Tag Archives: Celiac Awareness

Drew's All Natural

Is Drew’s All-Natural Organic Salad Dressing and Salsa Gluten Free

I recently purchased a bottle of Drew’s All natural Smoked Tomato Dressing and Marinade at my local Ollie’s. The bottle was labeled gluten free. hen I went to use it I noticed that it had a disclaimer stating that the dressing is made on shared equipment with many known allergens including wheat. I am super careful with what I eat and avoid anything processed in a facility or manufactured on equipment shared with wheat. This dressing looked exceptionally tasty so I decided to email Drew’s and ask about there processes and the possibility of cross contamination. Here is my email to Drew’s and the response that followed.

“Hi,

I was about to use your Drew’s Smoked Tomato Dressing and Quick Marinade. I see that it is labeled gluten free, but it states that it is made on shared equipment with wheat. Is there a possibility of cross contamination from the wheat? If so how is it labeled gluten free? I would like to use it on my chicken tonight, but am celiac and do not want to get sick.

Thank you,

Laurie”

Drew responded within the hour which was quite impressive.

“Dear Laurie,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us regarding our Smoked Tomato Salad Dressing.

At Drew’s, we take our responsibility of eliminating the risk of allergen cross-contamination and ensuring the safety of consumers very seriously.  Drew’s has implemented a number of comprehensive standard operating procedures for the handling of known allergens, including but not limited to:  employee training, separate storage areas for allergen products, and an allergen cleaning/sanitation cycle of all equipment between production batches.  Following the allergen clean, we test for the presence of allergens (soy, gluten, milk, coconut or egg) prior to the next production run.  This ensures the cleanliness of our production equipment and the absence of known allergens.  As an added precaution, we schedule our allergen items for production on separate days or at the end of the day whenever possible.

In addition, our facility is SQF (Safe Quality Food) Certified and items which are labeled as Gluten Free have been certified to be in compliance by the GFCO (Gluten Free Certification Organization – http://www.gfco.org/).  Both of these certifications require very strict adherence to our aforementioned allergen control procedures.  Audits and inspections are performed by the certifying agencies to verify our system’s effectiveness.

We appreciate your taking the time to write us – please rest assured that we share your concerns and have taken the appropriate steps to keep our consumers safe as they enjoy our delicious Drew’s All-Natural and Organic Salad Dressings and Salsas.

Should you have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting our office.”

I was glad for the quick response but decided to give the product to Alan’s mom and go with something that I knew was without a doubt safe.

I know many people have different severities of gluten intolerance and different levels of comfort with gluten free products in general. I tend to be on the strict side but am really interested in how the rest of the gluten free community feels on the subject.

My question to you all is whether you eat products with statements of processed in a facility that contains wheat, or made on equipment shared with wheat, ect.  Please let me know how you feel on the subject in the comments section below.

Coconut Flour Mug Cake Showdown Comparison

The Ultimate Coconut Flour Guide: Which Coconut Flour Is Best For Baking? 7 Coconut Flours Compared

I love coconut flour. I bake with it as often as I can and eat it at least once every day. Some people would call me obsessed. Low calorie, high protein, low carb, high fiber, this flour has amazing benefits! What’s not to love? I have tried my fair share of coconut flour recipes from other food bloggers. Most worked out fantastically, but some flopped. After reading a bajillion comments on those recipes the common consensus was that the brand of flour may be the reason for the recipe failure. Coconut flour absorbs a ton of water. Coconut flours differ in how finely they are ground and how much fat they contain as well. I really wanted to figure out which flours worked best and why. Continue reading

Tosh.0 Makes Fun of Celiacs, Users Wish Death on People With Allergies

Alan reads Tosh daily. I can’t stand the guy and think he is unfunny and mostly meanspirited. Alan showed me a Tosh today about glutenfreesingles.com. It pokes fun at gluten free eaters. The comments, which Tosh’s blogs are famous for, are horribly mean. Chris Kieth’s comments made me extremely angry. Anyone who thinks that opening up a gluten free restaurant and feeding gluten filled foods to celiacs is funny is a very sick minded individual. Gluten free is not a fad diet. Bloggers like Tosh are further putting the idea that gluten free is a fad into the mainstream school of thought. I am livid and can not string my words together properly at this point so today I am handing over this post to Alan the gluten free boyfriend. Here is what he has to say on the subject. Continue reading

Athena Greek Yogurt Bar

Athena Greek Yogurt Bars Removing Gluten Free Label

Four days ago I wrote a post titled Celiac Alert: Sprouted Wheat in Athena Gluten Free Greek Yogurt Bars. Since then it has gotten many hits and shown up on reddit. This post got many people talking about these bars and their ingredients. Many said they were going to or had emailed the company for more information on the gluten free labeling. Continue reading

May 2013 Celiac Awareness Banner

Celiac Awareness: Comfort Food in Surprising Places

May is a month of new growth and new beginnings. Temperatures turn balmy and flowers come into bloom. May also happens to be the month dedicated to spreading Celiac awareness. Awareness is spread in many ways. Some do it boldly through rallies and politics. We hear about those fairly often. Today I would like to focus on those who spread awareness through food. After all,  reading food blogs is what ultimately inspired me to write this one. Continue reading

May 2013 Celiac Awareness Banner

Free Facebook and Social Banners for Celiac Awareness Month

The My Gluten Free Girlfriend Facebook page is sporting a shiny new cover photo for the May 2013 Celiac Awareness Month. The banners were created by our own Laurie Clark!

We decided to make them available in a couple of colors and you can feel free to grab them for use on your own social pages.

Continue reading