Glenn Oster, of Glenn Oster Consulting, LLC, recently shared this insight into the murky world of gluten-free certification:

“Recently while assisting a new baking facility that will be Gluten-Free Dedicated our team was assisting on vetting new suppliers.

One of the key requirements (obviously) was that Gluten-Controls must be fully documented and implemented in the supplier facility.

Now, we contacted about 150 suppliers of which 100 said their ingredients were Gluten-Free [and] after asking about gluten-controls we found that of the 100 only 5 could actually back-up what they said and only 2 were willing to show us their documented systems and testing results.

150 called, 100 advertise they are gluten-free, only 5 could back-up the statement and only 2 were put onto the bakery vetted list subject to sample testing.”

We couldn’t agree more with Mr. Oster, that companies that claim to be gluten-free (or organic, or fair trade, …) need to be able to back up those claims with hard data.

The modern consumer expects transparency in food practices, be it GMO-labeling or certifying that a food is gluten-free.

Time to step up your game, food manufacturers. Customer loyalty depends on it.

via Gluten-Free Claims by Suppliers of Ingredients | LinkedIn.

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