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

                        The New Shopping Guide
                        ----------------------

All USA members of TCCSSG should have received a copy of our
newly-updated shopping guide.  It is similar in format to last year's
guide.  It contains no information dated prior to May 1996, and much
of it was gathered within the last six months.  Additional copies can
be obtained by mailing a $10 check ($15 Canadian funds), payable to
TCCSSG, to:  TCCSSG Shopping Guide, 34638 Beechwood, Farmington Hills,
MI 48335.

Often we are asked about brands that don't appear in the shopping
guide.  Are these brands not gluten-free (GF)?  We don't know.  You'll
notice the shopping guide does contain a section with specific brands
that are not GF, according to the manufacturers.  If a brand does not
appear in that list, nor in the list of products that are GF, it means
either:  1) the company failed to respond to our inquiries (half of
them don't), 2) we didn't write to them or the address was bad, or 3)
the company responded to our inquiry, but was unable or unwilling to
give us a list of GF products.

Note that the focus of the shopping guide is products which can be
purchased in grocery and health food stores.  We do not include
products which are strictly sold via mail-order.  A list of mail-order
GF vendors is included in each new member packet that we give out, and
was recently updated in the Aug./Sep. 1997 issue of _The Sprue-nik
Press_; you can contact these companies to get their current catalogues
and price lists.

Here are some other common questions we get about the shopping guide:


Q:  Why is there no information from Kraft or General Mills?

A:  Kraft only recently began providing a short list of GF products;
    this was included in the Aug./Sep. 1997 issue of _The Sprue-nik
    Press_.  You can call them about any other products.  General
    Mills does not consider any of their products to be GF, due to
    cross-contamination possibilities.  They are listed in the section
    under "Companies with No GF Products".


Q:  If a product is in last year's guide, but isn't in this year's,
    should we not use it?

A:  Not necessarily.  It could be that the manufacturer didn't answer
    our letter this year.  If the information was dated prior to May
    1996, we would have discarded it.  Or the manufacturer might have
    decided not to provide GF information for publication.  In that
    case, you may wish to contact the manufacturer or look at the
    ingredients and judge for yourself if the product is safe; or you
    may wish to play it safe and avoid the product.


Q:  Should we throw last year's shopping guide away?

A:  Absolutely.  It is old information, and there are products that
    have been intentionally removed from this year's guide because
    they are no longer GF.