Products that are labeled as Gluten Free, may not really be!
Wellshire Kids Chicken Bites are not Gluten Free
Rice Dream Beverages & Frozen Desserts are not Gluten Free
And I am MAD.
My son is a chicken nugget-a-holic. He loves chicken nuggets and anything nugget-shaped, like fish sticks, or french fries. A big part of it is the kid loves to dip, in ketchup. When he first went onto the GFCF (gluten & casein free) diet, I went on a mad search to find the best chicken nuggets. We tried Ian's, Bell & Evans, Wellshire Kids, and Allergy Free Foods. All have been in and out of availability in nearby stores which is a major cause of frustration. I feel as if I'm constantly switching which store I shop in based on which store has gluten free & dairy free nuggets. Given the month it could be my local health food store, Wegmans, or Whole Foods. In a pinch I've turned to ordering in bulk and paying high shipping charges. My kids loved the Wellshire Kids Chicken Bites which are dino shaped nuggets that actually tasted like a chicken nugget should and looked like the popular dino nuggets that are mainstream. They are priced at over $7 a bag in the local stores but when I bought them by the case of 10 or 20 bags the price became more tolerable, even with shipping fees. Once the weather turned to warmer here in NJ I stopped ordering them and only occasionally picked them up from Whole Foods. Then Whole Foods even stopped carrying them. The weather turned colder but I just hadn't gotten around to re-ordering them. And now I'm glad that I didn't.
My son is a chicken nugget-a-holic. He loves chicken nuggets and anything nugget-shaped, like fish sticks, or french fries. A big part of it is the kid loves to dip, in ketchup. When he first went onto the GFCF (gluten & casein free) diet, I went on a mad search to find the best chicken nuggets. We tried Ian's, Bell & Evans, Wellshire Kids, and Allergy Free Foods. All have been in and out of availability in nearby stores which is a major cause of frustration. I feel as if I'm constantly switching which store I shop in based on which store has gluten free & dairy free nuggets. Given the month it could be my local health food store, Wegmans, or Whole Foods. In a pinch I've turned to ordering in bulk and paying high shipping charges. My kids loved the Wellshire Kids Chicken Bites which are dino shaped nuggets that actually tasted like a chicken nugget should and looked like the popular dino nuggets that are mainstream. They are priced at over $7 a bag in the local stores but when I bought them by the case of 10 or 20 bags the price became more tolerable, even with shipping fees. Once the weather turned to warmer here in NJ I stopped ordering them and only occasionally picked them up from Whole Foods. Then Whole Foods even stopped carrying them. The weather turned colder but I just hadn't gotten around to re-ordering them. And now I'm glad that I didn't.
On November 21, 2008 - the Chicago Tribune published an article after they completed testing on 3 Wellshire Kids products labeled as gluten free.
Verdict: NOT Gluten Free
Gluten found in 'gluten-free' products
The Tribune bought three popular Wellshire Farms products advertised as "gluten free" and sent multiple samples to a lab for testing.
Results:
Chicken Bites: Tested at 204 parts per million and 260 ppm
Chicken Bites: Tested at 204 parts per million and 260 ppm
Chicken Corn Dogs: Tested at 116 ppm and 2,200 ppm
Beef Corn Dogs: Tested at 191 ppm and 1,200 ppm
Another product that I am aware of being labeled as gluten free that truly is not is Rice Dream beverages and desserts. The labels state that they are gluten free but the process used to make them includes Barley Enzymes which means Gluten. This has been unveiled more than a few times over so I will include a few links that detail why Rice Dream is not OK:
The problem is: inconsistent labeling and lack of regulation. The FDA "accepted" (proposed) amount for a label of "gluten free" is 20 micrograms or more of gluten per gram of food, that's still NOT gluten free.
1 comments:
Wow that is amazing. Luckily Matt is not gluten free, but has been drinking Rice Dream for long time and only that for a week now.
The Feingold org really keeps tabs on labels, I was a member for a year but then did not renew.
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