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

In <[log in to unmask]>, on 05/02/97
   at 01:53 AM, "David D." <[log in to unmask]> said:

>>>>While you determine that distilled alcohol causes you to have celiac-like
>>>reactions, and you believe that alcohol does indeed contain gluten, you
>>>should not make such a definitive claim about something for which we
>>have no >proof.

>>You'll notice that I never said it was *distilled* alcohol.   WE don't
>>KNOW what kind of alcohol this was!

>>If you need more information on the alcohols involved, you may want to
>>call the company yourself.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find where I put
>>the doc. on this, but will be happy to post the number as soon as I find
>>it. I   Meanwhile, I *will* make a definitive claim that I was told they
>>tested and found 3% wheat protien in the alcohol used in the flavoring!
>>That I heard such a thing is a fact.

This is the first fully documented case of an alcohol celiac related
reaction (DH skin rash) by someone properly diagnosed that I know of.
Thanks, Joanne.

Once you find that info, those wanting to follow up can e-mail her as I
will.

I'm excluding allergic responses whether to gluten or otherwise only
because they're so much harder to fully document if there's a case to be
made to the FDA.

Here are a few follow-up issues. Others may have more:

1. food alcohol regulation details --should be in FDA (hence in Code of
Federal Regulations section 21) though I can't rule out that BART
regulates what is supplied to food manufacturers. Example, is there a
grade of "grain alcohol" in which 3 % wheat protein is allowed or do the
manufacturers then freely add such for texture, viscosity, miscibility to
the clean distilled raw material? Perhaps the CFR spells out a "standard
of identity" for different kinds of food alcohol (this means the
manufacturing process that allows labelling the product as one kind or
another).

2. Go to that supplier of alcohol if it's dirty and find out how widely
it's used. Is it used in normally consumed food products, not just lip
balms? Are we dealing with an isolated incident?

3. If the final food manufacturer is adding the wheat protein to the
alcohol label ingredient in question, does the CFR allow them to do that
or are they conveniently misinterpreting things because grain was
originally used?
                                                       Kemp Randolph
                                                       Long Island --

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Kemp Randolph <[log in to unmask]>
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