Tag: marcs

Cheerios Goes Gluten Free

cheerios gf

Back in 2010, General Mills changed one ingredient in their Chex cereal line. Switching from malt to molasses, GM launched Rice Chex as gluten free (GF). Its success prompted the release of six more flavors.

Beginning in July of 2015, five Cheerios products will have the same great taste but will be going gluten free: Original, Honey Nut, Apple Cinnamon, Frosted, and Multi-Grain Cheerios. While Chex is made from rice and corn, Cheerios is made from oats, which is a controversial grain in the gluten free community.

Oats are controversial because they are contaminated by wheat when they are processed or transported.

Those who have celiac disease (CD) and gluten sensitivity (GS) are advised to consume only certified gluten free oats. Even then, a percentage of those with CD and GS still react against any oats. (Even certified GF oats should be carefully introduced, especially into the diet of someone newly diagnosed).

Chex instant hot oatmeal, made from gluten free WHOLE oats, was launched in 2014. There is only a limited supply of GF oats. To launch Cheerios which require a large quantity to be made into OAT FLOUR, General Mills decided to mechanically filter regular oats to eliminate cross contamination, rendering them gluten free.

General Mills is aware of the gluten free FDA labeling guidelines and are testing to ensure the standard of less than 20ppm is met. They have a great reputation as a responsible company.

While the gluten free/celiac community applauds General Mills for producing another mainstream GF cereal which costs less than some GF cereals and is more widely available, some early questions have arisen:

1. Why not a third party certification?
2. It is understood that the mechanical filtering is a competitive secret, specially developed by GM at great cost. If they can’t reveal it, why can’t they release more on the type of testing done, as well as the quantity of testing done?
3. Why can’t they use gluten free oats, developing a demand?

Of all the 5 GF Cheerios, Multi-Grain will go through the biggest reformulation. Its wheat and barley ingredients will be replaced with sorghum and millet.

What do you think about the new GF Cheerios?
Please comment!

Flour, GF Pillsbury and Bob’s Red Mill, Cup for Cup

In time for the Holidays! Have you tried either of these two new gluten free flours?

Pillsbury’s Brand New Gluten Free Flour Blend  has been spotted at area grocery stores.  A blend of rice, potato starch, pea fiber, tapioca starch and xanthan gum, it is meant to be a substitute for regular flour in your family recipes.

Bob’s Red Mill has also come out with  “1 to 1 Baking Flour”. Previously their GF flour had garbanzo bean that gave a bitter aftertaste to some baked goods. This new flour is made of sweet rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, whole grain sweet white sorghum flour, tapioca flour and xanthan gum.

Try either of these new flours in your recipes and let us know if it works for you!

untitledpillsbury

Chex Oatmeal

From Joan:

Chex Gluten Free Oatmeal is available at Marc’s – 2/$5.

Chex Oatmeal

 

Diane adds:

The packaging is labeled “gluten free” but the ingredient listing just says “whole grain oats”.

So, I was unsure whether pure gluten free oats were used in this product.

A statement on the company’s facebook page is reassuring:

The oats used for the oats & oatmeal products are sourced from a vertically integrated gluten free oat source. We also validate our cleaning and changeover methods at the plants for any system/line that will run a gluten free product. Ongoing verification gluten testing is performed at the finished product level. As such, any General Mills product that contains a “gluten free” claim meets the safety and regulatory definition of less than 20 ppm. While there are many “gluten free” certification bodies, General Mills’ standards meet and/or exceed the qualifications defined by these organizations. Therefore, you can be confident that our “gluten free” products are safe and meet global certification and regulatory standards.

Have you tried it? Have you seen it in other stores?

NOTE by Diane 9/30/15:
Gluten Free Chex Oatmeal has been discontinued.

Bob’s Red Mill

Local Grocers and Manufacturer’s Website

bobsredmill.com

Available from local grocers and direct via manufacturer’s website

 

Mariann writes:

The BRM line has many options for the gluten-free cook and baker including Rice flours, Tapioca, Almond, Corn, etc.

 Recently I purchased a bag of BRM corn flour. When I got it home I noticed that it did not have a gluten-free statement on the package so I contacted the company. According to their representative, BRM has two separate manufacturing facilities – one for traditional processing and another dedicated to gluten-free processing.

It is important if you are purchasing BRM that the package contain the BRM symbol for gluten-free – that symbol will only appear on packages processed in the dedicated facility – the symbol is a red circle with a chaff of wheat in the middle and a slash mark through it to indicate ‘no wheat’.  

 If there is no symbol then the grain was processed in the traditional facility and cannot be considered gluten-free.