PepsiCo scientists recently published a second article in the scientific peer-reviewed literature on the difficulties associated with testing oats for gluten contamination. This article entitled “Kernel-based gluten contamination of gluten-free oatmeal complicates gluten assessment as it causes binary-like test outcomes” compliments their first article entitled, “Gluten-containing grains skew gluten assessment in oats due to sample grind non-homogeneity.”

Bottom Line. Based on the findings of the research by scientists from PepsiCo, Gluten Free Watchdog calls on ALL suppliers and manufacturers of gluten-free oats whether purity protocol or mechanically/optically sorted, and their certifying bodies to reevaluate their testing methodology and requirements for certification, respectively.

Recommendation. The situation with oats continues to evolve. As mentioned above, Gluten Free Watchdog’s position statement on oats will be updated in the near future. In the meantime, my advice is:

Choose your oat products based on your comfort level with regard to the level of information provided to you by manufacturers. You may want to consider the following:

Does the manufacturer disclose whether they use purity protocol or sorted oats?

Do they disclose their testing protocols?

Do they disclose the assay they use to test oats for gluten contamination?

If a manufacturer refuses to answer any of these questions or responds by saying the information is proprietary, the advice of Gluten Free Watchdog is to move on to another company.

Read More: http://bit.ly/2iePfrv
Quaker's first article on oat testing: http://bit.ly/2hX1JpU

“Oats require special care to ensure that they are safely free from gluten. Bob’s Red Mill only sources from oat suppliers who are committed to practices for eliminating the presence of gluten. Our suppliers are innovative in controlling the presence of gluten by either avoiding crop rotation with gluten containing grains or using optical sorting technology to remove grain containing gluten. Regardless of our suppliers’ chosen methods for meeting our gluten free specification, we require that each lot is tested and confirmed gluten free before authorization for shipment to Bob’s Red Mill. To ensure that they stay just as gluten free as the day their seedlings sprouted from the earth, we test each batch in our quality control laboratory when they arrive from the farm, during production and once again after they are packaged in our dedicated gluten free facility.”

“Cream Hill Estates sources our gluten-free oats from a mill that successfully uses extensive mechanical and optical sorting to minimize the likelihood of gluten cross-contamination in their products.

The mill uses both select commodity and purity protocol oats and does frequent sampling throughout the process from arrival of the oats at the mill to finished product, and we are satisfied that cleaning, sorting, sampling and testing at the mill produce gluten-content results that are well within acceptable limits for celiac disease (CD) and wheat sensitive consumers, including CD members in our own family.

The mill provides us with test results for each lot number, an 1,800 pound tote bag, and we also do random independent third-party gluten testing of representative samples obtained by us from those totes.

Test results from the mill and from third-party testing are always less than 10 parts per million (ppm) of gluten with the vast majority being less than 5ppm using S-ELISA and R5-ELISA test methodologies.

Our products are certified gluten-free by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO).

Our dedicated gluten-free manufacturing and packaging facility in Montreal is also free from any of the top 8 food allergens identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the 10 priority food allergens identified by Health Canada.

As a finished food supplier to consumers and an ingredient supplier to manufacturers, we guarantee the purity of our products.”

Quaker Gluten-Free Oatmeal
Quaker uses traditionally grown oats that have been mechanically and optically sorted to be gluten-free.

Finished product testing (as reported to Gluten Free Watchdog and confirmed July, 2016)

16 pouches or tubes are pulled during a production run (approximately 1 pouch or tube every 1⁄2 hour).

Note: Approximately 400,000 single serving pouches are produced during a lot run; 50,000 tubes are produced during a lot run.

A 40-gram sample is taken from each pouch or tube.

The sample is homogenized.

Two extractions are taken from the homogenized sample and tested using the Ridascreen Gliadin R5 ELISA (R7001) Mendez Method.

If any single extraction from any of the 16 pouches or tubes is above 12 ppm gluten the entire lot is discarded.

Since beginning commercial runs, three early runs were above 12 ppm gluten and these lots were destroyed. Since taking corrective action, 25 additional lots have been run. All but one extraction from finished product gluten-free oatmeal tested below 5 ppm gluten; one extraction tested just above the lower limit of quantification of 5 ppm gluten (6 ppm).

UPDATE Jan 20, 2016: In email correspondence, Quaker writes, “we have continued to implement the testing protocol we shared with you for finished product. Out of our last 50 lots produced, we have had one lot test above 12 ppm; as a result, that entire lot of finished product was destroyed. All other lots produced met or exceeded our standards and were released into market.”

"Planting of 2016 crop tentatively on hold

Not all gluten-free oats are created equally.

It’s a reality that has roiled the marketplace for a Powell company, Gluten Free Oats, and its GF Harvest branded oats products.

The Powell business, now in its 12th year, was founded with the sole purpose of providing gluten-free oats products for the percentage of the population that suffers from celiac disease. The mission is personal for Seaton Smith and his son Forrest Smith, who is credited with the vision for the gluten-free oats start-up as a high school FFA entrepreneurial project.