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On Jun 19, 1996 22:24:56, 'MARJORIE ROGERS <[log in to unmask]>'
wrote:
 
 
>So all of you with a chemistry background,  is this really possible if you
>begin with wheat as one of the ingredients?  My feeling is that it is
>NOT gluten  free.
 
Here's some more products with gluten at the beginning but supposedly
gluten free, or gluten free enough.  Would a chemist with an interest call
Westbrae?
 
Products:  rice syrup and some separate rice and soy drinks.  Westbrae
Natural Foods (in Carson City, CA perhaps) 800-769-6455.  They had told me
earlier that they regard alcohol distilleded from grain to be essentialy
gluten free, but that if they're asked what it's made from they will identify
the starting material.  A sensible disclosure possible policy if every rep is
careful about it.
 
In a Farmer's Bazaar (a chain gourmet supermarket?)  I found Ener-G-Foods and
Westbrae's rice syrup side by side.  16 oz with the Westbrae 50-60 cents
cheaper.  Westbrae admitts on the label to using barley enzymes but says they
are "filtered" out.  Granted the enzymes are much larger than gliadin but I'm
not so sure about the gluten.  They claim the product is gluten free though I
don't remember the exact wording.  I can't check the wording as they sold out
and haven't replaced yet..
 
They have a Westsoy beverage in three forms.  The "original" is described as
having "rice syrup converted with a purified barley enzyme".  Filtering
before fermenting removes the chance of converted smaller molecules getting
through.  The product list of 3/95 I got is ambiguous as to a separate rice
syrup product, only that they have drinks using one of three forms of ezymes
for the fermentation of rice or soy.
 
                                         Kemp Randolph
                                         Long Island