manufacturers — Celiac Bites

Emerald Nuts Cashews: Food Labeling Done Right!

April 10, 2011 by Tom Leave a Comment

Emerald Nuts Cashews ingredient allergy label

Since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I’m constantly amazed by the odd variety of things that make my day just a little bit better. Things like:

Finding Kettle brand chips in airport or hotel gift shops (great emergency gluten free travel food!)
Being able to have ‘normal’ cereal for breakfast. Like Arrowhead Mills Buckwheat Maple Flakes
Finding out that one owners of my favorite restaurant, Crave in Mount Pleasant, is a celiac too and she has the kitchen trained
@AuntRissy brings home some Pamela’s Pecan Shortbread cookies form the store
The hotel where I’m staying has an omelette bar

Today, my celiac joy was looking at the label on a container of Emerald Nut Cashews.

This is a great example of how food labeling should be done.

ALLERGY INFORMATION: Manufactured on shared equipment. May contain other tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, milk or sesame seeds. May contain shell pieces.

As a customer (and celiac sufferer) I really appreciate the information placed on the label. This way, I have the information I need to make an informed decision about whether they are safe for me to eat.

Thank you Emerald Nut Company! Love the cashews!

Footnote: I eat these anyway and have not had a problem with cross contamination.

Filed Under: Latest Tagged With: allergens, labeling, manufacturers, nuts

Corporate Doublespeak – Kelloggs Gluten Free Rice Krispies

April 8, 2011 by Tom 18 Comments

I admit that when it comes to complex legal matters, I may not have a razor sharp intellect.

If the first step is admitting you have a problem, then the second step must be to ask for help.

I admit that I am having a problem understanding some fancy, businessy, legally, stuff. So now I am asking for your help.

When I heard about new Gluten Free Rice Krispies, scheduled to hit the shelves this May, I was about as jazzed up as Snookie in a Hoboken Gold’s Gym mens locker room. However, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve gotten sick from some mainstream product claiming to be on the gluten free bandwagon, I would be opening a gluten free Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pop-Tarts factory rather than writing this blog. So before I stocked up on a 144 pack of the new Rice Krispies from my local Sams Club, I decided to write to Kellogg’s to ask just how pure the new Rice Krispies are going to be. I thought my question was pretty clear:

“Can you please tell me whether the new gluten free Rice Krispies will be made in a gluten free facility? Or will they be manufactured in a facility that also produces products that contain gluten?”

As I’ve written about before, you have to have a whole lot of faith in proper cleaning procedures to feel completely safe eating gluten free food made on the same equipment as food that contains gluten. So I simply want to know whether Kellogg’s gluten free products will be made in a gluten free facility. Like Betty Crockers new gluten free mixes.

Back to the point. Here’s the response I got. I’ve failed to understand how this answer in any way relates to my original question, so I’m asking for your help. I know that you all are really, really smart.

Kelloggs Gluten Free Rice Krispies doublespeak

Please help. Lawyers and corporate doublespeak confuse me.

*** UPDATE ***

I received a follow up reply from Kellogg’s in response to my second question about the new Gluten Free Rice Krispies manufacturing facilities:

Thank you for replying back. The new gluten free Rice Krispies® will meet the FDA requirement for being gluten free and will be made in a gluten-free facility with gluten free testing after every batch produced.

Sincerely,
xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx
Consumer Specialist
Consumer Affairs

This is great news! I wish more companies would simply communicate right up front about the real gluten free status of their products. As far as I am concerned, anything made in a shared facility is not gluten free. But that’s just my opinion.

Filed Under: Latest Tagged With: breakfast, cereal, lawyers, manufacturers

Food Labeling Gone Wild!

March 30, 2011 by Tom 2 Comments

Great Value Grape Jelly Ingredients

Overheard in a Wal-Mart food processing facility just outside of Toad Suck, Arkansas…

Bodean: “Clem, did all y’all finish with that batch of Grape Jelly yet?”

Clem: “Yup.”

Bodean: “You remember to add the anchovies?”

Clem: “Ummm… Dangit!”

Either Wal-Mart food suppliers use a really creative grape jelly recipe, or this is what happens when lawyers rule the earth.

You see, I broke out a couple of slices of Udi’s White Sandwich Loaf bread this morning to make some breakfast. I was craving some good old fashioned toast with just a light touch ~~boatload~~ of butter and some mostly artificial grape jelly. Fortunately my fine young son stopped at Wal-Mart last night to get me some of that jelly goodness as I was clean out.

Anyway, as I started to prepare my toast, I happened to check the ingredients label on my new Great Value Squeezable Grape Jelly. I did this mostly out of habit I suppose as I’ve yet to run across any synthesized purple gelatinous food product that contains gluten.

Wal-Mart's Special Seafood Jelly

Imagine my surprise when the ingredients label contained 6 of the 8 major allergens as defined by the FDA. All except shellfish and tree nuts. So that would include milk, peanuts, wheat, soy, eggs, and anchovies. Mmm, nothing like a little anchovy to add some zest to good old fashioned grape jelly!

I’m guessing that there’s not really much risk of my grape jelly getting contaminated with anchovies during the manufacturing process. If there is, I don’t even want to begin to imagine what kind of food processing plant that stuff is made in. The Grinch’s lair comes to mind.

More likely, Wal-Marts crack legal team simply decided to cover all the bases, thereby rendering the intent of the warning absolutely useless. “Hey, let’s just list all of the allergens. That way, no one can sue us!” Problem solved. I’m guessing that Wal-Mart legal fully intended to list all 8 allergens, but simply assumed that Fish / Shellfish and Peanuts / Tree Nuts could be combined to save ink. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Sheesh. This is reason number 8,197 why I am so excited about the 1 in 133 Project. Check it out. Get involved. Stop nonsense like anchovies in grape jelly. Only you can help. For the children.