I have a gift.
Celiac Man (Me)
I’ve been blessed with the supernatural ability to detect the quality and consistency of “thorough cleaning and sanitation processes.” Food manufacturers rely on these procedures to produce both standard and gluten free foods in the same facility. You might think that my powers would prompt generalized hero worship and mayors giving me keys to cities and such. In reality, my unique ability is more like a burden. I now completely empathize with Spiderman, and we attend the same self-help group on Tuesday evenings.
By the way, do you like how my superhero carries a grocery bag? That makes my enemies tremble with fear for sure.
Still, burden or not, I figure I still ought to use my talent for the greater good, so I continue to run right into blazing fires by testing new products that claim to be gluten free.
Take Chex cereal for example. There has been a lot of hype on the celiac bulletin boards and Twitter recently about various Chex cereals now being gluten free. General Mills also makes a big deal about it, listing “GLUTEN FREE” in large letters on the box front and four separate times on the back of the box. Either they are really concerned about my health, or they want to make a lot of money from the celiac community. I’m not sure which, but I would bet on the “want to make a lot of money” option. Either way, this was awesome news! A “normal” product I can buy in any grocery store instead of relying on UPS to deliver my food!
Being a gifted superhero, I teleported to the nearest store and bought myself a large box of Rice Chex. I used to love those when I was a kid. The very next morning, I ate a bowl – and promptly became violently ill. Nice. I love marketing.
Wheat Chex Parachute Assault
This is where the value of my superpower comes into play. Lying on my death bed after the gluten-free Chex ingestion, I had a vision. I saw a large room with lots of noisy machinery and Wheat Chex hovering around dropping little gluten packages with parachutes into the nooks and crannies of all the Chex making machines. When I regained consciousness, I managed to scrawl an email to Chex Customer Service. I asked them whether gluten-free Chex are made in a dedicated facility or at least on dedicated equipment.
The response reminded me of why I love lawyers so much. Rather than simply answering my question, they gave me a 290 word statement that basically told me to check the label. To top that off, the response ended with the following:
“If there are no gluten-containing ingredients listed in the product ingredient label, we still cannot assure that this product is gluten free. While we have not added gluten-containing ingredients, factors such as sourcing, conditions of manufacture, etc. do not allow us to provide the full level of assurance that a gluten free claim requires.”
Unfortunately for me, I was only gifted with cross contamination detection superpowers and not a razor sharp intellect. You see, in my simple view of the situation, I was pretty certain that General Mills had made gluten free claims, maybe by writing GLUTEN FREE all over the box. This legal stuff is pretty complex though, maybe I should probably stay out of it and just stick to watching Boston Legal.
But, as I have said in previous posts, I am a giver. SO I persisted in getting my question answered so I could share it with you, the Celiac Bites reader. On my second attempt, I got the following response:
“Our Gluten Free Chex cereals are not produced in a gluten free facility. We do, however, ensure against cross-contamination with gluten-containing ingredients and products through thorough cleaning and sanitation processes, including testing between gluten and gluten free product runs based on FDA proposed regulations.”
There you go. Cleaning and sanitation processes. As I wrote about in a previous post about dedicated fryers in restaurants, you have to believe in a lot of perfection before you trust your physical well being to “procedures.”
Justice League of America
The moral of the story is that food manufacturers like to make money. And eating gluten free is becoming a trendy thing. So being savvy marketers, they are going to take every opportunity to sell more of their stuff by making it stand out from the competition. If a few celiac patients get killed in the process, well, that’s just the cost of doing business.
So be careful out there. Don’t blindly trust the marketing claims. Remember that there are a lot of great businesses that pride themselves on making real gluten free food – in gluten free facilities. Check The Gluten Free Mall for lot’s of those products. In fairness to General Mills, they claim to make the new Betty Crocker gluten free baking mixes in a gluten free facility. Hat’s off to them for that – and a big BOO for the scam on Chex cereal.
I’d love to here about any other cross contamination detecting superheroes out there. Let me know – maybe we can form a Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures Justice League!
After an 18 month adventure through the catacombs of the medical system, I was formally diagnosed with Celiac Disease. The bright side of that journey is that I know 3,712 nasty and horrible conditions that I do NOT have. 
I got really sick from the Chex, too. Also, from some corn tortillas. Can I be in the league? General Mills better sleep with one eye open.
Fortunately for me, my Publix carries tons of GF stuff, so I don’t have to order much online. It’s too bad about the Chex, though.
Excellent post! I too am extemely sensitive to cross-contamination and if a label doesn’t say ‘dedicated facility’ I put the product back on the shelf no matter how large & loud they proclaim gluten free! Sorry you got so sick from the chex – that’s terrible!
Fortunately the League is still accepting applications. Of course, you will have to design your own Superhero here: http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/
I hear you! It’s about time to start a massive campaign against this bogus gluten free stuff. If someone is going to make a claim, they need to back it up!
I’ll start…
I just made a kick-ass hero, and I think I’m going to have to e-mail it to you, because I’m kind of an idiot. (Speaking of which, do you still want the woman vs. celiac Ecuador trip thing?)
Hi,
It’s the weekend–July 26, 2009, and I’m calling General Mills tomorrow because I found what appeared to be black bug droppings embedded in a few pieces of Chex Multi Grain Cereal last night. I’m still queasy from what I saw.
Tom,
I’m sorry you had a reaction to the Rice chex, I’m pretty sensitive too and have tried both the corn and the rice check..I haven’t had a reaction per se but I did feel a bit out of sorts after eating them for a week or so and my thought was it might be the vitamins such as folic acid which they supplement it with what with me also being mainly a vegetarian as I eat a lot of greens so supplementary folic acid can cause an imbalance with B12 (Something that will not show up in a test if you are taking folic acid and a vegetarian) I guess it all depends on which batch and where it was made? Can you get hold of a gluten testing kit? I have had problems with pizza from a local pizza place Mozzarellis that touts itself as having gluten free pizza but I didn’t see any attempts to isolate the pizza, the food serving and baking utensils etc so I’m really doubtful and kept a crust around for a while hoping to get my hands on one of those testing kits.. I did think I had a reaction to Redbridge beer, how about you? Please add me to your league and keep me posted!
I had a reaction to one of the new chex cereals….see I was so excited and bought all of them! My youngest is having problems as well. I called them on 2 different occasions. I was told they were made in a GF factory. … I then thought okay I must have got cross contamination for something else…. sand same thing, I did not feel well after I ate the so called gf chex… this time is was the honeynut.. I called again the second time and questioned them about the vitamin E source, where were they getting that from??? I was put on hold for an extrememly long time and then the CS rep came back and said the “vitamin E source was from corn” I do not do well with the chex cereal and I was so excited about prospect of walking in the grocery stores and “whomp there it is!” But, I will pass until I know for sure it is really gluten free???
My daughter cannot eat Rice Chex because it contains BHT. It may also have gluten from cross contamination, but BHT levels her. She goes insane for 2 days. Google BHT. It’s a pertrochemical and artificial preservative.
Thanks for the tip! I’m not familiar with BHT but will be looking it up!
Have no fear, Gluten Free Society is here!
Currently, I am wearing a cape made out of corn husks. To all of you having problems with corn, you should be aware of this little tid bit of info. Corn has gluten in it. Yes, yes, I know that you have probably been told that you can lather up your intestines with corn tortillas, chips, cereals, pastas, etc with corn. Check out this study published in the journal gut…
http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/corn-gluten-damages-celiac-patients/
All the best,
Dr. O – Anti-gluten super hero extraordinairre
It’s always great to meet more super hero extraordinaires. We’re almost ready to form a Gluten League of Justice!
I always knew corn was evil. My body told me. Many, many times. I’m a slow learner.
We have not bought Chex in a long time, we got severely constipated really bad from one small bowl of Rice Chex. With stomach pains and head aches. Something is NOT RIGHT….with general mills. We love a new cereal called Vanilla Sunrise, it’s so good it tastes like bread pudding!