Hunter's Lyonesse

07/10/2024

Gluten Free Watchdog, LLC posted the new process to fill a gf food complaint with the FDA. Please read and update any information you've saved.

On October 1, 2024, the Food and Drug Administration updated the way in which consumers must go about reporting food-related issues to the agency. You will no longer contact an FDA consumer complaint coordinator. Reports should now be filed with the Human Foods Program either by phone or through the...

07/10/2024

How to file a gluten-free food complaint with the FDA starting October 1, 2024: The process has changed

On October 1, 2024, the Food and Drug Administration updated the way in which consumers must go about reporting food-related issues to the agency. You will no longer contact an FDA consumer complaint coordinator. Reports should now be filed with the Human Foods Program either by phone or through the online safety reporting portal:

Phone 1-888-723-3366
Online safety reporting portal https://www.safetyreporting.hhs.gov/SRP2/en/Home.aspx?sid=688fce1c-79e8-4f07-9c30-376eeea453dd.
The Human Foods Program will assess and evaluate complaints. The new Office of Inspections and Investigations will follow up with manufacturers as needed.

Before filing a complaint, be prepared to describe the labeling issue, and provide:

product details
ingredient information
manufacturer contact information
product lot number and expiration date
Please also take photos to upload that show the ingredients list and gluten-free claim. Do not use product photos available online.

According to the email sent out by the FDA, “This streamlined process will expedite delivery of inquiries and complaints to the appropriate public health experts at the FDA and allow for more consistent processing and earlier detection of potential public health problems.”

This is a step in the right direction. We won’t be holding our breath that issues with gluten-free foods will be investigated with increased urgency, but hope springs eternal.

For more information, please see https://www.fda.gov/food/resources-you-food/industry-and-consumer-assistance-hfp?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

27/11/2023

"The purpose of the present study was to assess the levels of gluten in foods containing oats to determine if there were any trends. In this retrospective database analysis, GFWD product test reports from April 2011 to May 1, 2023 were searched using the term “oat.” The search identified 213 individual packages of food that contained the word “oat” in the ingredients list. The test results for these packages of food were reviewed. Of these, 24 (11%) tested with quantifiable gluten greater than or equal to 5 mg/kg (ppm). The percentage of oats testing with quantifiable gluten varied per year but spiked in 2022 at 35%. It is not possible to know for certain what caused this increase. The drought during the oat growing season of 2021 could be a major factor. This drought impacted oat crops in both the US and Canada and led to one of the worst oat crops going back over 150 years. One limitation of this study is that it was a retrospective analysis. Different numbers of oat products were tested each year and these were often different brands of oats and different oat formulations. To assess the level of gluten cross contact in oats going forward a much larger prospective study should be conducted."

Tricia includes a link after the abstract to the full study that is free to read.

Our article, Gluten cross contact in oats: Retrospective database analysis 2011 to 2023 was recently published in Frontiers Nutrition in the special research topic, Recent Breakthrough in Gluten Contamination, Volume II. Are you interested in a brief overview? Abstract It is long-established that oa...

10/04/2023

If you haven't seen Gluten Free Watchdog, LLC post last week on gluten-free oats, Tricia posted on it again today.

Please read through thoroughly and ask questions if you have any. Pass it on to anyone else you know may need the information.

While "you need to decide for yourself" has long taken over when it comes to gf foods, especially once sorted oats came on the scene, I think it's unethical of me to repeat that for those of us who need to be gf. All scientific evidence points to even purity protocol oats being unsafe for us right now and no one should be consuming gf oats if they must be gf.

Last week Gluten Free Watchdog issued an updated statement on oats. As a reminder it reads: “In early January of 2022, Gluten Free Watchdog issued a statement warning the community about supply chain issues with oats. At Gluten Free Watchdog we have seen an increase in oats testing with quantifiab...

05/01/2023

"In the latter half of 2022, four labeled gluten-free oat products from three manufacturers commissioned for testing by Gluten Free Watchdog had gluten test results above 20 parts per million. Three of the four products were certified gluten-free at the time of testing. These results are unprecedented for GFWD."

In the latter half of 2022, four labeled gluten-free oat products from three manufacturers commissioned for testing by Gluten Free Watchdog had gluten test results above 20 parts per million. Three of the four products were certified gluten-free at the time of testing. These results are unprecedente...