There are a lot of people in the “free from” foods market that begin their businesses for different reasons.  Many, like myself, begin a company due to intensely personal reasons such as an affected family member.  Others  start because they choose to eat a certain way to feel healthier and want to share that with the world.  And others don’t have any of the medical issues involved but perhaps have a product that they would like to market to a particular segment of the free from marketplace such as Nestle’s chocolate bars in Canada being advertised as peanut free.

What I find frustrating are the people who want to market a product as free from a certain ingredient but have no idea what that actually means.  For example, I recently saw an American granola product with oats (not gluten free oats) that advertised that they were wheat free because they had no wheat ingredients.  But no traditional oats are wheat free in North America due to cross contamination from our farming practices.  This fact is so well documented that the FDA doesn’t even expect traditional oats packagers to indicate wheat anywhere on the packaging because it’s considered common knowledge to know that there is cross contamination with wheat. 

But to purposefully and knowingly offer an unsafe product to those who need a free from food is to take it a step further.  One contemptible individual in North Carolina has been arrested for selling “gluten free” bread that tested to 5000 parts per million for gluten at the Food Allergy lab at the University of Nebraska.  25 complaints were lodged with authorities when families got sick from ingesting this “gluten free” bread.  The owner is not cooperating with authorities so they do not yet know exactly where he was getting his bread but it has been suggested that he was getting bread from a regular bakery and repackaging it in his “gluten free” bread packaging.

My jaw hit the floor – I can’t even conceive that someone would think this was okay on any planet.  I think he should consider himself lucky he’s only been arrested and that nobody had to pay the ultimate price for his actions with their life.  To read more and see the local television segment, check out this link:  http://wake.mync.com/site/wake/news/story/47678/durham-bread-company-owner-arrested