1. CHEERIOS LAUNCH
RUNS INTO TROUBLE
GENERAL'MILLS'RECALLS i.8 MILLION'BOXES'
MADE AT CALIFORNIA PLANT
BYAMYRATNER
GENERAL MILLS' WIDELY promoted
launch of gluten-free Cheerios was quickly
marred by a nationwide October recall of 1.8
million boxes that actuallycontained gluten.
'Ihe mishap occurred while the cereal was
under scrutiny by suspiciousconsumers and in
the midst of a Food and DrugAdministration
(FDA) investigation of claims that the cereal
was making people with celiac disease sick.
Still General Mills remains committed to
gluten-free Cheerios, according to spokesman
Mike Siemienas. "We're in this for the long
haul," he said.
The voluntaryrecall affected Cheerios and
Honey Nut Cheerios produced at a Lodi,
California, plant over a two-week period in
July. The oat flour used to make the cereal
was accidentally loaded onto a truckcon-
taminated with wheat flour, according to
General Mills. The truck was used because
a rail line that normally transports the flour
to the processing plant was not working,
according to the company.
General Mills now faces a class action law-
suit filed in California by two consumers who
say they were misled by the gluten-freelabel
on boxes of cereal from the recalled lots. The
suit accuses the company of "deceptive, unfair
and false advertising."
Meanwhile FDA tests of 36 samples of
Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios produced
in plants across the United States found that
one box produced at the Lodi plant during
the time covered by the recall contained more
than twice the 20 parts per million allowed
limit in foods labeled gluten free. The other
samples met the FDA standard. The FDA
reported receiving 125 reports of adverse
events from and about consumers who ate
Cheerios labeled gluten-free, according to
an FDA spokesperson. Most noted gastro-
intestinal discomfort.
At the time of the recall, General Mills
apologized and said the company understood
it would have to rebuild badly damagedcon-
sumer trust. But some consumers never did
trust the gluten-free statusof the cereal,largely
because General Mills is not using so-called
"pure" oats. These oats, which were typically
the only kind found in gluten-free products
until about a year ago, are specially planted,
grown, harvested, transported and milled to
eliminate wheat,barley and rye that commonly
cross-contaminate oats.
MECHANICALLY PROCESSEDOATS
General Mills uses a mechanical system, which
a team worked on forfiveyears to develop, to
separate the gluten-containing grains from
the oats after they have reached the company's
Fridley Mill, near Minneapolis.
Under FDA gluten-freelabeling rules, oats
are considered a gluten-free grain andcom-
panies are not required to use "pure" oats or
mechanically or optically separated oats. A
product that contains oats and islabeled gluten
free onlyhas to meet the FDA's overallstandard
of less than 20 ppm.
Since the rules went into effect in August
2014, food companies have beenincreasingly
using mechanically and optically sorted oats
in gluten-free products in order to meet the
FDA standard. This includes Quaker Oats'
new gluten-free oatmeal and some Bob's Red
Mill products.
Additionally General Mills' method of
testing the finished cereal to determine if it
contains less than 20 ppm of gluten has been
challenged. Multiple boxes of the cereal are
combined before samples are drawn for test-
ing, raising questions about whether higher
amounts of gluten in some samples could
be diluted by lower amounts in others. But
independent testing has found samples meet
the FDA standard.
Although General Mills had maintained
that it was testing all the oats, the oat flour and
the cereal itself, the company admitted that
finished product testing, which would likely
have picked up the wheat-flourcontamination,
was not being done at the Lodi plant at the
time of the recall.
MORE TESTING
Since the recall, testing has been amped up
in several ways, according to Siemienas. "We
are testing finished products on every date
of production at each one of our production
facilities," he said. "We also continue to test
and assure that our oat supply—and our oat
flour—iscontinuing to meet the FDA gluten-
free standard."
General Mills is adding and certifying labo-
ratory testing capability across the country,
Siemienas said, adding that the company does
not intendto continue to conduct allthe neces-
sary testing at labs in Minneapolis. The com-
pany is working to add third-party labs to do
a portion of the finished product testing. "This
additional capacitywould increasethe amount
of testing we can conduct and where, but it
wouldn't add any fundamental capabilitieswe
did not already have in place," Siemienassaid.
Even as the recall was being announced,
General Mills said the oat flour was not the
source of the problem and had been tested
and found to be gluten free. "We weren't fully
prepared for what happened when we lost
rail service to one of our facilities and had
to offload oat flour into trucks for a time,"
Siemienas said. "Ourinvestigation pretty
quickly came to focus on one truck for which
we did not havea 'wash tag' certifying that the
truck was clean before we used it to transport
flour. It was human error, and it was also an
isolated incident."
General Mills has strengthened its flour
handling protocols and has tested and retested
cereal made at the Lodi plant.
Television ads for the gluten-free Cheerios,
which have run in spots as prominent as the
Grammys telecast,largelydisappearedafter the
recall as the company seemed to be seeking a
lower profile. Siemienas said new TV ads are
in the works and may appear soon. And the
original gluten-free Cheerios ad featuring Phil
Zietlow, the man behind development of the
cereal, might be used again at some point.
Siemienas downplayed the role the recall
had in advertising changes. "Refreshing and
rotating our advertising is something we do
all the time," he said.
Customers who contacted General Mills
about recalled boxes of Cheerios were ottered
a refund or a coupon and were sent a letter of
apology. Jim Murphy,senior vice president and
president of the cereal division, also publicly
apologized on the company's blog.
Efforts to engage with the gluten-free com-
munity have been occurring both online and
at gluten-free conferences and trade shows,
according to Siemienas. "We're certainlyhaving
frank and open conversations with gluten-
sensitive customers," he said.
SUPPORT GROUPS WEIGH IN
On social media some consumers say they
do not feel safe including Cheerios in their
gluten-free diet as a result of the recalls. Oth-
ers are more willing to give the cereal a sec-
ond chance. Several celiac disease support
groups issued statements regarding gluten-
free Cheerios after the recall, holdingGeneral
Mills responsible for making a mistake in
handling but leaving room for the companyto
make changes that would enable it to produce
a safe, gluten-free product.
"The General Mills recall isjust another
example of the challengescompanies face in
producing clean, safe gluten-free products,"
Alice Bast, president and chief executive of-
ficer of the National Foundation for Celiac
Awareness (NFCA), said in her statement.
18 Gluten-Free Living January/February 2016

2. "I urge General Mills and any other supplier
of gluten-free products to review, improve
and validate their testing methods. Our
community relies on this testing to stay
healthy. Without trustworthy gluten-free
claims, we cannot be safe, and we live in
constant fear."
Bast also advised consumers to avoid any
product from any company if they feel their
safety and health can be put at risk by eating it.
Marilyn Geller, CEO of the Celiac Disease
Foundation (CDF), said her group wasdeeply
disappointed by the recall after initial excite-
ment over the launch by General Mills,a CDF
partner for many years. "We fully understand
and appreciate that it is our responsibilityto
do everything in our power to hold General
Mills accountable to the celiac disease and
gluten-sensitive communities,"Geller said in
a statement.
She noted that the company had shared
information about its new oat flour handling
protocols and its testing procedures for fin-
ished products. "We expect General Mills
to implement these new controls fully and
continuously to earn back our community's
trust," she said.
The Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG), in a
statement byCEO CynthiaKupper, R.D.,called
General Mills, "a responsible and concerned
manufacturer when [the company] issued arecall
of Cheeriosmadein specifically identified plants."
"While thisisan unfortunate incident on the
heels of the Cheerioslaunch,and the mishap is
significant, GeneralMills representsa company
that is concerned and deserves to be given the
opportunity to have the gluten-free consumers'
support in this matter," Kupper said.
General Mills is considering independent
third-party certification of gluten-free Cheeri-
os, somethingthe companyhad originally said
it did not feel was necessary given its own test-
ing capability. "As we work to regain the trust
of the gluten-free community, we'll continue
to consider thisas an option," Siemienassaid.
Most third-party certification requires prod-
ucts to test to 10 ppm or less. When gluten-free
Cheerios were launched, General Mills said
it was adhering to the FDA's standard of less
than 20 ppm. The Gluten-Free Certification
Program, which isendorsed by NFCAand the
Canadian CeliacAssociation, does use the 20
ppm standard.
Cheerios, which previouslywere sold only
in the United States, are now also being test-
marketed in Canada, where rules regarding
the use of oats in gluten-free products recently
changed. (See story page 16)
Approximately 3,000 cases of gluten-free
Cheerios were recentlyshipped to the Cana-
dian marketplace to gauge consumer interest
there. Only clearly labeled gluten-free boxes
are made with processed oats; any others are
not gluten free.
QUAKER ROLLS OUT
GF OATMEAL
QUAKER OATS IN JANUARYwill launch
gluten-free oatmeal nationwide.
Gluten-free products include Quaker
Quick 1-Minute Oats and Quaker Instant
Oatmeal in Original and Maple & Brown
Sugar flavors. They are currently available
in some Kroger and Walmart supermarkets.
The oats are being opticallyand mechani-
cally sorted to remove gluten-containing
grains that commonly cross-contaminate
oat crops.
Use of optically and mechanically pro-
cessed oats has been controversial in the
gluten-free community, which previously
only accepted so-called "pure oats" as safe in
gluten-free products.Food and DrugAdmin-
istration labelingrules that went into effect
in August 2014 cleared the way for use of the
processed oats in foods labeled gluten free.
Lori Alexander,Quaker's manager of nutri-
tion sciencesand a registereddietitian who has
celiac disease, said the company's gluten-free
oats are sorted and separated from wheat,
barley and rye based on density, color and
length using a proprietarysorting protocol.
The effectiveness of the removal system
is backed up by multiple quality checks
throughout the milling process, through
finished product testing, according to the
company. Alexander said technology was
developed to look for grains that are not oats.
Quaker buys the oats for both its regular
and gluten-free oatmeal from the same farm-
ers. The oats are then segregated according to
the amount ofgluten cross-contaminationthat
remains. Those with the lowest amount then
gothroughthe mechanical and optical sorting
before being made into gluten-free oatmeal.
STARTS
GLUTEN FREE
100: Natural Whole Grain
QUICK 1-MINUTE
Alexander said Quaker has invested in
processing equipment that is "unrivaled in
the industry."
The company isworking to meet the FDA's
gluten-free labelingstandard of less than 20
parts per million of gluten, but the internal
cut off has been set at 12 ppm, according
to Alexander. The oatmeal does not have
third-party independent certification, but
Quaker is considering it.
Cleaned groats,which are the grain kernels
that remain after the inedible hull has been
removed, are inspected, with the equivalent
of 3,000 40-grams samples from each pro-
duction run examined to determine if any
remaining grains that may not be groats
are present. If any single sample does not
meet the company's standard, the entire lot
is rejected for use in gluten-free products
and is used in other Quaker products that
are not gluten free.
The oats are kilned, cut and flaked on
dedicated gluten-free equipment. Testing
of finished product is done on 16 serving-
size samples per lot, which equals no more
than 12hours of production. Composites of
samples are not used in the testing process.
All 16 of the samples must test at less than
12 ppm in order for the lot to pass and be
released into the market.
If any sample in the lot tests higher than
12 ppm, the entire lot is destroyed because
the finished product can't be repurposed,
Alexander said.
Thegluten-free oat products are packagedon
lines shared with gluten-containing quick and
instant oats. Cleaning protocolsare followed to
prevent cross-contamination.AllQuaker Oats
gluten-free productsare made atthecompany's
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, plant, which isthe largest
oat milling facility in the world.
Quaker considered using "pure" oats,
which are grown, transported and milled
in a specific way to prevent cross-contami-
nation but decided the oats would have to be
cleaned anyway, Alexandersaid, adding that
the increased cost of the "pure" oats was not
a decisivefactor. The company concluded the
oats did not offer the "quality, taste and tex-
ture" associated with Quaker oats, she said.
Offered as part of the Quaker Select Starts
line, the gluten-free oatmeal packaging in-
cludes the familiarlogo with the Quaker man.
Thegluten-free oatmeal ispricedslightly higher
than Quaker's other oatmeal products. GF
—Amy Ratner
www.glutenfreeliving.com 19