<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
I came across some chips named "Terra Chips" the other day and suspect
they're safe for celiacs. A little variety for the oft montone celaic diet.
 
They're made from taro, a plant native to Southeast Asia. cultivated for
4000+ years and spread by Polynesians to the islands of the Pacific. There
seem to to places where it is the main staple of the diet.
 
What I dug from the library was that it belonged to the ARACHAE family with
ARUN as another technical classification. The Latin name is  "colocasia
esculenta" (and they do taste good). I did a quick Medline search and found
no articles linking it to food hypersensitivity, just quite a few analyzing
proteins, no less, from it. Nothing there suggested that any pieces had
near cousins in celiac toxic grains though one reference to sweet potato as
I recall.
 
So are they likely to be safe for celiacs?
 
The supplier Dana Alexander, Inc., 39 Norman Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11222.
There seem to be other products made from taro as well. I haven't bothered
to check for cross contamination yet though they do supply sweet potato
chips as well.
 
                                   Kemp Randolph
                                   Long Island