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

I was checking the ingredient list of some ice cream to determine its
GF status, and of course, some of the usual imponderable ingredients
(natural flavor, mono and diglycerides) appeared.  These are common
food ingredients whose origin is almost never specified and which
might be dangerous if wheat derived.  So I tried the manufacturer's
web site and received a hugely pleasant surprise!

The manufacturer in question is Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc, an
Oakland CA company that produces ice cream and other frozen
confections and novelties.  They have fairly wide distribution -- some
of their products are also "available as Edy's Grand Ice Cream East of
the Rockies".

Of course I wasn't expecting much more information on the web page --
I've played that game enough times to know better -- but I was blown
away by what I found.

If you visit www.dreyers.com and click on the "Freezer" page, you will
find a listing of all Dreyer's products.  A click on any particular
product will give the usual ingredient and nutritional info, but those
products that are GF have a prominent statement to that effect.

But what really got me was this: If you click on the Gluten Free link
you will be taken to a page of food definitions -- definitions of
ingredients and other terms.  The Gluten Free entry has a link to
their "Taste Test" page, which is really just a search form for
particular products according to personal taste (type of product,
flavor, kinds of added ripples and nuts and whatever).  Nicely done.
But what floored me is that one can limit the search to GF or Kosher
products.

So, here is a manufacturer who thinks about us!  And this is _not_ a
health food company.  (We're talking ice cream here, folks, not
tofu...)  Regardless what one thinks about ice cream, or whether one
is lactose intolerant, I think this kind of extra effort on the part
of a main-line food manufacturer should be encouraged.  I'll be
continuing to patronize them, and will drop them a note to thank for
their attention to the GF issue.  It's smart business for them, of
course, but we all need to let manufacturers know that it works, and
let other manufacturers know why they _don't_ get our business.

Check it out yourself at www.dreyers.com .  I have no affiliation,
although the company happens to be local to me.  A great many of
Dreyer's products are claimed to be GF -- which is about what you'd
expect for ice cream -- but the marvelous thing they take the trouble
to identify them as GF.  A lot more existing food products out there
would be acceptable to celiacs if only manufacturers would take the
trouble to know the origins of their ingredients, and to let us know.

Steven M. Haflich <[log in to unmask]>
Berkeley CA