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I got back a reply from Kestenbaum Oat Matzah, referring to an email that I never received. I haven't a clue what letter he or she is talking about.  I'm sure they had me confused with someone else, since there is another name (Linda Kazlow) in the email from the rabbi. 

But more important, I don't find his explanation clear, so I am just copying and pasting (below) the replies and leaving it up to you to decide if you're interested in their product. I did tell them in my original post that their reply would be shared with my friends and the listserv.

There are probably only a few people on the listserv who really need the oat matzah. The bigger issue is how we are still not on a standard worldwide and that there is still confusion over the gluten in oats.

I am including the quote from their website, which appears on their box in similar language. "Shemura Oat Matzos, made from Shemura Oat flour, are fully produced from the harvest to the baking, under the supervision of Dayan Osher Westheim, Manchester Beth Din to enable persons sensitive to wheat matzos to keep the mitva of matzo on Pesach." And yes, I totally realize the difference between wheat and gluten, but my point is if something is wheat-free and contains no source of barley or rye which are not allowed on Passover, putting aside someone's personal sensitivity to oats, the product should be gluten-free. But I couldn't get them to agree to that. In one sentence, he says 5ppm. In another, he says 80ppm. I give up.

An outside source wrote to me to say that the product was marked gluten-free in the past, but when tested, it failed to meet new, lower British standards, so they had to stop labeling it as gluten-free. I do agree with Rabbi Kestenbaum or his daughter (Ruth?), that we will all benefit when we all have one standard.

Lin

----- Original Message -----
From: Ruth Perednik
Cc: Sula Kestenbaum 
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: Oat matzah, gluten-free or not?

Dear Linda,
 
I do not understand what the issue is, the16 oz matzos are NOT LABELED GLUTEN FREE!!!! despite the tiny anount of gluten they contain, as I previously explained in the email below. It is not sold online as gluten free. 
 
They are absolutely wheat free, and they are labeled supervised which means they have kosher supervision.  I do not understand what is the problem?  I repeat below the email I sent you about 10 hours ago:
 
I suggest you read again the explanation I sent you.
Please don't hesitate to contact us for further clarification.
 
Best wishes,
 
Rabbi Kestenbaum

 

----- Original Message -----
From: Ruth Perednik
To: mailto:[log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Is the 16oz box of oat matza gluten free?
 
 
Thank you for your email, I am sending you a letter we sent (together with lab analysis results)
to a wholesaler to explain this year's matzo, hope this is helpful!
 
The oats were 5 ppm (parts per million) which by anyone's standards is gluten-free , limit of detection (although the Israeli health ministry has not made any official decision.)  This is the equivalent of 0.0005% as opposed to 8-12% gluten in regular matzos.
 
The matzo result I am sending you is 80 ppm (parts per million) which is 0.008%, which is a miniscule amount away from the 0.005% that the British standards go according to.  So I would say these are trace amounts.  Again if you compare the 0.008% to the 8-12% gluten in regular matzos, you can see the miniscule amounts we are talking about.
 
Hopefully next year, we have all the pieces in place to be universally considered officially gluten-free.
 
Hoping this is helpful to you, please do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions.
 
Wishing you a happy  and kosher pessach
Kol Tuv
Rabbi Kestenbaum
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