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

>Dear listmates,  I'm sending this message once again because it appeared
>the list serv wasn't receiving it since I did not get the standard
>confirmation message.
>I wanted to report that after having an isolated instance of diarrhea, I
>immediately suspected based on my prior day's food diary, Haagan-Dazs
>chocolate sorbet bars.  According to the companys's written response, it
>declares all sources of gluten on Nestle Brand labels "even if present as
>part of another ingredient".  However, in pursuing this matter further, I
>called the customer representative who I had previously spoken with who
>told me that the "wrong letter" was sent to me since it had not addressed
>my question.  She commented that even though her signature was on the
>letter, it was her manager who had sent out a general letter.  The letter
>was supposed to address my question of whether the natural vanilla
>contained an alcohol and if so, what was the alcohol derived from?  Based
>on the ingredients on the box ("water, sugar, corn syrup, egg whites,
>lowfat cocoa and cocoa processed with alkali, fruit pectin, natural
>vanilla, salt"), the one ingredient I suspected was natural vanilla.  The
>customer representative revealed that the natural vanilla was extracted
>with a "grain alcohol" but she did not know whether it was distilled and
>the type of grain.  In the initial first call, she also commented that if
>the vanilla contained an alcohol, that it would only be in "parts per
>thousand".  When I asked if I could receive a written response about the
>"natural vanilla" ingredient, the customer representative once again
>affirmed that her manager would decide what letter was to be sent out
>again.  After this exposure, I had increasing fatigue for several days in
>addition to this isolated instance of diarrhea.  I was disturbed to
>discover that the company could not tell me the type of grain in the
>alcohol based natural vanilla and whether it was distilled;  If my
>questions could not be answered, I wondered how the company could assure
>that the product is GF based on its labelling practices?  It can't because
>the company already states in its letter that "we do use shared equipment
>when producing products".  I asked that the customer representative forward
>my comment that the "natural vanilla" should be investigated for containing
>gluten and that if it does, it should be disclosed on the label.
>Contact info:  www.nestleusa.com or 1-800-767-0120
>P.S.  Although, the product states that it "may contain traces amounts of
>milk protein", I have no effects of diarrhea with my own homemade chocolate
>mousse made from scratch with lactase enzyme and can eat small amounts
>without lactase support.  However before I went gluten-free over a year
>ago, even infrequent and small tests of dairy foods with lactase enzyme
>would cause intense digestive symptoms.
>
>Laura Y.
>
>
>
>


_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *