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I am in receipt of a reply from the San-J company, the principal maker
of Tamari, to my inquiry regarding a message on this list that turns out
to have been a misunderstanding of its gluten-free character.  Because
of the importance of clarifying the erroneous earlier messages on this
topic, I am posting San-J's reply without waiting for completion of the
rest of my overdue summary on this topic.  I reiterate my hope that we
not penalize responsible food companies which acknowledge the
limitations of even particularly conscientious testing to ensure
purity.  In the case of San-J, we have a company with a fine reputation
going back almost 200 years.  (I have no interest in this company other
than that of a pleased customer for many years, although not quite 200.)

> Subject:   Gluten
>    Date:   Mon, 24 Jul 2000 16:57:51 -0700
>    From:   "Kathy Mattisz" <[log in to unmask]>
>      To:   <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Dear Mr. Biderman,
>
> Thank you for your letter concerning our Wheat Free Tamari.
>
> I believe there has been a misunderstanding of the letter that I sent
> to St. Johns University.  The letter did not state that we have
> .00017% gluten in our Tamari.  It stated that we submitted our Wheat
> Free Tamari to an independent laboratory to have it tested for gluten.
> Our Wheat Free Tamari tested gluten-free within the test's sensitivity
> which is 170 ppm (parts per million). This does not mean that we have
> 170ppm of gluten in our Tamari.  It simply means that the test is not
> able to detect traces of gluten that small.
>
> The only ingredients in our Wheat Free Tamari are Organic Whole
> Soybeans, Water, Salt and Corn Alcohol (which acts as a preservative).
>
> Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
>
> Kathy Mattisz
> Director of Marketing