Gluten Free Foods

Celiac disease is a digestive condition triggered by the consumption of the protein Gluten. Gluten is found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust and other foods containing wheat, barley, rye and oats. When someone with this disease eats foods containing Gluten, an immune reaction occurs in the small intestine resulting in damage to the surface of the intestine and causes the inability to absorb certain nutrients in food. Eventually this causes malabsorption, which in turn causes vitamin deficiencies in the brain, nervous system, bones, liver and other organs that need vital nourishment. 

In 2001, Wellshire Farms was the first company to be granted USDA approval for a fully cooked chicken nugget that could be labeled “gluten free.”  We developed a special corn batter for the nugget after listening to the needs and concerns of our customers. The USDA approved our label on this product as “gluten free” because it complied with the USDA regulations regarding “gluten free” in that our product did not contain wheat, barley, or rye. As a company we have always followed USDA guidelines. Further, at that time we also adhered to the only other standard of which we were aware concerning “gluten free” as applied to any type of food, which was the European Union (EU) ruling for “gluten free” products to be under 200 parts per million (PPM) of gluten in the total weight of the product.  We did this even though the EU rules did not apply to our products.


In June 2008, as a response to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considering a stricter new proposal to define “gluten free” as 20 PPM of gluten in the product in order to be defined as “gluten free” on the label, Wellshire began the search to find a batter for our nuggets that would also comply with this new criteria for “gluten free” if this proposal were to be accepted by the FDA, even though this FDA standard would not legally apply to our product, since the USDA has exclusive jurisdiction over the approval of our products. We have since began working with our new vendor partners who could guarantee under 20PPM for our Wellshire Kids and Garrett County Chicken Bites. In February 2010, we became certified Gluten Free by GFCO. We have not added the GFCO seal to our packaging. Please visit their website to see this product listed, and for more information: www.gfco.org

 

Wellshire has taken a stand and has begun to remove Gluten Free from all of our items that are not breaded. We feel that we are proving to be a leader in the industry, as future proposals are being put in to place that items without breading CAN NOT use Gluten Free for marketing purposes.

Please note that we strive very hard to avoid any cross contamination in our plants of trace gluten. However, the traces of gluten that can potentially appear in a product that tries to be “gluten free” derives from the source of the grain.  When the wheat, barley or rye is harvested, it goes through a combine, and is transported on a truck and then onto a conveyor. In this process wheat, barley, or rye can travel through the air or fall off the grain in the form of dust. This dust can travel onto an existing cornfield or onto the same machinery that is used to transport and process the corn that the corn flour processor uses. Unfortunately, we cannot control all sources of potential cross contamination, however we test our product at the plant to make sure it complies with the current standards regarding PPM of gluten.