice manufacturer get their vitamin enrichment raw material from outside suppliers, whom they do not require to specify primary ingredients in most cases (there are exceptions). The bottom line is that ANY vitamin enriched rice product may contain gluten unless the manufacturer knows otherwise. If anyone has information contrary to what I got, I would be glad to hear it. On the plus side, one manufacturer, Riceland Foods, Little Rock, AK, was VERY cooperative re. researching their rice products for me. I believe they distribute their Riceland Rice products nationally. I spoke with Don McCaskill at 501-673-5333. He seemed very knowledgable and even said that Riceland has participated in local Celiac meetings!! Here is a summary of what he told me: The safest bet for their products is their Natural Brown Rice. There is no vitamin enrichment. He suggested to wash the rice if we want to be ultra safe, since it is packaged on the same equipment that the other rices are. The next safest bet is any of their white vitamin enhanced rice products. Yes, they do have vitamin enrichment, but he said that they know their suppliers VERY well, and they know that the carriers used in the enrichment are all corn based. He said that he felt confident that if that ever changed, the company would feel morally obligated to point it out on the labeling. How refreshing to talk with this company compared to the mega-huge Kraft, that seemed put out to even spend 2 minutes on the phone with me! They were almost rude in their response and basically implied that they are so large and have so many products and suppliers and change the suppliers so often (I'm sure price based decision) that they will never make a statement about any of their products or ingredients. The woman I spoke with was even reluctant to log a request for further information. She said it won't matter! -- Steve Veach in Chicago, Illinois USA