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

The following email communications with Mr. Poindexter of
"Poindexter Nut Company" took place this morning:

[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
  Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:13 AM
  To: Mike Poindexter
  Subject: Information Request

I wanted to comment on Mike Poindexter's response (which
follows) to a member of our online Celiac Sprue Support
Group regarding the gluten content of your nuts.

  "We do not add gluten or any preservatives or addatives
of any kind to anything in our plant. To be quite honest
with you, I wouldn't even know where to buy gluten. We
clean our packaging lines every time we switch from one
item to the next. Thank you, Mike Poindexter"

  Thanks for taking the time to respond. However, gluten
contamination of non-baked goods is almost never
intentional. For example, some companies dust their
conveyor belts with flour to keep product from sticking to
it or "clumping". This is just an example, there are
dozens of other ways that gluten can be intoduced into a
product. Flour contains wheat (unless it is a specialty
flour, like rice flour). Wheat contains a protein called
gluten (so does barley and rye), which makes the one in
every 133 people in the U.S. who have celiac disease very
sick. Very sick. Your statement, "I don't even know where
to buy gluten" makes me not want to buy this product,
because it is clear to me that you don't understand our
dilemma.

  To learn about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet
visit www.celiac.com
  or http://www.gicare.com/pated/edtgs06.htm

  Submittal Date - 11/15/2005
  Submittal Time - 9:12:41 AM

**********

Dear Megan,

  I do understand this issue. We do not put any addatives
or preservatives of any kind on our product. This is
printed on every package, yet I continually get people
asking if I put addatives or preservatives. I reply to
every email.

  We not not put flour on our conveyor belts, as that
would cross-contaminate our product with flour and flour
is not listed as an ingredient on our packaging. Rather
than tell me that I do not understand your dilemna, I
suggest you focus your discontent on those who DO put
flour on their conveyor belts as they are obviously the
people who do not understand what cross-contamination is.
To say that it is unintentional is not quite right in my
mind - it is the unintended consequence of intentional
actions that are not studied.

  I feel like I am being singled out here for being
"ignorant" in that I have not studied the adverse
consequences of things that we do not do, have never done
and will never do. You should probably be more concerned
with people who do these things rather than get short with
me.

  Your statement that you don't want to buy my products
when I have stated time and time again that we do not add
ANYTHING to the product shows me that you do not
understand your own dilemna enough to realize that there
is no gluten on our nuts while others in the food industry
apparently do not take such steps to insure their product
is clean and safe.

  Our plant has HAACP plans in place to keep product safe
and prevent contamination.

  We are certified not only Kosher, but Kosher for
Passover - one of only a handful of nut plants in the
nation to be so certified.

  We are also certified to process organic nuts by the
CCOF. There are very few organic walnut processors - less
than 10% of the plants in the country.

  We go so far as to maintain our quality control program
out in the field of our suppliers (growers) to the extent
that we moniter pests in the fields of orchards we don't
even own in an effort to keep the product more sanitary.

  We are the only nut processor in the nation who does
this.

  If you would feel safer buying product from somebody
whose upper management doesn't answer emails on product
safety, take the time to follow up with said emails, isn't
certified as highly, doesn't have a business character
award in the produce industry and may or may not have the
control procedures in place, but they do know where gluten
comes from even if there has never been any in their
plant, feel free.

  Your concern is with gluten. My concern is much greater
- food safety. I don't want ANYTHING in or on the product.
This includes not only gluten, but any potential allergen
(known or unknown), be it dairy, seafood, glutens,
cross-contamination from other nuts, etc. To say that I
don't understand your concern is quite flatly incorrect
and I think that you do not understand MY concerns of
plant sanitation, allergen contamination and food safety.

  As far as our conveyor belts, we clean them with warm
water and soap and then rinse them with warm water. The
soap is listed as having no allergens on its MSDS sheet.
The only product in our plant that hits our conveyor belts
are raw shelled walnuts. We have never used nor will ever
use flour on our belts.

  By the way, in your example you have left out oats,
which also contain gluten. I have already started doing
research on this.

  Thank you,
  Mike Poindexter
**********

Mike Poindexter:

Thanks for your response. I plan to share it with the
entire celiac community, and beyond. People can make up
their own minds about you and your company, based on it.

Megan Tichy

*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*