Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour Gets Recalled for Having Too Much Gluten

This makes me uncomfortable.

Damn it! I just posted on your fb page yesterday, desperate to figure out why my son’s lab test came back over twice the recommended range. We use this exact flour a lot, as well as other Bob’s flours. I’m getting rid of all Bob’s products from my house. I’m interested to see if my son’s next test comes back with better results. I am so beyond frustrated – the new labeling law won’t even matter if we still can’t trust the “certified gluten free” companies.

Thanks for the heads up, Dude.

This is why we need to push for no gluten species and dedicated facilities as a part of regulation. Since GFCO is lame now and the FDA regulations will be lame, I’ve been going 100% dedicated ONLY, even when I go out.

FYI -Bob doesn’t own Bob’s Red Mill anymore he gave it to his employees in 2010. Is he still involved? When I have talked to employees after it was sold the answer was NO.
What is surprising is if you say it is a GF facility then you expect the PPM to be 0 or at least less then 5. Rather disappointing

Well that explains why I react to GF baking.. I made my own flour mix using Bob’s flours.. all stated gluten free on the label but I still had a reaction.. (the sourghum flour was one of them)..

I am ready to give up baking all together,,, it never crossed my mind that there maybe gluten in the gluten free flour.. I just trusted the Bob’s brand… hmmm thanks gluten dude

Like many others here, I stopped using Bob’s products because they made me so sick. Even if I don’t have a reaction, I don’t want to use a product that has gluten in it. I’ve decided to start only using 100 percent guaranteed GF-free products and see how I feel. Thank you for sharing this info.

The single word bouncing around in my head right now is:

Shit.

Am I allowed to say that here?

Here’s the thing. While I’m not in the poverty camp, we’re not rich, either. I’m trying very hard to cut the grocery bill. And you know what’s the most expensive thing? Eating healthy. Eating gluten-free. So I fgured I should learn to make my own. I bought Annalise Roberts’ book after attending her class at the Expo. She seems to recommend Authentic Foods but only because they do a superfine grind. Sadly, their stuff is a little bit more expensive. It’s cheaper though to buy the individual flours and make my own blend, than buy the pre-blend from them. But as I was meticulously researching the best prices, for the flours and starches I could get away with purchasing from someplace other than Authentic, Bob’s was always the best price.
Can I trust them now with anything? Starches? Xanthan gum? I’m seriously worried, especially hearing how others react. I don’t know if I have Celiac but I do know I’m extremely sensitive.

I’m at a loss right now. I just don’t know what to do or think.

“I’m not quite sure why your social media manager is handling such a delicate situation but who am I to say.”

Kudos to Cassidy Stockton. She stuck her head out.
A company that’s collectively owned by employees usually lacks the one person willing to accept responsibility when things go south.

Okay. This time I think you are being too harsh.

First, who is to say the Canadian people did not lie about what they found. They could have tested it and found it just fine and lied about it. People seem bent on destroying people lately. And I think that they do so by lying. It could have been a disgruntled Canadian employee.

Why would I suggest this? Because the Bob’s Red Mill has a dedicated facility for their product that are gluten free. Yes, I am sure things can happen to what they use before it gets to their processing facility. But if each time they did there test, and they kept records of those test too, it tested well below the 20ppm.

I would also be questioning the employee at Bob’s Red Mill. Perhaps they are a disgruntled employee and lied about things. Maybe they are a “wheat” company that got one of their own hired out to discredited this company happen. We live in a very bent world right now. People are doing mean things lately.

All I am saying, it seems really mean on your part to go after a company who is trust worthy in this sort of way.

I understand your getting upset cause you did not hear about it. But would you want the rest of the world know about a problem you had. NO! And especially if they look back at their information about this batch and find out that everything was okay on their end. They don’t just test a bag of stuff. They are testing all throughout the process.

Maybe you need to see some anger management therapist!

Pick a better, meaner person to come down so harshly on.

I would love to know what they accept then when they protest and allow into their facility. If they usually test at 5ppm and somehow there was a batch in Canada that tested above 30. How does this happen if they pretest?

I am skeptical of most flours now. I do use Bob’s Red Mill, but sparingly now as I do with most flours now.

My trust is just going period.

As for restaurants? I trust very few – my lunchbox is becoming very loved… Like the Velveteen Rabbit. If not for Celiacs – gluten free menus are just a Joke.

I get sick whenever I use Bob’s flour mixes – I don’t trust them.

http://blog.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free/voluntary-withdrawal-gluten-free-sweet-white-sorghum-flour/

Rick’s comments make perfect sense to me and I think Bob’s Red Mill management would hardly lie about how they produce GF products.

Sorry, but I cannot jump on the “blame wagon” because I know there is enough room for error when testing samples. I live with a chemist who worked in labs or over 30 years. Collecting a representative sample is difficult, and it does not matter how good the lab analysis is if the sample isn’t representative of the whole. Why not investigate the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well?

The BRM rep said: “When the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported its findings, Bob’s Red Mill was very surprised and immediately had samples from the same lot tested both internally and by an accredited 3rd party laboratory. Both tests showed the product to be below 20 parts per million”

It was a VOLUNTARY recall, even though they did not find the result to be over 20 ppm.
Why would they lie and risk litigation? They wouldn’t!!!!!!!.

And I often I wonder how many celiacs actually know what 20 ppms means and why that threshold is considered safe by leading celiac specialists? If you don’t. please read about it..

I am not saying I doubt when people say “they did not feel well” after eating something they made with a BRM product. But realistically, many celiacs have ADDITIONAL FOOD SENSITIVITIES and are unable to digest oats ( which is why some docs suggest cutting them out the first 2 years after DX) , so it is possible that those are causing an adverse reaction. Many of you who posted “BRM made me sick” on here have also have admitted you have other food intolerances, right? Or live with gluten eaters? or are newly diagnosed? or have other AI diseases? …..so, you have to weigh all the factors

For example, I have eaten products from other certified GF companies and not felt well afterwards, but I recognize that I have issues with eggs, soy and food additives, so I would not rush to blame it on “trace gluten” every time.

I use Bob’s Red Mill products (GF oats and GF flaxseed meal) and just had an endoscopy with biopsy and colonoscopy. My GI doc was looking to see if the disease is in remission and to rule out lymphoma. etc.

The doc’s report and pathology reports noted some scarring in the intestinal walls (from long undiagnosed celiac) but healthy villi. It’s been nearly 3 years for me GF.

One gov”t agency’s random sampling (and I have no idea how it was handled or how it was tested, so I will not rush to judgement) does not make me believe that BRM is doing “something wrong”, hiding anything, causing celiacs to be sick on purpose or cutting corners on avoiding cross-contamination.

Just not buying it, sorry.

I’m not sure what sort of logistical challenge this would pose in getting the info out there in a timely fashion, but I think it would be great if GF food suppliers could disclose on their websites the results of their gluten testing — the actual inspection documents for each production lot number, preferably from accredited 3rd party inspections. I’ve only been forced by celiac into the GF lifestyle for a few months now so I’m not really aware if any companies already follow this sort of practice.

Better yet, put a code on the product label itself, so you can scan it with your smartphone, type in the lot number if needed, and check the report right there in the store. If they can offer the consumer this level of confidence, this level of transparency, then the bar will be raised mightily.

Maybe I’m dreaming that this will ever come to fruition, but it’s a great dream, huh?

I have read your post and called Bob’s Red Mill. I have the perspective as a person that runs a good business. Unless you are a farmer, you rely in good producers to send you food that is not tainted. Food goes through many steps with transpiration, handling and packaging and this is all done by human beings who can make mistakes. The product was sent to Canada so no FDA release is required. Bob’s also had to product tested by a third party lab with a much lower result.

I truly understand the seriousness of Celiac Disease but the food industry is a risky business with milk, eggs, human hands, refrigeration, etc. somewhere down the line things are bound to go wrong. I test regularly in order to provide another layer of protection. The question should be to Bob’s – how can we make this better? I say you should set up a journalistic interview or ask for an official release. For those people who will no longer buy Bob’s, don’t think that other producers are immune to this happening to them. I believe that Bob’s truly wants to make this right and we should give them that opportunity. I don’t want to see a company marred by something that they are truly trying to fix and avoid going forward.

Gluten dude
You are doing a great job of monitoring companies for gluten free or reduced products for accuracy.

Your criticism of Bob’s gluten free flour product is the article I read and I am wondering if the Canadian food agency is using the same test method as Bob’s Red Mill, or how clean is the food agency methods in performing the test. The other concern I have is influence or contamination from corporate wheat supplies whether intentional or accidental.
It seems strange to me that the agency presumably did one test at the 32 ppm and Bob’s Red Mill performed several tests of the same batch and came up with the same maximum 20ppm results as before. What is the Canadian food agency’s track record in terms of accuracy of food testing results, contamination etc?

It appears the 32ppm count is a standard recognized as a gluten free level below this figure. Bob has set his standard at 20ppm well below the 32ppm no doubt to allow for a margin of error.

Your suggestion that Bob’s Red Mill lower his ppm standard to 3 may have cost implications and possibly other manufacturing problems that may affect the quality and cost.

Just an observation.

I just came across this article on celiacdisease.about.com (link at bottom) that shows how easily some nominally GF grains are doomed for cross-contamination before they even leave the farm. I wonder if this was a factor in the BRM recall? The author says she once got glutened just from driving past a wheat field during harvest.

This certainly underscores that even the most exacting of companies/bakeries who are trying their damnedest to do GF right can be up against difficult circumstances in sourcing safe suppliers. Jennifer Esposito all but said as much herself in the early part of this very comment thread.

If you’re already this badly behind the 8-ball from the get-go, then your chances of failure escalate, especially if your facility also processes gluten-bearing grains. I saw some buckwheat flour at my local grocer the other day; it came from a shared facility and was disclaimed as having up to 60ppm gluten: not good enough.

Wheat Harvest Time Shows How Gluten Cross-Contamination Occurs:
http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2013/07/09/wheat-harvest-time-shows-how-gluten-cross-contamination-occurs.htm

I just came across an article from Allergic Living that could be relevant to this September 2013 recall of Bob’s Red Mill product.

http://allergicliving.com/2015/04/30/cumin-recalls-continue-in-canada/

It seems in March of this year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the same authority whose testing indicated undeclared gluten in BRM product, also determined that some cumin spice products — over two dozen of them — contained undeclared almond, and a recall was issued.

In April however, the CFIA reported after further testing that the original test results were false positives, and so the original recall was rescinded.

The second round of testing indicated that the false positive arose from cross-reactivity with a spice that comes from a certain type of cherry seeds, i.e., that the false positive originated from the presence of this other spice in the originally tested samples.

The CFIA’s report on this recall rescindment is here:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2015-04-30/eng/1430432363404/1430432364107

Which brings us back to Bob’s Red Mill and their flour recall.

Is it possible the CFIA erred in their testing of BRM’s product, that the undeclared gluten was also a false positive?

*shrug* I don’t know and I’m not really taking sides even with these latest revelations. I don’t recollect any follow-up CFIA announcement rescinding the BRM recall, as there was for the cumin products. Maybe their re-testing policies were different two years ago? I’m not sure. But it does seem to cast a small shred of doubt on the matter, that even a highly-trusted organisation like the CFIA can make a mistake from time to time. The matter of gluten cross-reactors came up elsewhere in these comments. All I can say is, if in doubt, don’t ingest it.