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

Dear Listmembers:

After the postings of yesterday, I was in the grocery store and read the 
label on the Activia yogurt.  I didn't see anything that looked like gluten. 
I didn't read the label of all the flavors, however.  Then after this 
morning's posting with the Dannon contact info, I went to the site intending 
to write an angry email like everyone else.  But first I looked at the 
Dannon FAQ:  http://www.dannon.com/pdf/yogurtIngredients.pdf   which says, 
if I'm reading it correctly, that they will assure us that the plain yogurt 
flavors, including Activia, are safe in regards to gluten because they 
actually test tehm for gluten in that yogurt.  All other yogurts they don't 
test and can't assure us that they are safe.  They might be safe because 
they don't contain gluten ingredients but they won't be held liable if it 
turns out that something in the non-plain yogurts contains gluten.

I think many companies are afraid of saying their products are gluten free 
unless they are 100% certain because of the legal liability if someone gets 
sick.  Many companies use flavoring products that they buy from other 
companies and they aren't willing to take on liability when they don't have 
control over those products from third parties.  Dannon probably has enough 
control over the plain yogurt and tests it to be sure it is gluten free, but 
not the flavored yogurt.  Another thing to think of is the problem with what 
actually constitutes "gluten free"? Is it 20 parts per million? Is it 5 
parts per million?  There's no legal standard yet and companies don't feel 
like taking on that battle in court.  So when companies tell us that they 
won't say for sure whether something is gluten free, companies are thinking 
about their legal liability.  The product might actually BE gluten free but 
they don't want the expense of trying to defend that statement in court if 
someone says their products made them sick.

I would be curious which Activia product people are getting sick on and try 
to determine which of the ingredients is making them sick.  One thing that 
GF people say is certain ingredients are ok if they come from the U.S.  Is 
everyone aware that many, many things, including food ingredients, now come 
from China?  If you really want a scare, Google "vitamins China" and see 
what you turn up.

Lynne 

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