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

Thanks for all of your responses! My question was whether BioGreens, a whole
foods supplement from VitaminShoppe that they list as free of gluten vould
really be GF if it includes wheat germ oil. The consensus was to avoid it
because of the unclear GF status of the wheat germ oil used. I'll continue to
bug the company until they give me some response and let you know what it is!
Jen in CA

---

I would not trust it. Also, do not take things with vitamin E, as it is often
obtained from wheat germ.

---

If in doubt avoid it. Try Nature Maid, inexpensive and GF. Available at
Kmarts and Rite Aids.

---

It is not GF if there is wheat germ of any sort in it.

---

. In my opinion, wheat germ is a derivative of wheat and I wouldn't consume
it.  I think the company needs to rethink their statement that it's gf.

---

Tharagran M Vitamins are gluten free.

---

I am taking powdered alfalfa--it is very good for the liver
and, I believe, is GF.

---

 I wouldn't ingest that on a bet. I do not see how it can have wheat
germ extract and not have gluten. Wheat germ is way more loaded with gluten
than just wheat.

---


Date: Mon, 26 Aug 96 10:00:55 PDT
From: "Donald D. Kasarda" <[log in to unmask]>

I did attend a meeting in Kansas City last week and talked with a
representative of ADM (Archer-Daniels-Midland) Co.  They do a lot of grain
milling and he said that the bran and germ fractions are mostly used for
animal feed.  The small amount they sell for human consumption is not
specially processed by them.  It might be washed slightly by the user, but
the feeling of the person I talked with was that thorough washing would be
unlikely.

So, even though I can't come up with any quantitative information on the
amount of endosperm remaining with the bran and germ fractions (it will
probably vary according to the end user's processing), my feeling is that
too much is present for a celiac patient to risk eating products that
contain a significant proportion of either wheat bran or germ. The ADM
executive was in agreement on that. As I said in my earlier post, white bits
of endosperm attached to the bran are very noticeable in a freshly milled
bran fraction from a Brabender Quadrumat Senior mill, which is a fairly
sophisticated experimental mill that I have used occasionally.

Don

Date: Sun, 29 Sep 96 14:57:20 PDT
From: "Donald D. Kasarda" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wheat Germ Oil

I can only give you my chemist's intuition on this.  I would say that gluten
proteins are not oil soluble and so in the process of producing the oil they
would tend to be excluded from that fraction.  However, not ever having
viewed the processing procedures myself or having actually attempted to look
for gluten proteins in wheat germ oil, I can't be 100% sure. There is always
a possibility of traces being present in some odd colloidal form (perhaps in
complex with certain lipids) that helps keep them dispersed in the oil, but
in general I would not expect solubility.