<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Dear Listmates. Arrowhead Mills is not alone with this difficulty. Food mfg's around the world buy items from sources over which they have little or no control. Apparently several people were ingesting products that may or may not have been safe to eat. This makes me wonder about other suppliers of products supposedly free of gluten. I am not aware that there is any standard or regulations which determine whether a food mfg. is actually producing/selling GF products. I write a newsletter for members of a support centered in New Hampshire. a while back I tried to classify products I listed as GF. I divided the products into two classes, Degree of Confidence I and II. The first class was limited to companies that made GF products only. The second class included companies making products for the general public. I ran into trouble when I refined the criteria Degree I . One requirement was that all products were made in GF environments on lines dedicated solely to GF products. I discovered that some companies in the business of making products for the celiac market did not make all the products on lines dedicated to SOLELY to GF products. I AM NOT SAYING THAT THESE COMPANIES WERE DISTRIBUTING DANGEROUS FOODS TO UNWITTING CELIACS. It only pointed out that companies in the GF foods business wouldn't meet my criteria. A representative of one company explained the painstaking steps taken by their out side processor to clean the lines. The line would then run the GF product until complete. There was no mingling of products containing gluten. I stopped using my "Degree Of Confidence" ratings since it would unfairly discriminate against vendors of high quality and safe GF products. The experience led me to wonder to what extent a company could certify there products to be gluten-free. Do these companies buy all ingredients from sources producing only GF product? (I doubt it) At what point does their supply chain "break down", relative to the GF status. For example are their flours milled in plants dedicated to rice flour? Do the companies audit their suppliers. Would requiring such vigilance eventually bankrupt well intentioned companies? This brings up the labeling issue. At what point would any company be able to assure products to be gluten free? Some companies will not post lists since they do not test for gluten. Would they have to state this on the label? Let me know what you think Dan