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

The question was asked about wheat and mushrooms.  You can see a video 
mushroom plant tour at
http://www.giorgiofoods.com/index.php?p=24

I called customer service at Giorgio here in Temple, PA (near Reading).  
Most of the fresh mushrooms in our area are Giorgio.  They switched me 
over to someone in quality control who gave me this answer --

"There isn't much chance of wheat being in the dirt on the mushrooms, 
and the reason is mushrooms grow on compost and there is a long 14 day 
composting process which takes the raw ingredients and break them down 
the sugars and the proteins so the mushrooms can use them.  One of those 
things would be gluten protein  would be broken down by the micro 
organism we use.  I don't use wheat very much in this part of the 
country because it is not grown much around here and is hard to get.  We 
mostly us corn (stovel?) that is left on the fields and straw from hay."

This is me again, I know they sell mushroom soil at most of the garden 
centers around here (because the mushroom industry has it left over and 
doesn't use it again), so you can put it on your flowerbeds, in your 
garden etc. and it looks like black topsoil.  There is nothing you see 
in it that is not dissolved.  Let me just say that nearly all of the 
canned mushrooms sold in this part of the country come from China or 
Thailand except for one of Giorgio's varieties (one particular size can, 
and one unsalted variety) so God only knows what those companies use, or 
generic store brand mushrooms.  I think once again here is evidence it 
is better to go with brand where you can ask questions about how it is 
prepared.  I have eaten Giorgio mushrooms for maybe 30 years including 
the fresh and don't think I have had any problems.  I do wash them 
better than most people and scrape them so probably get as much of the 
soil off as is possible.

Hope this is a help to all of my fellow mushroom eaters.
Paula in Pa.

* Please carefully compose your subject lines in all posts *
Archives are at: Http://Listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?LIST=CELIAC