We just finished participating in the first ever sample kit that went out through a new service called Gfree Connect. The whole idea of this service is to make it really simple for you to get samples and coupons for a wide variety of gluten free products all delivered right to your door.

What I liked about it when the idea was presented to me is that it allows gluten free consumers to try products like ours that they don’t necessarily see in every grocery store. Sure, you’ve got your larger gluten free brands that are well known and easily available but you can also get regional samples that you can still get on the internet, even if they’re not available in your area. Plus, even with the bigger companies, they may be bringing out something new for you to try that you aren’t even aware of since your store may stock limited products.

And the pricing is really reasonable too from my perspective. The amount of time and effort you’d have to spend either cruising the internet or your local natural foods/grocery stores is worth the cost that they charge. I expect that this company will grow as more people get word and more companies choose to participate. At the recent Chicago Gluten Free and Allergy Expo, Gfree Connect had a table and they got a lot of interest and many people signing up.

Once the company grows, they may also be able to accommodate other sensitivites and food allergies as well so if you’ve got multiple food issues, keep an eye on them as they mature and refine their business. Check out their website at: http://gfreeconnect.com/

On Monday I had my re-audit of my products and facility by my gluten free certifier, the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). A re-audit is basically a follow up review after already having the initial application and inspection when we originally applied for Gluten Free Certification last year. Of course, in between we have to provide reports on our testing procedures and report new products, ingredients, etc. But yesterday’s visit was about going over our facility with a fine-tooth comb to ensure we’re doing everything right for continued certification.

So what does GF certification mean when you see it on a food product? For GFCO, it means that all Nonuttin products must be testable below 10 parts per million (ppm) and that we follow strict procedures for sourcing our ingredients and packaging materials, testing those ingredients and processing our products along with all of the record keeping that must be accurately maintained. GFCO also inspects all of their facilities.

Because our facility is dedicated to only Nonuttin’ recipes, we are audited with a different checklist. A company that has gluten in the facility plus produces gluten free products will have an additional checklist to go through. GFCO may require test swabs of surfaces to ensure no cross contamination between lines as an example and the company would be expected to keep gluten free ingredients segregated from gluten containing ingredients. Some people are not comfortable with gluten in the same facility and may check with a manufacturer to see whether they have a dedicated facility, even if they see a GF symbol.

The Celiac Sprue Association does have a logo on some products but it is not a certification process including facility inspections but a recognition seal that declares those companies have agreed to follow the criteria set by the association.

The Canadian Celiac Association has begun moving in the direction of GFCO with a certifying program as well but the program is not yet firmly entrenched.

As with all certifications however, companies must still meet the labelling regulations of the country they live in. In our case, Health Canada is still reviewing the gluten free labelling laws for the inclusion of oats. They have been doing so since last May when they published an intent document to change the gluten free labelling to allow for the possibility of pure oats. In the meantime, our US products all have the GFCO logo on them whereas the Canadian products have it only on those items without oats. Our oats products (all granolas and granola bars) indicate a wheat/barley/rye free logo instead.

For more information, check out these links:
GFCO: http://www.gfco.org/about.php
Health Canada Oats Labelling Intent: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/consult/gluten2010/draft-ebauche-eng.php
Celiac Sprue Recognition Seal: http://www.csaceliacs.org/CSASealofRecognition.php
Canadian Celiac Association Certification Program: http://www.celiac.ca/certification.php

For those of you who have followed my blog for the last couple of years, you know that we’ve been no stranger to travel despite 6 food allergies in our family. We’ve been to the US, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, England and Costa Rica. We’ve flown, ferried, and even dugout canoed through canals in Costa Rica to get to our final destination (and yes, there were alligators!).

These travels have not been without their stresses and pre-planning is definitely key. The vast majority of our trips had us staying with very supportive family members and/or renting suites that had a kitchen so that we could do all of our own cooking.

The most difficult trips for planning are those that have us moving daily and trying to catch meals on the fly. If any of you have tried to get a safe meal in an airport, you know the frustration of not having your own food at your fingertips. Well, Megan (4 food allergies) and I are leaving on Friday morning at 5:30 am for her band trip down the coast of Washington, Oregon and California. It’s definitely a challenge given that we are in a different place each night until we reach Anaheim, where we have 3 nights with our own fridge and microwave.

Luckily, I have spent lots of time in Washington and Oregon of late plus we’ve had 2 previous trips to Disney (which has been fantastic for food allergies) and one to Universal Studios (which was not a helpful place for food allergies) plus my oldest daughter went on the same trip 2 years ago so I know what to expect. As a result, we have got a suitcase of granola bars, granola, trail mix, cookies, crackers, chocolates, soup and utensils. I’ve also got granola bars for all of the kids on the bus so that they can have a safe snack when necessary without resorting to items with Megan’s 4 allergies in them. This is one time it comes in handy to own an allergy friendly food company!

We’re also attending Medieval Times so I’ve called them and they’ve sent a menu with all of the ingredient lists so that we can specify how to change her menu. I’m also checking for the gluten in the meals so this might get quite interesting.

I would say that the most difficult times are when everybody else is eating dessert and we can’t or when the tour goes to a chocolate factory in San Francisco and we can’t have any of the chocolates and fudge that the other kids will be buying by the truckload. I try to mitigate that unfairness with a bunch of safe Easter chocolates I’ve found and packed into the suitcase but I’m the first to admit it’s just not the same. It’s certainly easier when we travel as a family since we all eat the same for everybody’s allergies but in a group, you can’t ask the other kids not to eat their dessert.

So wish us luck as I navigate the food allergy highway, particularly with a bunch of junior high school kids!

I learned something new today about probiotics that I thought was important to share, particularly with those who have milk or soy allergies.

Probiotics are the new wonder product in our society these days as science begins to address our gut health. Many scientists now recognize that what happens in our intestines affects all of our body functions and has a role to play in autoimmune disorders including Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes. Many health professionals recommend the use of probiotics, gut friendly bacteria that helps intestinal health, along with prebiotic heavy foods that feed the probiotics and keep them healthy (i.e. oats, soybeans and inulin).

The amount of natural foods products that contain probiotics has exploded, primarily in the yogurt category. But for those that can’t eat yogurt, taking the probiotics in capsule format has become very popular.

Unfortunately, probiotics need to grow in a protein rich culture which may be milk or soy based, a fact that I was not aware of until today. While most of that culture is removed when the probiotics are freeze dried, there is potential for trace amounts of that culture to remain, potentially causing anaphylaxis for those with milk and soy allergies.

Health Canada issued a recall of 2 products today that may have this issue (no one to date has had a reaction) but they also included an advisory as part of that recall that explains about the cultures used for manufacturing probiotics. This is rare for Health Canada and therefore should be shared with anybody you know with either milk or soy allergies.

To link directly to the recall/advisory, see this link: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/advisories-avis/_2011/2011_53-eng.php

I don’t want this blog to be a rant on other companies, truly. But I continue to see practices that you all need to be aware of out there while I’ve been traveling to various trade shows over the last month or so.

For example, at the biggest trade show, Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, “gluten free” was everywhere on booths and products. The funniest one was on chicken, yes, chicken. I realize that some chicken has seasoning added and so ingredients still must be looked at. But the kicker on the chicken is that they were frying it up in the booth for tasting, after dredging it in wheat flour!

I saw the same thing happen on a gluten free spread that was being offered on regular wheat bagels to sample. It wasn’t until a Celiac pointed it out to them that they realized that there was a problem with this practice. It’s kind of scary since they were attracting many of the attendees who were Celiac, not just because they were there as store buyers.

In some cases, when the person demoing a product is hired for the day, they don’t always know the ins and outs of special diets but in both of the above companies, the owner of the company was doing the demoing.

And that’s in addition to continued products I see that have a claim like “nut free” on the front with a disclaimer “made in a facility that processes tree nuts” on the back. To me, you can have one or the other, not both.

So for you, the consumer, all I can say is really check your items. Check your ingredients even if there is a “free from” message on the front, don’t assume that demos are safe, and contact companies if you have any questions. This really is a buyer beware situation where you have to take control.

It’s the time of year when my travel schedule gets incredibly crazy as I go to both business trade shows and consumer trade shows for gluten free and allergy friendly foods. It means that my blog posts have rather erratic timing but I certainly find much in my travels to blog about.

I spent last week in Portland and Seattle, first attending a college and university foodservice trade show followed by meetings up the coast of the Pacific Northwest. It’s such an amazing difference from even 5 years ago when I had to convince many why they needed “free from” food in their stores and foodservice environments. Now, so many people are up on the needs and I’ll write another post about the amazing service one university in California gives their allergic students.

One disturbing development though was when I went on store visits. That’s when I pop into various stores in the area, some that carry our products, some that do not, so that I can see what they’re doing in their stores for the “free from” market. If I find something new and wonderful, I’ll purchase it to bring to my family to enjoy.

On 3 separate store visits, I found 3 different products that had labeling that to me, as a consumer of allergy friendly food, was unacceptable. I’ve often found inappropriate labeling on small, local companies’ products which I can understand. While it’s still not okay, tiny companies often don’t have the experience on labeling nor the budget to hire a labeling consultant. But this time I also found major companies that had really misleading labels.

I won’t mention the exact companies as these concerns are about me as a purchaser of free from food, not as the manufacturer of a potentially competing company. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Major National Gluten Free Company:
Front of package: Nut Free
Back of package disclaimer: Made in a facility that also processes tree nuts

Small Local Company:
Front of package: No Wheat, No Soy, No Dairy
Back of package disclaimer: Produced in a facility that may process wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts, shellfish, and/or soy

See anything that concerns you here? From my perspective, if a manufacturer is going to make a front of package “free from” claim, they are being misleading if they also feel that they must put on a disclaimer. It’s either one or the other, not both, in my opinion.

I did talk to the buyers at the stores of the above products (2 different stores). One store buyer agreed that it was a concern but that they were having great difficulty sourcing products that were completely free of many allergens.

The store buyer at a different store figured the “nut free” on the major brand gluten free muffins was just fine because there were no nuts in the muffins. Obviously, cross contamination concerns were not on her radar and she didn’t show much interest in my concern as the parent of a child with life threatening nut allergies.

What do you think about this kind of labeling? Am I being overly picky?

I just finished posting this post on the Facebook Gluten Free and Allergy Friendly Discussion Group but if you are not linked into that group, you can check out the post here:

I was driving back home from Victoria yesterday morning and saw a billboard on one of our local restaurants that said, “Celiac Menu Now Available”. How do you trust a restaurant with your Celiac Disease?

Last year the owner of a local pizza company talked to me about how they had developed a gluten free pizza at their current pizza business and that they were going to start offering it. I asked her what steps they were taking to avoid cross contamination and how they were verifying that their ingredients and final product was gluten free. Unfortunately, she couldn’t answer. This was not because she was an uncaring business owner, far from it. She just didn’t have any personal experience with food allergies to know that offering a gluten free pizza was about more than developing a recipe.

So what do you need to feel comfortable with eating out safely? While having an owner/chef who has food allergies or Celiac disease themselves can make us feel more comfortable, we all know people with food allergies who cut corners, eat products that “may contain” the avoided food or cheat on their gluten free diet because they are asymptomatic. So is it enough to have a “with it” chef or do you want to see a written policy?

You can put in your two cents by commenting on this blog post or you can go to the Facebook page link and make your comments there. Get in on the discussion!

Last Sunday, Rob and I had a booth at the BC Foodservice Show in Vancouver and it was quite the whirlwind of a day. We started serving up our new granolas, new trail mixes and our best-selling vanilla caramel granola and we just didn’t stop putting out samples to try as our booth had a continuous stream of people – including those who went around the show and came back for more.

Not only was it great to see so many people enjoying our products and taking samples of granola bars home for family, friends and colleagues, it was truly overwhelming to see so many people who needed special diets. We lost count of how many people came to our booth who personally had peanut/nut allergies, not to mention Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. We do expect this response at consumer shows for food allergies but not at your average food industry show.

And for those who didn’t personally have food allergies/intolerances, very few needed any education about the need to offer specialty products to their clients. While some were not familiar with pure oats for a gluten free diet, all professionals who came to our booth had been receiving requests for meals and snacks that would meet the needs of various food allergies. We talked to deli owners, bakeries, ice cream producers, chefs, caterers, universities, schools and more.

What a difference from when we first started Nonuttin’ Foods and we had to explain why a peanut free granola bar was a necessity. While I still think we have a long way to go, it’s really nice to see that support groups, allergic people and allergic parents everywhere have begun to turn around a very slow moving industry. I look forward to the day when eating out with food allergies is a breeze.

The Allergic and Celiac communities in Canada have been in an uproar since November regarding our new food allergen and gluten source labeling laws that have been languishing for years. The laws began their journey in the 1990’s and by 2008, after pressure from allergy/Celiac groups, our government promised that we’d have definitive labelling laws in due course. In November, we began lobbying the Canadian government yet again as we were told that the laws were in jeopardy if they weren’t passed by December 31, 2010.

That date has come and gone yet our government says that the laws will be finalized shortly. We’ve been writing letters, signing petitions, contacting our MLA’s, meeting with the Health Minister and more to just get this done so we Canadians can have a law just like our American neighbors. Health Canada held countless roundtables and there were input periods for all manufacturers with the last one for comment on pure oats ending July 11, 2010.

Now, beer companies are lobbying to stop these upcoming laws on the premise that they will cause undue hardship to beer companies and that Celiacs all “know” that beer has gluten in it so why would beer and spirits need to be labelled?

I don’t know what’s in beer because I don’t drink it. Yet, somehow all allergic/Celiac individuals are supposed to innately know what’s in their spirits? And as one person suggested, what if I can’t drink something but my hostess doesn’t know that as she makes her special recipe with beer, liqueur, etc?

With years to weigh in with Health Canada during the consultation process and an 18 month phase in of any new labelling laws, the beer industry needs to give their head a shake and figure out that keeping people safe and healthy is really what’s in their best interest.

Want to know more? Here’s link on the story at CTV news: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20110125/food-allergens-beer-110125/

We’re very lucky that our government in Canada is supportive of small businesses and provides favorable loan programs for the purchase of machinery. Because of a loan through our local Community Futures office, we were able to purchase “Bertha” our packaging machine that puts the packaging around all of our granola bars (we name all of our machinery, including Fabio, our heat shrinker).

Because of that loan a few years ago, we were chosen to be showcased in a series of successful business videos put together by Community Futures BC. That video is now available for viewing on YouTube at: Nonuttin’ Foods on YouTube. Check it out to find out a little bit more about our family business.