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Dear Listmates.

Arrowhead Mills is not alone with this difficulty. Food mfg's around the
world buy items from sources over which they have  little or no control.
Apparently several people were ingesting products that may  or may not have
been safe to eat.

This makes me wonder about other suppliers of  products supposedly free of
gluten. I am not aware that there is any standard or regulations which
determine whether a food mfg. is actually producing/selling GF products.

I write a newsletter for members of  a support centered in New Hampshire. a
while back I tried to classify  products I listed as GF. I divided the
products into two classes,  Degree of Confidence I and II.

The first class was limited to companies that made  GF products only. The
second class included companies making products for the general public. I
ran into trouble when I refined the criteria Degree I . One requirement was
that all products were made in GF environments on lines dedicated  solely
to GF products.

I discovered that some companies in the business of making products for the
celiac market did not make all the products  on lines dedicated  to  SOLELY
to GF products.   I AM NOT  SAYING THAT THESE COMPANIES WERE DISTRIBUTING
DANGEROUS FOODS TO UNWITTING CELIACS. It only pointed out that companies in
the GF foods business wouldn't meet my criteria.  A representative of one
 company explained the painstaking steps taken by their  out side processor
to clean the lines. The line would then run the GF product until complete.
There was no mingling of products containing gluten.

I stopped using my "Degree Of Confidence" ratings since it would unfairly
discriminate against vendors of high quality and safe GF products.

The experience led me to wonder to what extent a company could certify
there products to be gluten-free. Do these companies  buy all ingredients
from sources producing only GF product? (I doubt it)  At what point  does
their supply chain "break down", relative to the GF status. For example are
their flours milled in plants dedicated  to rice flour?  Do the companies
audit their suppliers.

Would requiring such vigilance eventually bankrupt well intentioned
companies?

This brings up the labeling issue. At what point would any company be able
to assure products to be gluten free? Some companies will not post lists
since they do not test for gluten. Would they have to state this on the
label?
 Let me know what you think

Dan