<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Many thanks to Mary Collins for typing in all the member stores of the
Whole Foods Market chain. Health food store supermarket shoppers, please
read on, and see following post as well.
 
GF SHOPPING LIST PROJECT BEGUN BY WHOLE FOODS:
 
It was only a few years ago that Whole Foods completed its buy-out of the
other large health food supermarkets in the U.S., and you will find stores
like Bread & Circus and Mrs. Gooch's getting more and more private label
products on their shelves. (Private label products are ones that the store
puts its own name on.)  As Trader Joe's shoppers have learned, it is
difficult to impossible to research private label items, because the store
doesn't like to divulge its sources.
 
After the Whole Foods <takeover> and the increase in private label products
on the shelves, the Celiac Disease Foundation saw the need for a new
gluten-free shopping guide for Mrs. Gooch's as well as ALL its new sister
stores. CDF asked the Whole Foods corporate office to research and provide
a gluten-free shopping list for all of their stores, nationwide. The
project has been approved and the research has begun. Like all new lists,
it will take about a year for the first list, with periodic updates
afterwards.
 
Meanwhile, shoppers who want to try private label products like Whole
Foods' salsa, their applesauce, and their tortilla chips must rely on the
labeling and their digestive detective skills.  CDF will try to get some
preliminary product reports from Whole Foods as the year progresses.
 
Note: You may email MizMary privately with any specific ingredient queries
about Whole Food private label products, and they will be passed along to
Whole Foods corporate. (No, Mary's not an employee, just a known
pest--oops, consumer.)
 
HEALTH FOOD DETECTIVES WANTED:
 
Please continue to report any conversations with health food manufacturers
to Celiac Listserv.  Include the date, phone number, contact person and
what you learned from the call.  For example, the recent info on Arrowhead
Mills' puffed cereals has been of help to contamination-sensitive celiacs.
I <chatted> with Joanne Dalby in MN who did the footwork and passed along
the name and number for everyone's future reference. With her permission,
here's what our persistent Joanne learned about Arrowhead Mills and their
puffed cereals:
 
First, as quoted in Karyn F's post:
 
>Two problems exist there:
>
>Their puffing machines (subcontractors) are used on all grains, gluten and
>non-gluten alike.  Although they try to do all the non-gluten ones first,
>followed by the non-gluten, they are nonetheless all done.  Further, the
>machines are not cleaned out thoroughly after each run.  They simply
"throw out" the first 30 or 40 lbs of the new run.<<
 
Then, from our chat:
 
<<The number is 1-800-749-0730.  The name of the quality control person is
Keith. (you can ask for him when you call). What is interesting, is that
Keith did not tell me that a subcontractor does the puffing.  The girl who
answers the 1-800 number let that slip.  As it turns out, many of their
labels are produced by other manufacuterers (Omega Nutrition...).
 
I had to call twice to complain.  First last December when I found the
puffed wheat in the puffed millet.  I then discontinued millet but still
was reacting. Then, in January, when I found the same in the puffed rice.
 
When I called in December, he blamed the millet problem on unclean grains
from the grower, who also grows wheat and uses the same machinery.  He said
that is where the contamination was from.  However, that is obviously not
the case, because the rice (I assume) is not from the same place, and had
the exact same brown puffed grain (almost flakelike) in it.  That's when I
took all back.
 
More info: Keith has been there approx. two years.  The company got a new
director a couple years back, and decided to streamline many of the
operations to improve profitability.  Apparently, that is when some changes
began:  some products dropped, more subcontracting of others, etc.>>
 
SERMON/SILLINESS
 
So, a lesson to all super-sensitive celiacs to be on the alert whenever a
non-gluten product is manufactured by a company that also makes gluten
products.  (I know: You lucky devil-may-care celiacs are crunching
Kellogg's Temptations while I'm got yesterday's brown rice sitting in soy
moo.)   ;)
 
Many thanks to our new detective Joanne!
Mary Courtney
[log in to unmask]