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Update: YAY!! They are finally here!! I found them at Costco even!! My kids went through 3 Costco boxes in 3 days and 3 half gallons of milk too!! …hmmm, maybe not such a good thing! 😉
I almost cried when I saw this! I love Cheerios, my kids love Cheerios, whenever we have guests they want to eat Cheerios…it sounds like soon we will be able to have them in our house again! Here is what I found from imaceliac.com about Gluten Free Cheerios:
Are the Gluten Free Cheerios Safe
- MAY 8, 2015
- CELIAC DISEASE, CHEX CEREAL, GLUTEN FREE, GLUTEN FREE CEREAL,GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS
In February 2015 Cheerios came out with a press release stating they were making certain flavors of Cheerios Gluten Free by using a “proprietary process” to clean the oats so they meet the FDA requirements
of 20PPM or less. When I read the press release I was more than a little skeptical. When a marketing team from General Mills emailed me, I asked tons of questions and was still skeptical. Then I went to General Mill to see how they are making the oats safe and my view changed.
I tend to be a “I don’t believe it till I see it” kind of person. Unless someone I trust provides me with the information I want see it for myself.
For some completely unknown reason to me on Tuesday May 5, 2015 I had the opportunity to sit in a day long forum with 2 other Gluten Free bloggers, 1 Gluten Free magazine editor and 2 registered dietitians at General Mills headquarters in Minnesota. Also in the room were Jim Murphy the President of Big G Cereals, Chad Hollowaty the Project Manager for Gluten Free Cheerios, the marketing team, the PR team, the R&D team, the testing team, the mill team, and Phil Zietlow who started the whole Gluten Free Cheerios process 5 1/2 years ago.
Chad and Phil
Let me pause right now – I WAS NOT PAID TO BE THERE AND I’M NOT BEING PAID BY GENERAL MILLS TO TALK ABOUT THE CHEERIOS. I am sharing with you what I saw, my experience and my opinion. Feel free to use your own judgement on the Cheerios. I gain nothing either way.
So now that is clear let’s move on.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Why would a multi-billion dollar corporation care about making their top cereal brands Gluten Free?
The answer is Joyce. You see Joyce is Phil Zietlow’s daughter-in-law and she is Gluten Sensitive. Five and a half years ago Phil learned Joyce could not eat Cheerios without getting sick. As a side note Phil is the THE PERSON who invented Honey Nut Cheerios. Phil grabbed a few people from the mill and R&D to figure out how to make Cheerios Gluten Free. Phil and his team spent ten’s of millions of dollars to figure out a way to make the Cheerios safe for Joyce. Once the team created Gluten Free Cheerios Joyce got one of the first boxes and so did Lyle, a Celiac, who works in the mill on the project.
Why did it take 5 1/2 years to make the oats test below the FDA standard?
Take the test below, can you spot the different grains in this photo?
Don’t cheat
Keep looking…
Ok here is the answer
To put this in perspective 1 lb of oats equals 1 box of cereal or 15,000 pieces of oats. Industry standard for oats is to have 2% of something else in them. If you aren’t Gluten Free having barley, rye, or wheat mixed in the oats isn’t a problem, but if you are GF that 2% will make you sick. Now to meet the FDA 20ppm standard you can only have…. ONE non-oat grain in amongst the 15,000 pieces. That’s right only 1!
The goal for this project was to make Cheerios a safe product for someone with Celiac Disease to consume. They were not willing to release the product until they were 100% sure it was safe and that they could consistently make it safe.
Gluten Free Testing
General Mills’ goal is to only have half of a non-oat grain in that pound and they are repeatedly meeting that standard, ie 9-12ppm. If you doubt this, I met Steve House who works for Medallian Labs who runs all the tests. He has a team working 24 hours a day to keep up with the testing. I saw the lab, I saw the tests, and I saw the team. They are using the R5 Elisa test which is the industry standard. They test the oats throughout the entire process to ensure they are meeting their internal ppm goal, half of a non-oat grain per pound.
The nuts and bolt of this is: multiple samples are taken of the oats when they arrive at the mill, they are tested. The oats are cleaned/sorted, multiple samples are taken and tested. At this point none of the oats proceed unless they meet the standards. Once that batch passes, it is sorted again and tested again. If it passes the oats move over to the grinding mill. The oats are ground into flour, multiple samples are taken and tested. If approved they are released to the cereal plant and made into Cheerios. Every hour a box is pulled from the line, multiple samples are taken and tested.
Fridley Mill
When they say “cleaned and sorted” no water or chemicals of any sort are used. The cleaning and sorting is all done mechanically in a brand new building at Fridley Mill. We were the first group of non-General Mills employees to tour the building EVER. We climbed from the 8th floor down to the 1st floor of the cleaning house. I saw the machines, I saw the oats, I saw the non-oats being removed, and I saw the finished oats.
Oh and I looked like this while I did it:
Now let’s address your questions:
1. Are they using certified Gluten Free oats – No, there are not enough certified GF oats in the world. If General Mills did use certified oats the entire supply of ALL certified GF oats would be used up in a week. This is why their process of sorting and cleaning is necessary.
2. Are they using a dedicated Gluten Free facility? – Yes. The cleaning house is a dedicated facility, the grinding mill is dedicated, the train cars are dedicated, the cereal plant is dedicated and the packaging is dedicated.
3. What about GMO’s? – Yellow Box Cheerios is already non-GMO and will remain that way. The other flavors do contain GMO’s. The oats are non-GMO, the GMO’s come in from the other ingredients involved in the flavored Cheerios. At this time there is no plan to change this. So if GMO’s are a concern for you, stick to the yellow box.
4. General Mills is just trying to take advantage of the Gluten Free trend? – The President of Big G cereals said they do not spend this kind of money on a trend. They are also NOT increasing the price and they are NOT reducing the size of the contents of the box. The move to Gluten Free Cheerios is a long term play.
5. Are the Cheerios ingredients going to change? – Four of the five cereals will stay the same, multi-grain was the only product that needed to be changed to remove Gluten grains.
6. When will they be on the shelves? – In July the first boxes with the Gluten Free seal will leave the cereal plants. The goal is by mid-September to have all the old product off the store shelves and the new product on the shelf. Do not buy a box of Cheerios unless it has this seal on it.
7. What flavors will be Gluten Free? – Yellow Box, Honey Nut, Frosted, Apple Cinnamon and Multi-grain
Some Interesting Facts
Honey Nut Cheerios is the #1 selling cereal in the US.
Once the 5 flavors of Cheerios hit the market, 30% of all General Mills cereals will be Gluten Free and 10% of cereals on store shelves in the US will be Gluten Free.
General Mills was so committed to this project that they broke ground on the cleaning house before the team even had the process 100% complete. The leadership trusted the team to figure it and make it safe.
The cleaning house, all 8 stories, was built in 8 days. The interior took longer but the exterior only took 8 days.
General Mills already produces over 800 Gluten Free products.
The technology used to sort and clean the oats is all over 50 years old. The way in which they are used is the change that makes the difference.
Opening the Curtain
General Mills let us in, “opened the curtain” as they called it because of YOU. The Gluten Free community did not want to take General Mills on their word that the “propriety process” was safe. General Mills has never given full access to anyone regarding their products. The doors are open for the Gluten Free community to see how it is done. They want us to trust that these products are safe for Celiacs to consume, because they created them for Celiacs. Here is what they have to say about Gluten Free Cheerios.
The common themes that I saw while at General Mills were: trust, empathy and dedication. General Mills trusted that their team could figure out this huge problem of making oats safe for Celiacs. The leadership and project team had empathy for all of us that can’t enjoy Cheerios. And finally dedication. A major company doesn’t spend this much capital, man power, real estate, and time to create a product unless it really matters to them. Jim Murphy said it is a balance between business and service.
So now, what you all want to know:
Are Gluten Free Cheerios Safe?
Yes. As a Celiac and a mom of Gluten Sensitive children we will eat the Cheerios. Me, for the first time in over 5 years and the kids for the first time ever.
If I had not met the people, seen the process, and seen the testing method I would still be skeptical. Now that I’ve seen all those things, I will be eating them.
You can just take my word for it or do your own research, read other blogs, read the marketing pieces, and decide what is the best decision for you.
Much Gluten Free Love,
Pam
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Our Costco just started carrying gluten free cheerios and honey nut cheerios! 🙂
I know!!! Ours did too!! Grandpa came home with 6 boxes last week and they are gone already!! The boys devoured them!