After last week’s voluntary recall for possible sesame in our 5 new products (see explanation on our Allergen Declarations Page)we wanted to provide you with a follow up to let you know what the sesame testing verification showed and what next steps are being taken.

We have now received the results from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA):

CFIA Testing Shows ALL Negative Results

Since sesame is a top 10 declared food allergen here in Canada, all samples went to a CFIA lab that is specifically accredited for sesame testing.

Rob and I decided on the voluntary recall last Saturday before verification could be made because we felt it was in the best interest of all of our customers to err on the side of caution. Even though these results are negative, we would take the same action again based on the information we had to go on at that time.

We are going to continue with both the voluntary recall and labelling with May contain sesame for 2 reasons

1. The information that is communicated out there right now is that anyone with sesame allergies should be looking for a “May contain sesame” warning on the label of those 5 products. This information will continue to live on the Internet for a very long time and would just be too confusing as to what label is correct if we don’t have the warning on those 5 products listed in the press releases.

2. We want to monitor and verify sesame testing over a long period of time to ensure that we keep getting negative results before we remove the May contain sesame warning.

We are asking all of those with sesame allergies to heed the May contain sesame labels until further notice.

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support that we have received from so many customers. It helped us get through a very stressful time for both our team and our family.

Sincerely,

Alana and Rob Elliott, Founders, Nonuttin’ Foods Inc.

As parents of a food allergic child, Rob and I know exactly what it’s like to live with the fear of hurting our child with the food we give her. This is exactly the reason we started Nonuttin’ Foods; to take away the fear for families just like ours.

You may have heard from our press release that we have begun a voluntary “may contain sesame” recall of the new products we were so proud to bring you in February. We felt that we needed to take this action to maintain the integrity of what we do here at Nonuttin’ Foods.

While we have not yet verified the presence of traces of sesame in these products, our investigation is continuing and we are working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). We have also notified the FDA in the United States and are waiting to hear if they will recommend any action at all since sesame is not one of the top 8 labelled food allergens.

Regardless, we are moving ahead on corrective action in both countries as we want to ensure the safety of all of our loyal customers. As you may be aware, our family has 6 food allergies, and we wouldn’t expect anything less for the protection of our loved ones. So you will begin to see “may contain sesame” on the labels of those 5 new products.

Our job at this point is not to point fingers at any of the suppliers involved but to work together to verify if there is any trace of sesame at all. Everyone is quite puzzled as all our suppliers are documented as having sesame free facilities. And we have never used sesame as an ingredient in the Nonuttin’ facility.

In addition to this letter that also went out to our enewsletter list, you may also be receiving an email from our customer service team if you have ordered any of the 5 new products. Please excuse the doubling up if you receive both. We do want to err on the side of caution.

Our team will be available toll free at 1-866-714-5411, 8:30 until 4:30 Pacific Standard Time, Monday to Friday if you have any questions.

We do want to continue to serve you with integrity. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Alana and Rob Elliott
Founders, Nonuttin’ Foods

More information and recall details on the US site: http://www.nonuttin.com/shop/content/allergen-declarations.html

More information and recall details on the Canadian site: http://www.nonuttin.ca/allergen-declarations-canada.html

If you’ve been on the website in the last couple of days, you will see that we will be discontinuing the Vanilla Caramel Granola Clusters in the 30 gram packs in the new year.

Why are we discontinuing this item?

Before July, all granola products in both the US and Canada (bars, granola, granola clusters) had sesame warnings on them as a “may contain”. This was because while we are a sesame free facility, the crisp rice that we were using as an ingredient had sesame on the line where it is made and so cross contamination was a possibility.

In July, we changed all of our US granola bars and granola pouches and the Canadian granola pouches to a new formula with a new crisp rice that has no sesame potential cross contamination. The Canadian granola bars will be moving to that new formula at the end of January as well, meaning that all Nonuttin’ products EXCEPT for the 30 gram vanilla caramel granola clusters will be sesame free.

Rather than cause confusion as to what may have potential sesame cross contamination, we will discontinue the 30 gram vanilla caramel granola clusters, completely remove the old crisp rice from the facility and truly be able to say with certainty that every Nonuttin’ product is sesame free.

While we can appreciate that those who love the little 30 gram packs will miss them, it is a priority with us that there is no confusion as to our sesame status, especially as it is a Canadian top 10 allergen and those with sesame allergy are growing in number in both Canada and the USA.

Many changes have taken place at Nonuttin’ Foods and those include changes to our best selling vanilla caramel and vanilla cinnamon granolas.  While it’s important that you check ingredients every time you order to be sure you choices are good for you, here are some highlights:

Pouches of granola are no longer called granola clusters, you’ll note that they are called “granola” instead.  Why?  In hot conditions (either in transit or in the store environment), our granola clusters had a tendency to lump into a large granola clump at the bottom of the bag.  Nonuttin’ “granola clumps” was not exactly what we were going for so we wanted to ensure that all customers were getting a more consistent product, no matter what the conditions.  Therefore, the pouches of granola “clusters” are now a different consistency with a more blended granola of very small clusters, whole grain oats and crunchy rice.  These granolas are now more suitable for sprinkling on yogurt/soygurt, berries, apple crisp and more plus being great with steamed or cold milk added on top.

Those who love the clusters can still get their fix in our 30 g snack pack of vanilla caramel granola clusters.

The Nonuttin’ pouches of granola are now sesame free both in Canada and the US.   Please note that the 30 g snack pack of granolas still has sesame as a potential cross-contaminant from the facility where that particular crisp rice ingredient is made.  Please see our allergen declarations for more details.

Could your school, camp, or local grocery use Nonuttin’ granolas?  We sell Nonuttin’ vanilla caramel and vanilla cinnamon granola as bulk (4.5 kg/9.9 lb) ingredients for applications such as breakfast cereal, yogurt parfaits or snack packs.  One school even orders our granolas to turn into their own in-house granola bars. 

We do only sell these to approved foodservice institutions and businesses (sorry to those of you with teenagers eating you out of house and home) but those businesess or institutions who are interested can contact our team at wholesale@nonuttin.com.

As indicated in an earlier post on our change to take sesame off of our labels, I had indicated that there would be other small changes to the ingredients as well.  These are the changes that you need to be aware of although they will not change any of the top food allergen declarations:

Sugar:   Currently we use a soft brown sugar that is made of cane juice but is refined.  In the new ingredient formulas, this ingredient will be changed to evaporated cane juice which is unrefined.

Chocolate Chips:  Although we are still finalizing this change, if all goes as expected, the new chocolate chips will have the anhydrous dextrose (corn based) removed and an additional ingredient, salt, will be added.  The 70% dark chocolate chunks will remain the same.

Crisp rice:  Not only will the sesame warning be removed due to the new crisp rice, the addition of honey as an ingredient (rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey, salt), will mean that Nonuttin granola bars and granolas will now no longer be considered vegan as honey is considered an animal by-product. 

As indicated in the Say Goodbye to Sesame post, here are the details about which labels are changing with expected dates:

We will be moving to the new labels for the USA only at first.  This should take place within the next 8-10 weeks and will occur with all of the granola bars and clusters at the same time.

Canadian labels are expected to be changed within the next 4-6 months.  Why?  Health Canada has been promising changes to the allergen and gluten labeling for some time but most recently they have indicated that the new regulations will be posted in Spring 2010 which could be all the way until June.  So that we can make sure that we meet all new regulations, we will be waiting on Canadian packaging changes until those announcements take place.

In the meantime, be sure to read your Nonuttin labels.  If it still has the sesame warning on it, the formula is still containing the current crisp rice, NOT the new.  All new labels will only say:  Contains: soy (chocolate varieties) or May Contain:  soy (fruit varieties).

One of the things I struggle with as both the mother of a food allergic child and as a manufacturer is changing ingredients in our products.  This could be removing products, bringing in new ingredients or changing a recipe.  Believe me, every choice is carefully reviewed, often put out to our customers for feedback and truly agonized over.  I walk in your shoes and know exactly how our family feels when a favorite gets put onto the unsafe list.

In April 2007 when we moved to pure oats so that we could respond to customer requests for a gluten free product, it was a Catch 22.  Moving to gluten free would allow so many more people to enjoy Nonuttin products.  Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to move to a gluten free crisp rice from a new supplier, just as that supplier decided to put sesame on the same line. 

Although we’ve always had the crisp rice tested by a lab for sesame before coming to the Nonuttin’ facility and the testing has always been negative, I felt that a sesame warning must still go on our granola labels (bars and clusters).  So we labelled and carefully outlined why we were doing so on our website.  All the while, I’ve been looking for a crisp rice that could meet all of our allergen requirements and remove the sesame without requiring a 10 000 lb custom order.

I’m happy to say that we’ve finally done it.  No more sesame warning!  Read more »

In last January’s enewsletter, I had mentioned that we had received many requests for products with sunflower seeds.  At that time, I asked for feedback on both the pros and cons after which we received several emails for both sides.

After carefully reviewing the feedback and, in many cases, having further discussions with the people who sent in feedback on the con side, it was evident that sunflower seeds would be overwhelmingly well accepted as long as they were  were controlled on the pouch line only (trail mixes, baking ingredients, etc.) in the same manner that we currently control the soybeans. Read more »