Bob's Red Mill / Whole Foods / Cross contamination

[Guest guest]

> >

> > I live in Silicon Valley - here Fry's has abandoned groceries in

> favor

> > of electronic superstores. ;-)

> >

> > Safeway can get Bob's Red Mill GF products.

>

> Whole foods has grain products from at least 3 manufactorers

> as well as the whole grains in the bins.

>

> I have this basic question about Bob's Red Mill and I was not

> convinced. They not only sell GF grains and additives, they

> also sell glutin and wheat extracts. I am not sure that these

> items are made in separate facilities with separate grain feeds.

>

> I bought the Xanthum gum for my cornbread recipes from a company that

> did not also sell wheat or rye products. As I mentioned earlier,

> protein and sugar are easy enough to separate, but also easy enought

> to crosscontaminate. But if the issue is crosscontamination, then you

> also have to worry about companies they use the same machines and

> bins to make both GF and non-GF products, and the manufactorer needs

> to make absolutely clear on the packaging that they do so.

Based on our family experiences, not detailed scientic research:

We have never experienced any problems with Bob's Red Mill GF

products, and we have tried just about everything they make - we were

in the Mill store last summer and my son put EVERYTHING with the GF

emblem in our cart. I stuck the soy back on the shelf, but lugged the

other 3 shopping bags full home to California. As we have worked

through the assortment, no problems at all.

BUT I will not buy any bulk grains from Whole Foods ever again! At the

2 stores in our area you can see people move the scoops from bin to

bin, and see the different colored flours mixed together. I call it

the ultimate example of cross contamination. The Arrowhead Mills

grains I have bought there have seemed very old, and did not taste fresh.

Of course, your exerience could be different. I'd be curious to know

if other do feel they get glutened by Bob's products.

Maureen

[Guest guest]

> BUT I will not buy any bulk grains from Whole Foods ever again!

A mg of contamination a week would not be noticable, but would

continue to do damage. Certain individuals are complaining about

antibody levels that are still high after a year, how do we know that

those levels are do to residual contamination in the food. Can you be

sure that there is less than 1 mg of rye, barley or wheat gliadin per

bag of product?

> At the I'd be curious to know

> if other do feel they get glutened by Bob's products.

I saw the same thing at Whole foods, I learned a little trick in the

lab for chemicals if you need the fresh stuff, scoop the surface

layer aside and dig into the 'clean' areas. I did not see alot of

evidence for crosscontamination in the bins but I saw the potential

for contamination, obviously. But the only bin I am interested in is

the corn meal, and it is relatively easy to distinquish it from flour

or cracked wheat. The last time I was there they had just refilled

the corn meal container, so there was no risk of x-contamination. I

also inspected the meal when I got home, it was corn meal with about

an average number of unidentifyable objects. The Bob's Red Mill

Cornmeal was 10 times as expensive, _No thank you_.

BTW, apparently you can buy their stocks if they have extra, they

claim.

The oats if I were to try them I would buy whole kernal so that I

could look for the wheat berries in them. This, according to one

recent paper, is the reason why Oats are variably sensitizing to CD

patients. I am not sure that crosscontamination is the cause, it

could be that Oats variable genetics could also be a reason for the

difference, but, if it is a possibility that wheat is a contaminant

and the contamination in the cause then I would definity want to see

the grains before they are cracked. Making flour is not that

difficult, I have produced flour on several occasions in the lab.

The problem would be with Whole oats would be whether the person

purchasing the oats could tell the difference between oats and other

grains because they appear very similar. I didn't see anything else

there that I would buy, and most of it would include things a GF

individual should not buy.

I don't mean to be putting down a specific vendors product, my only

opinion on the matter is this. And it applies to all vendors.

1. The company manufactors gluten powder, which can

crosscontaminate if it is made in the same building.

2. For the flour mixtures he is basically taking flour out and puting

rice flour or yam flour in and xanthum gum. It is likely that some

of the ingredients for flour products are shared with GF products

which makes me really suspicious.

3. They could be packaging using the same equipment GF and Non GF

mixtures

4. " Friday night paint job " . you don't have enough of X to finish a

batch so you mix in Y, very common in manufactoring. Friday

night paint job is the last car to come of the assembly line

on friday night as they try to clean out the paint reservoir,

in 2 years that individual will have to repaint his car, but the

manf really don't care because they saved a couple dollars worth

of paint.

5. The product is overly dressed up and cannot be inspected prior to

purchase.

6. At the price that they are charging for their product, in some

cases 20 times the bulk price one should expect that some of

this price is in quality control and not simply packaging, and

that quality control would be an aspect of the product literature.

(i.e. labeling) I read all of these manf products and found no

assurance that the took affective measures to avoid

crosscontamination. If you are 'glutened' and they are the source

without proper labeling you have no recourse against them.

7. Most importantly, they cost to darn much. ;^).

The point is if you are using the product alot, call the company and

ask them.

I was in the liquor store today,heh-heh, looking for a bottle of

tequila and I noticed something. All the really expensive tequilas

had on the bottle 100% tequila derived from the blue agave. The

cheaper more 'comercial' brands we are used to seeing make no such

claims. So I asked the clerk why one tequila says 100% and the others

don't. His basic claim was they probably mixed the tequila with other

cheaper alcohols. In the case of what should be considered GF, only

those items that are marked by percent composition and explicitly

labeled that no other ingredients. THis gets me somewhat curious

because some of the tequilas are 25% alcohol and I am remembering

that gliadins are the the alcohol soluble component of wheat.

BTW. Of the 2 wine coolers I found both were malted, the vendor said

coolers were out of fashions, I did not see any brands I was familiar

with. Probably a good idea to stay away from coolers.

While we are discussing stores and products, I should plug the local

open markets. I buy a tremendous amount of grains at good price at

the market vendors. The yellow corn I cannot find anywhere else, not

even whole foods, they also sell beans and other grains bulk and I

have found these to be of the highest quality with little observable

contamination, many of the market vendors sell no wheat products what

so ever, and their prices are dirt cheap. I know in California you

guys have great markets because I shopped and eaten in a few while I

was there. In the one here in houston they even sell mills so that

you can grind your own grains and avoid entirely the issue of 'what

the manufactorer missed'. As the saying goes, think outside of the

box.