Do you eat Wellshire Farm's "gluten-free" products?
Did you read this article?
Children At Risk In Food Roulette
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I don't even know what to say. I noticed that on the Wellshire Farm's website they still label their Chicken Bites for kids as "gluten-free". Uh, if kids are already being hospitalized over these, what is it going to take before they do something about their mislabeled products? Oh, and just for kicks check out this page about their "quality control" complete with a thank you letter from a mom gushing about how she "doesn't have to worry" due to their allergen database.
I checked in with Sam Roe, the reporter at the Chicago Tribune that wrote the article, hoping to find out that Wellshire Farms had tried to redeem their company name in some way. Perhaps that is why I procrastinated when it came to publishing this. Roe told me that yesterday they claimed to have "posted something on their website", but nothing has been seen. The products that are tainted are still being sold at Whole Foods. I could only find the Chicken Bites on the website. Did they remove the Chicken Corn Dogs and Beef Corn Dogs? And if so, why those and not the Chicken Bites too?
Maybe there is a positive side to this story? Maybe the timing for this story to break was perfect. You see, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) just entered into its 2nd phase, so hopefully this scandal will help to prove how important proper labeling and accurate testing is for products labeled as gluten-free.
I'm going to choose to be mindful of all of the companies that I really do trust and that have a great long-standing reputation within our community. If anything, I think this article leaves me with even more appreciation for the companies that really live up to the responsibility to be honest when they say their products are gluten-free. Some people still have standards!
BTW- If you still are a little foggy about FALCPA, Nancy Lapin wrote an extensive and easy to understand article about it and what it entails on About.com.
Anything you'd like to say?
Would you like to email Wellshire Farms and explain to them why proper labeling is important to you? Here's their email:Info@WellshireFarms.com
At one time they did have a letter on their web page. I think its crappy they say its ‘hard’ to make gluten free products! I have been buying their nuggets for 2 years now to feed to my celiac sons and this whole thing make me mad. It’s hard enough to feed celiac kids… I don’t need to be lied to with packaging.
I ate the Wellshire GF corn dogs earlier this year, purchased at a Whole Foods sometime during the summer I think. I had no noticeable gluten reaction – impossible to know if they were tainted and I just didn’t have a reaction… I’m torn – it is extremely helpful as a GF consumer to have an ever increasing variety of convenience foods from which to choose. And the manufacturers are making significant extra effort to give us these choices. I fear the progress that has been made in recent years will quickly reverse as manufacturers become gun-shy to allergic consumers. But, the food needs to be safe for us…
I know what you mean, I have been so frustrated over this and as a result trashed all my Wellshire products and wont buy any of there products again becasue I mean how can I trust anything from them ever again? I won’t buy Rice dream products for the same reason, they claim there milk is GF when its not!
ps: I was at WF’s today and while I didn’t see the chicken bites or a space for them I did see the GF chicken corn dogs on the shelf.
I am so frustrated and yet really thankful you posted this. I have often reacted to the Wellshire GF products, sliced deli meats and turkey and chicken sausages. This type of misleading information keeps us from healing and wondering if something else is wrong. I am extremely cautious, this makes it so hard to feel safe in trusting companies. Thank you for keeping us updated and informed.
That sucks. What a horrible thing to do. What happened to batch testing and being 100% careful?! This is really scary as most people just trust the “gluten free” labeling as fact.
I can’t believe this! I finally found chicken bites that my son’s enjoyed, only to find out now that they are NOT gluten free. The kicker is I bought them directly through Wellshire farms on line and had to buy ten bags of them. I think I have two left in my freezer. This is just so discouraging.
It sucks that you can’t trust a product as labeled. Gluten hides in so many products, and it feels like that gluten free label stamped across the box should be a relief to read. But if that label doesn’t actually mean what it says, then it just makes the whole shopping experience even harder. I make a lot of my stuff from scratch, so that I know what I’m getting, but when I do reach for a box, I should be able to feel confident about my purchase.
Really? Do you recall when the letter was on their website? What did it say? I find it strange that they would not have communicated sooner with the reporter that defamed their name…and I also find it strange that they haven’t kept something up on their website. I’m so glad I followed up on this with the reporter.
They are going to have to do some serious damage control- they must not realize how large and connected our community is.
You can find a November 21 statement from Louis Colameco of Wellshire Farms preserved in my blog post of November 25. It deals mainly with Dino Bites.
I have no argument when it comes to writing to Wellshire Farms (which was found to be “mislabeling” its Lemon Herb Turkey Breast at least as far back as Spring 2006), but I think that supporting third-party certification and asking legislators and agencies for better regulation would also be important parts of the package if we want to see significant improvements.
There’s nothing like an FDA raid and confiscation of products to get manufacturers to be more scrupulous about their labeling claims.
Wellshire has a statement in regards to this issue on their website in the Eating Well section under gluten free.
They have responded to my concerns with the following statement:
Thank you for your feedback. In 2001 when the product was introduced, Wellshire complied to the strictest standard of Gluten Free at the time, which was products testing under 200PPM of gluten in the total weight of the product. All of our products are USDA approved. We had stopped production on these products in June of this year and are working with a new vendor to work toward the FDA proposed 20PPM of gluten in the total weight of the product to be labeled Gluten Free. Gluten tolerance varies for each individual consumer, but research shows that under 20PPM can be tolerated in most cases. The reformulated products will be available in stores after the New Year.
We are working with our vendors to help educate consumers on Gluten Free – not only how it is defined but how we are preventing in the plants cross contamination, and also the testing procedures that both the supplier and producer are taking to keep these products under 20PPM of gluten. We will post this in conjunction with releasing the reformulated products back in stores.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me. You can also view our official response to this issue posted on our website, http://www.wellshirefarms.com in the Eating Well section under Gluten Free.