Issue: Not all oats labeled “Gluten Free” are equal!

· Some oats being used in products labeled “Gluten Free” are not grown and processed with a “Purity Protocol”.

· At the 2015 AACCI conference, one manufacturer presenting, use a mechanical sorted commodity oats in their “gluten free” oat products, stated that they average 10% of their samples testing over 20 parts per million (ppm) so with a statistical average they can meet the FDA standard. (see next page for example)

Solution: Ask where the oats in every product come from and how they were grown.

· Are the oats being used certified to 10 ppm or less?

· Are their oats grown with these “Purity Protocol” steps?

ü Pure planting seed stock with pre-planting field history audits

ü All equipment inspected and approved for gluten free production

ü Each field inspected prior to harvest by the company and 3^rd party

ü Harvested seed only stored in dedicated gluten free grain storage

ü Processed in a dedicated and certified gluten free oat mill

ü Packaged on a dedicated and certified gluten free packaging line

ü 3^rd party audits showing the final product is certified gluten free

· Ask if they use a blended test average on the oats they use?

Without a “Purity Protocol” a mill must rely on mechanical processing to separate out the gluten containing grains, while processing 2,500 to 5000 lbs. of oats per hour.

What does 10 ppm look like?

· 10 dimes out of a bucket of 1,000,000 pennies as it passes by a machine.

· 13 gallons of material from an Olympic swimming pool with 660,000 gallons of water.

“Uncontaminated” or “Safe” oats were introduced and accepted into the gluten free diet over the last decade by including all of the “Purity Protocol” steps and not by just adding a machine into the process to try to remove the glutinous grains from common/commodity oats.

GF Harvest & Canyon Oats brands follow the Purity Protocol.

This company is owned and operated by a family diagnosed with celiac disease. Forrest, the founder of the company, was diagnosed with celiac disease (CD) in 1990 at the age of 2. Throughout the next 25 years his family has had over 10 other family members diagnosed, including his mother and father. As a freshman in high school, he was charged to create a business and wanted to give back to the gluten free community. This is where his vision of GF Harvest started. Now, both parents and Forrest are running the company providing the first dedicated gluten free oat mill in the United States with the purest source of oats for over a decade. GF Harvest is certified by GFCO at 10 ppm or less, Kosher, Organic and Non-GMO verified with a proven history of purity.

If the oat product you are using was not grown with this kind of care, ask yourself if it’s worth the risk.

This is a sample of what a statistical set of averaged tests could look like to “Hit” the FDA’s “Gluten Free” standard of 20 ppm or less.

“GF Harvest” Branded Products

The following Certification agencies hold us accountable to you as we serve each of our customers.

For additional information check out

www.gfharvest.com or www.canyonoats.com for a full line of conventional and organic oat products, or our oatmeal cups for the home or on the run.