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

Hi everyone,

Many are unaware of General Mills' process for its new "gluten-free"
Cheerios. Please be aware that General Mills currently uses lot "mean"
testing to obtain its less than 20 ppm value for its "gluten-free" Cheerios
products. As we know, less than 20 ppm is the acceptable level of gluten
for a product to qualify to be gluten free by law.

General Mills has stated that its process is to pull 12 to 18 boxes of
Cheerios from a lot and take a sample from each. Then they grind the
samples up, combine all the ground samples, and then test that total
amount, a composite, for gluten to get their less than 20 ppm gluten value.

By its own admission to Tricia Thompson of the Gluten Free Watchdog,  a
good number of samples that they have taken from individual boxes have
contained MORE THAN 20 ppm gluten, with some samples up to 90 ppm gluten.
Think about that a moment. Samples are being taken from these boxes that
contain well over 20 ppm gluten and yet they're being labeled "gluten free"
because the samples of the boxes tested have an average of less than 20 ppm
gluten.

Note that General Mills is NOT using purity protocol oats for their
Cheerios products. (Purity protocol oats are grown in dedicated fields,
harvested on dedicated equipment, and processed on dedicated equipment, so
they're gluten free from planting.) General Mills is using oats grown in
fields where other gluten grains have been grown and using a mechanical
separation process to separate the oats from the other gluten-containing
grains.

A petition has been launched on Change.org to the FDA and General Mills to
require GM to change its processing and testing of Cheerios to be truly
gluten free; i.e., less than 20 ppm for EACH and EVERY box. That is what
the gluten-free labeling law requires. If General Mills continues to
process and test these Cheerios products as they are doing now, the
gluten-free labeling law that so many of worked so hard for and waited so
long for will have no value at all. Other companies will follow suit and we
will be back to not knowing if a product is really gluten free or not.

Read the petition here:  https://www.change.org/p/fda
-change-testing-and-production-of-gluten-free-cheerios-to-be-safe-for-all

Read additional details and report reactions to the Gluten-Free Watchdog,
FDA, and General Mils via the contact information below.

Gluten-Free Watchdog:  https://www.glutenfreewatchdog
.org/news/sick-after-eating-gluten-free-cheerios/

FDA:
​
Contact the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator in your area
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ConsumerComplaintCoordinators/.
They will ask you to file a formal complaint that includes providing
information about the specific product and your specific response.

General Mills:
​
Contact Cheerios (1-800-248-7310) and provide them with specific
information–variety of Cheerios eaten, lot number, when you ate the
product, symptoms, whether you regularly tolerate gluten-free oats, etc.

Thanks for your consideration. This is a very, very important issue for our
gluten-free community! Best,
Shirley

-- 
Shirley
Not just gf, but *gfe*!

Shirley Braden
*blogs:* *gluten free easily* <http://glutenfreeeasily.com> and *All
Gluten-Free Desserts* <http://allglutenfreedesserts.com>
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