The Gluten Free Insider

25th Anniversary Gifts from Us to You

2017-10-12T10:23:00.002-06:00

Kinnikinnick opened its doors in in 1992 in a 500sq ft storefront. Since then we've grown to be one of the largest gluten free and allergy friendly companies in the world. This video traces our history over the past 25 years.

It's been quite a journey and we want to thank all of our customers with a couple of gifts.

Free Shipping on web and phone orders over $50.

From now until March 31 2018, all web and phone order over $50 will be eligible for free shipping*

Free Shipping AND a Free Book for web and phone orders over $92

Receive free shipping* and a free copy* of Gluten Free: The Definitive Resource Guide by well known dietitian Shelley Case with any order over $92

*Free shipping offer does not include any remote area service charges.

Books available while supplies last.Applies to retail direct customers in the US and Canada only.

Kinnikinnick Launches New Mobile Friendly Website

2015-09-28T13:22:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, it's been quite a while since we updated our website. In fact, last time the site had a major upgrade, the iPhone 3G had just been released.

Many things have changed since then and in designing our new website, we wanted to make sure that the site was fast and easy to use on all types of devices.

We wanted to reduce clutter and highlight the things that really matter to you so we've simplified the home page with just 3 main links, Products, Recipes and Stores.

In the Products section, you'll find complete details about each one of our products; FAQs on products, ingredients and our quality standards; and a quick and easy way to add products to your shopping cart. Registered users can save product favourites and add them to a cart with one click.

The Recipes section has seen the biggest upgrade, with now almost 150 recipes of all kinds. Each of these recipes are searchable by most popular, products, tags, cuisine, main ingredient and diet. We also have an "at a glance" shopping list and nutritional information for each recipe. We've made it easy for you to Tweet, Pin or Facebook these recipes. Registered users can favourite recipes and maintain their own online recipe book from their account.

The Stores section has been simplified and updated. You can search for stores in your area by zip/postal code. We now list almost 13,000 stores and these have been verified to have carried our products within the last 6 months.

Some technical notes

Our new site is "Always on SSL", which means every part of your visit is protected by encryption and the "Green Bar"

As part of this security upgrade, we have disabled support for older browsers so if you have troubles viewing the site, you should look at upgrading your browser. (You should do this in any case as older browsers represent a serious security risk.)

We hope you enjoy our new site and find it easy to use.

Things change.

2014-10-31T13:42:00.002-06:00

[edit: Just want to clarify Kinnikinnick isn't going anywhere. We're just changing our product mix.]

I am in the unenviable position of making a small number of our customers upset today. Before I do that, I am going to write a bit about what's brought us to today.

As many of you know, Kinnikinnick has been making gluten free products since 1991. 23 years. For many of those years, Kinnikinnick was one of 2 or 3 nationally available manufacturers, at a time when most people had never heard of Gluten Free or Celiac. I've written a bit about our history and how times have changed previously.

The changes in the gluten free market are driven by multiple factors.

1) The radical improvement in gluten free products from almost all manufacturers has changed the kind of products demanded by consumers. Most consumers are simply not going to put up with tasteless, dense "first generation" gluten free products. This has driven innovation across the entire sector (and driven some manufacturers from it)

2) Multinational, multimillion dollar companies have moved into the market. As gluten free has gone mainstream, it has become a target for these very large companies, changing the once entirely family owned market into one controlled by companies traded on the stock exchange. This drastically changes how a company that is not backed by hundreds of millions of dollars (such as Kinnikinnick) operates. This has caused a hollowing out of the middle range of the market. You're either big and multinational or small and local. There is very little room for a medium sized gluten free manufacturer in today's market.

3) Distributors and retailers have brought gluten free into the mainstream, which is great, however it has changed the both the way manufacturers deal with them and the distribution model. Years ago, all we had to do was release a new product and it would be automatically picked up by virtually all of our distributors, immediately. The market simply was starving for products. These days, it can take a year or more to get a product listed. And since there are so many more manufacturers, there's no guarantee there will even be shelf or freezer space for a product. Also because there are so many products out there, any products that don't sell well immediately are dropped by distributors very quickly.

4) The internet is no longer the gluten free consumer's first choice. In 1998, Kinnikinnick was the first gluten free company in North America (and maybe the world) to deliver fresh bakery products by courier. At one point direct sales to consumers amounted to 80% of our sales. We were in the top 5% of UPS shippers in Canada for several years running. Now that gluten free is mainstream and "everywhere", our internet direct sales are a small fraction of what they used to be.

Small batch production for direct customers is no longer economical.

5) Increased competition has caused a major change in manufacturing process. 15 years ago, Kinnikinnick sold 21 different kinds of bread and every one of them had some distribution. Today, we basically have distribution for our soft white and multigrain bread and distribution for our 2 new soft breads just coming on line. These breads are outselling all of our old breads combined by several hundred times.

What this all boils down to is this. We need to make a lot of very high quality bread, as efficiently and cheaply as possible.

The days of the small batch, made by hand products have been numbered for several years. Today they are done.

We regret to announce the discontinuation of the following products effective November 1, 2014.

White Sandwich Bread
Tapioca Rice Bread
Sunflower Flax Bread
Italian White Tapioca Rice Bread
Candadi Yeast Free Multigrain Bread
Robin's Honey Brown Bread

We know that for a small number of our customers, this will be very unwelcome news, however, this decision is based on all the factors outlined above. For the last year or more, these breads have been dropped by virtually all distributors and we have been producing every loaf at a loss. This cannot continue.

Answers to some of the questions I know we'll get.

This is a permanent decision.
We won't be able to release the recipes for any of the discontinued products.
We won't be taking special orders for these products.
We don't have yeast free or egg free bread alternatives at this time. Our new soft bagels are vegan and do not have egg so you may want to try those (they do have yeast).

For those that can, we suggest you try one of our 4 new generation soft breads. They are vastly superior in taste, texture and nutrition. For those with additional intolerances that have relied on our products, we do understand your frustration, but we are simply not in a position to continue to produce these products at a loss.

We understand this is a difficult and unwelcome announcement for some of you and we wish there were options but the market conditions we find ourselves in simply make producing them impossible.

The First Day of Fall calls for Pumpkin Spice Donuts!

2014-09-23T12:06:00.000-06:00

In what has become a much anticipated fall tradition we're pleased to announce that our Pumpkin Spice Donuts are available to order right now!

"a wonderfully spiced circle of heaven,"

"delights my insides and fills me with joy"

" It is like fall wrapped up in a neat little package"

As always these are available exclusively on our website or by calling toll -free 1-877-503-4466

Edmonton and area customers should visit www.getitfresh.ca for local availability. The donuts are in the store today!

Introducing Two New Soft Breads - Whole Grain & Cinnamon Raisin

2014-08-21T08:17:00.000-06:00

We are pleased to announce that Whole Grain and Cinnamon Raisin breads join our popular line of Soft and Healthy breads.

Whole Grain Bread

Made with Brown Rice, Quinoa and Teff, our Whole Grain Bread is our first product to carry the Whole Grain Council Stamp which indicates that a serving contains at least 8g of whole grains per serving.

Other nutritional highlights (per 2 slice 63g serving):

5g Fiber
0 Cholesterol
Only 2g Sugar
3g Protein
Fortified with vitamins and minerals

Our new Whole Grain is different from our Multigrain bread in that it doesn't have seeds so it's perfect for kids and those who don't like "crunchy bits" in their bread. Like all our soft breads, you don't need to heat or toast it but if you do want toast or grilled cheese it toasts just like regular bread.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Our Cinnamon Raisin Bread is a true raisin bread, with raisins being 50% of the weight of the dry flour blend. Translation: Lots of plump raisins! With a touch of molasses and a pinch of cinnamon, this is the perfect breakfast bread. It is fantastic toasted and makes an amazing French Toast. But just because this bread is a bit on the fun side, doesn't mean that we haven't made it as nutritionally sound as possible.

Nutritional highlights (per 2 slice 70g serving):

4g Fiber
0 Cholesterol
4g Protein
Fortified with vitamins and minerals

Both breads have been developed under our new Non-GMO road map and have labelling indicating that the ingredients used are not the product of genetic engineering.
These breads are available today from our website and will be coming soon to retailers across the continent over the coming months.

Where Can I Get The New Breads/How Can I Get My Store To Carry Them?

Check out our Store Finder and if we know what a store is carrying, we list it for you.

If there's nothing close by to you yet or they aren't carrying the new breads, you can help! To get your local store to carry the entire line of Soft Breads & Buns it's important that they know you want to buy them.

Our Soft Multigrain and White Breads, Hamburger and Hot Dog buns available in every one of our distributor's warehouses and retailers can bring them in anytime. The two new breads are just now making their way in to distributors. Creating demand from retailers (by you asking for them) will help make them more widely available.

We've developed a handout you can give to your Local Store. There's room on the back of this letter for your comments, so you can let the store know you'd like to see them stock the New Soft Breads & Buns and why.

If you are a family of celiacs or belong to a support group, photocopy this letter, distribute to your family/group and hand them to the store manager. A stack of letters can really make an impact on retailers deciding whether or not to stock a product.

Download the letter now (pdf)

If you still don't want to wait, don't forget you can still always order directly from us.

Kinnikinnick Non-GMO Road Map

2014-07-28T10:19:00.001-06:00

For several years, we've been getting requests from a portion of our customers to reduce or eliminate the use of GMO ingredients in our products. This is a huge and difficult undertaking given the other restrictions that we already have on our supply chain (gluten free, dairy free, peanut & tree nut free and kosher). We use a lot of specialized ingredients and finding substitutes in the quantities we require can be very problematic.

However, we have spent the last 2 years identifying non-GMO replacements for most of our ingredients that are currently GMO and have begun testing them throughout our entire product line. Starting with our new Vanilla Wafers, we are beginning the transition to non-GMO ingredients. It is our hope that all new products released will contain non-GMO ingredients.

Coming this fall, we will be rolling out new packaging for existing products indicating when an ingredient is Not a product of genetic engineering .

It's important to note that we only indentify ingredients where there are GMO & non-GMO versions. There are no GMO versions of things like Potatoes, Rice and Cane Sugar that are currently approved for use in North America so we don't add any indicator. They are always non-GMO.

Our current plan is to make the changes gradually starting with the staples; breads, buns and bagels. As we use up existing stocks of packaging, we will be reprinting them with the new identifying language. Cookies, donuts and mixes will follow but we don't have a timeline for completion of this project.

At this time we do not plan to be "certified" Non-GMO, but we believe our labeling will be informative to those consumers who care about such things.

Introducing Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Vanilla Wafers

2014-07-24T14:13:00.001-06:00

Over the years, our top product requests have been gluten free "oreos", gluten free graham crackers and gluten free Vanilla Wafers. Well you've been able to get the first 2 in our Chocolate Vanilla KinniTOOS and S'moreables for a few years now. We are really pleased to announce that the final product that you've been requesting for so long is now available.

Almost everyone who has tried these has said "Oooh I can make that banana pudding thing again!" and yes you can but these are also great for all sorts of things including schools lunches and snacking right out of the box.

Like all our products, they are Gluten, Dairy, and Nut Free, OU kosher and they are also our first product to be made with non-GMO ingredients.

The New Kinnikinnick Vanilla Wafers are available now from our website and will be rolling out to retail stores over the next couple of months.

Since they are brand new, there's only a few stores who have committed to carrying the Vanilla Wafers and none have them in stock just yet.

We've developed a handout you can give to your Local Store. There's room on this letter for your comments, so you can let the store know you'd like to see them and why.

If you are a family of celiacs or belong to a support group, photocopy this letter, distribute to your family/group and hand them to the store manager. A stack of letters can really make an impact on retailers deciding whether or not to stock a product.

Download the letter now (pdf)

Of course you can always order directly from us.

And in case you've forgotten

Vanilla Wafer Banana Pudding It's what Vanilla Wafers are made for!
Ingredients: 1 box Kinnikinnick Vanilla Wafers 1 Recipe Vanilla Custard (below) OR 1 package prepared vanilla pudding mix (gluten free) 1 cup whipped cream 4 medium bananas sliced in to 1/4" slices In 4-6 small dessert dishes or glasses, add a Vanilla Wafer, a Banana slice and a layer of pudding/custard (about 3 tbsp). Repeat until dish is 3/4 full. Top with whipped cream. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until ready to serve. For variety try Chocolate, Banana or Coconut Cream pudding.
Vanilla Custard 6 large egg yolks 3 cups milk 1/8 tsp salt 1/3 cup cornstarch 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract Place egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until combined, set aside. In a saucepan combine milk, sugar, and salt; whisk over medium heat while slowly adding cornstarch. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and comes to a boil (about 12-15 minutes). Remove from heat. Slowly whisk ½ cup hot milk mixture into egg yolks; then gradually pour yolk mixture into the saucepan, stirring constantly. Cook over medium-low heat, slowly stirring, until mixture begins to bubble, approximately 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and add in vanilla.
See more in the Recipe Section of our website.

I Love Donuts

2014-06-06T08:26:00.002-06:00

You may or may not know, but Kinnikinnick has been around since 1991. Our family has been involved since 1997. An awful lot has changed in those years, especially in the last 5 years or so. Availability, awareness and quality have all made incredible progress. It has also meant the gluten free industry has changed greatly, moving from what were mostly family run, mom and pop operations (usually with at least one celiac in the family), to corporate owners. The sense of community among manufacturers has also been lost to a large extent. In the early days, even though we were competitors, the sense was that "we were all in this together". For the most part that has been lost with the corporatization of the industry. If I'm to be honest, it's not as fun as it used to be.

Back in the early days, growing awareness about Kinnikinnick and our products meant many trips across Canada and the US. In the late 90's, part of my job, was traveling to the US, showing off our products to support groups. Now it's important to remember that the support groups of the late 90's were very much different than what they are today. Awareness in many areas was practically non-existent and group numbers were most often 30 people or less.

Aside from size, the difference between then and now was that these weren't "vendor fairs" or anything remotely like that. First I would try to find a support group in the general area I was going to be. This was in the very early days of "the web", before Google (Anyone remember AltaVista?) so finding things like support group contacts was much more difficult. My best tool was the Celiac ListServ (which still exists http://www.lsoft.com/scripts/wl.exe?SL1=CELIAC&H=LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG). If I could find a phone number or email contact (not always a given), I would contact the group and try to set up a time to come present to the group. These presentations involved doing a talk, a bit of QandA and then, everyone's favourite part, sampling of our products. For the most part, this contact was the first time most people had ever heard of Kinnikinnick, let alone tasted our products. I can even take some credit for getting some support groups started. In 1999 or 2000, I contacted someone in Stanford, CA and asked to come present to the support group. The person I talked to said that their group had dissolved due to lack of interest, but she said that she'd try to get a few people to come out. I met in a conference room at Stanford with about 25 people. A couple of years later, the Stanford Celiac conference had over 400 people attend.

In 1999 or 2000, I did an epic trip starting in New York and looping through New Jersey, Virginia, North & South Carolina, Georgia and finishing up across the full length of Tennessee, with stops in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. I did this all in a span of just over 3 weeks, with meetings almost every night in a different city. I put well over 3000 miles on the rental car. Thank goodness for unlimited mileage. If memory serves, the largest meeting was about 100 people in Raleigh, North Carolina at a hospital conference room. The smallest was to a group of 7 people in the dining room of a house in Memphis.

As owners, we still believe that it is important to get out to support group events to meet with customers and get feedback and new product ideas. We go to 15-20 shows a year. This past weekend, I was in Knoxville, TN for the Celi-Act Gluten Free Vendor Fair. I'd say they had well over 2500 people attend between 10am and 4pm. At about 10:30 in the morning, just after the doors opened, I had a reminder of why we started this in the first place. A woman came up to our table and said,

"I just wanted to let you know that Kinnikinnick was the first gluten free food my daughter ate. I came to a presentation your company made in the late 90's with my 3 year old daughter, who had just been diagnosed with Celiac. She had her first donut that day. After she tried it, she looked up at me and said (in her 3 year old voice) 'I love donuts!'

She then pointed to the young woman of about 15 standing next to her and said, "This is my daughter. Kinnikinnick is still our favourite company after all these years."

What she didn't realize was that I was the one who had served that little girl the piece of donut, way back then. What I didn't realize was that I remembered that little girl.

In the 17 years I've been doing this, I've seen an awful lot of change, and not all for the better, but one thing never changes. There is no greater satisfaction than having something you make bring a bit of joy into someone's life.

Happy Friday.

Jay Bigam
Kinnikinnick Foods.

PS. If you were at some of those early meetings, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Kinnikinnick Pumpkin Spice Donuts are available to order Now!

2013-09-09T14:24:00.000-06:00

In what has become a much anticipated fall tradition we're pleased to announce that our Pumpkin Spice Donuts are available to order right now for shipping the week of September 16.

"a wonderfully spiced circle of heaven,"

"delights my insides and fills me with joy"

" It is like fall wrapped up in a neat little package"

As always these are available exclusively on our website or by calling toll -free 1-877-503-4466

Edmonton and area customers should visit www.getitfresh.ca for local availability.

Kinnikinnick K2 Facility Earns HACCP Food Safety Certificate.

2013-08-23T09:59:00.003-06:00

Update: June 30, 2014

Our K2 facility has just passed its re-certification audit with flying colours, scoring even higher than our first audit. Our preparations for BRC continue and we hope to have our first BRC audit by the end of the year.

We are very pleased to announce that our K2 Facility received its HACCP Food Safety Certificate on July 26, 2013.

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points. HACCP is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP is referred as the prevention of hazards rather than finished product inspection. The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. *

Two years ago, we made the decision to "up our game" in food safety and began the long path to HACCP certification.

Seven Principles of HACCP (from wikipedia)

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. – Plans determine the food safety hazards and identify the preventive measures the plan can apply to control these hazards. A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause a food to be unsafe for human consumption.
Principle 2: Identify critical control points. – A critical control point (CCP) is a point, step, or procedure in a food manufacturing process at which control can be applied and, as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level.
Principle 3: Establish critical limits for each critical control point. – A critical limit is the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical hazard must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level.
Principle 4: Establish critical control point monitoring requirements. – Monitoring activities are necessary to ensure that the process is under control at each critical control point.
Principle 5: Establish corrective actions. - These are actions to be taken when monitoring indicates a deviation from an established critical limit. The final rule requires a plant's HACCP plan to identify the corrective actions to be taken if a critical limit is not met. Corrective actions are intended to ensure that no product injurious to health or otherwise adulterated as a result of the deviation enters commerce.
Principle 6: Establish procedures for ensuring the HACCP system is working as intended. – Validation ensures that the plants do what they were designed to do; that is, they are successful in ensuring the production of a safe product. Plants will be required to validate their own HACCP plans.
Verification also includes 'validation' – the process of finding evidence for the accuracy of the HACCP system (e.g. scientific evidence for critical limitations).
Principle 7: Establish record keeping procedures. – The HACCP regulation requires that all plants maintain certain documents, including its hazard analysis and written HACCP plan, and records documenting the monitoring of critical control points, critical limits, verification activities, and the handling of processing deviations.

We chose to be certified under the new AHA program developed by the Alberta & Canadian Governments.

Alberta HACCP Advantage (AHA!) is a voluntary program established by Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), in cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. AHA! is a food safety program that has resources to assist processors in developing, improving and implementing a food safety system to meet the requirements of their current customers and may also help gain new customers. AHA! was developed to complement current food safety regulations, and to facilitate consistent program development within the processing industry.
The goal of the Alberta HACCP Advantage (AHA!) program is to assist processors in implementing a complete and effective food safety program. An effective food safety program identifies hazards and measures to prevent, eliminate or reduce hazards during the processing and production of food. It is an outcome based approach, which provides flexibility during implementation, regardless of your operation. *

To qualify for certification, facilities must comply with the 7 principles and undergo an extensive audit by an outside agency. For one week in May of this year, an auditor from QMI-SAI Canada Ltd. reviewed our facility, procedures & documentation.

On July 26, we received our official certificate.

We are one of only 4 AHA HACCP Certified Facilities in Alberta and we are very proud of the hard work done by all our staff (especially Charmei, our HACCP Coordinator) to achieve this benchmark.

We're not done yet.

We had originally planned to complete HACCP certification of our smaller K1 facility by the end of next year, but we have recently made the decision to certify both our K1 & K2 facilities under the even more stringent BRC Global Food Safety Standards. BRC certification is the world's leading standard for food safety and will further our commitment to provide our customers with the safest possible gluten free food.

Read More

< 5ppm gluten: Labeling and Science vs the Real World
Gluten Testing & our New Lab Tested Gluten Free Logo
Kinnikinnick Foods Receives Kosher Certification
Kinnikinnick's Position on Oats in Gluten Free Food
The Importance of a Dedicated Gluten Free Facility
Keeping "Gluten Free" Free Of Gluten

< 5ppm gluten: Labeling and Science vs the Real World

2013-08-15T15:16:00.001-06:00

Twitter, Facebook and the internet in general are wonderful things. But they are not without problems. This morning, as I normally do, I checked out Twitter mentions and Facebook posts. On Facebook I saw a nice post about our Pizza Crust. I flipped over to Twitter and saw a mention from someone saying that our pizza crust had caused a gluten reaction and that it wasn't gluten free and that we were lying about our products being gluten free. This caused several of her followers to become very concerned. One was afraid they had "poisoned" her baby by giving her some of our products.

Now, obviously we never want to hear that someone feels unwell after eating one of our products. We have a formal complaint tracking system for this. However I did want to clarify our gluten free status, the strict testing and ingredient sourcing protocols we have in place and our 22 year commitment as a dedicated, family run gluten free company. This did not go well. Twitter's 140 character limit is not the best method to explain something to someone who is feeling unwell and angry. I want to expand on what I posted on Twitter in a form that allows for some continuity and clarity.

One of the things that I tweeted was

"We guarantee our product to be gluten free to < 5ppm (which is the limit of science)"

The reply to this was that this tweet was proof that we were not gluten free and that we shouldn't be allowed to label our products gluten free. I won't refer to this twitter conversation any more but if you feel you'd like to judge our response, our Twitter account is public and we stand behind everything thing we said.

So let's talk about PPM. What does it mean? What's safe? What are the rules? What's the science behind testing?

Warning: Science & Math Ahead

What does PPM mean?
PPM is short for Parts Per Million. OK most everyone knows that. But what does it -really- mean. A million is a pretty big number but it's helpful if we break it down to a real world example.

So 1ppm is 1 ounce in 1 million ounces or 1 gram in 1 million grams. Hmmm, that's not easy. It becomes a bit easier when you convert that to pounds and kilograms

1ppm = 1 ounce in 62,000 pounds (31.25 tons)
1ppm = 1 gram in 1000 kilograms (1 metric tonne)

Now -that- starts to show you the kind of numbers we are dealing with here.

Let's give you an actual example. A standard grain car contains about 80 tons (160,000 pounds) or 72.6 metric tonnes (72600 kilograms)*.

To find out what 1ppm of -something- in that grain car would be, all we need to do is run a calculation.

1 ppm X ppm
31.25tons = 80tons

X = 2.56

If 1 ppm is 1 ounce in 31 tons, 1 ppm in a grain car looks like this:

2.56 ounces per 160,000lb
72.6 grams per 72,600kg

Probably the easiest way to think of what 1ppm means is this:

1ppm = 1 You in a room with a Million people.

or maybe

1ppm = 1 needle in a haystack of a million pieces of hay.

It's very small indeed.

The Rules

For many years, the Codex Alimentarius had a standard of 200ppm and this was widely accepted in Europe and the UK.

Until 13 days ago, the US had -NO- regulations as to what constituted a gluten free product. Let me repeat that. There were no regulations governing gluten free products in the US. Until August 2, 2013.

Up until last year, Canada (where we are based) had an informal limit of 20ppm for product labelled gluten free, although the regulations explicitly said "none". The 20ppm was what was referred to as the "enforcement threshold". That is, if a product tested higher than 20ppm and was labelled gluten free it was subject to a recall. These guidelines were the strictest in the world and have been in place for at least 15 years and maybe longer. This is the regulatory environment Kinnikinnick "grew up" in.

Fortunately, things have started to become clearer world wide.

Last year Canada released the new guidance for gluten free labeling which basically formalized and clarified the pre-existing rules.

Since 2008, the Codex has an updated standard to set a threshold of 20ppm. (pdf)

In August 2013, after 9 years of deliberation and consultation (and I expect a good deal of lobbying), the FDA finally released the rules for what is allowed to be labeled gluten free. Companies have 1 year to comply.

One note on Oats and gluten free. While the new US regulations allow them, both Canada & the Codex do NOT allow Oats or products containing oats to be labeled gluten free. These agencies recognize that oats can be tolerated by most but not all people who are intolerant to gluten. This is a position we also take and we do not use oats in any of our products.

Because of the major uncertainty, especially in the US, about what gluten free actually meant, several celiac support groups drew up their own guidelines and created gluten free certification programs. The allowable PPM for certification from these groups ranges from 10-20ppm. While this filled a void, we choose to certify our own products.

Some of you may say "well, why would we trust you over a certification organization?" The answer is simple, if a company does not comply with a certification organization standards (ie: tests over 10 or 20ppm) then they risk being dropped by the certification organization (although I expect there is a process to "fix things" to retain status). Because we label our products with our own logo which claims <5ppm we are legally bound to provide that. There are no certification organization bodies that can claim that. There are a couple of companies who claim 100% gluten free but we'll get to why that is unsupportable shortly.

What's Safe.

Here's a good question. How much gluten is safe for the general celiac population. There's not an easy answer. It used to be extraordinarily confusing for consumers,but in recent years things have started to become clearer.
As of August 2013, at last, the consensus of governments, science, support groups and certification organizations has set the safe maximum level to be somewhere between 10-20ppm.

These numbers come with one caveat, especially at the 20ppm level. This is safe for the -average- celiac to consume and cause no damage. This does not mean -you- won't react to 20ppm. This is why some certification organizations have chosen to have a 10ppm standard. And remember, 20ppm per product is additive. This is up to 20ppm -per product- you eat per day. If you eat a lot of products in a day that are at or near 20ppm, even "average" celiacs may be getting enough to cause a problem.

This is why we have chosen the < 5ppm standard.

The Science of testing for gluten (and why claims of 100% gluten free are unsupportable)
Before we get to the < 5ppm standard, it might be helpful for a quick refresher on our standards. For a complete overview please see our post Gluten Testing and Our New Lab Tested Gluten Free Logo

I'll summarize some important points from that post:

In general, all the tests on the market today are looking for gliadin, which is a protein in wheat. This protein is most commonly referred to as gluten.
It's important to realize that for testing, gliadin & gluten are not the same thing. A gliadin result of 5ppm means it contains 10ppm gluten.
The Level of detection of gluten is different than the level of quantification (translation: you can tell gluten is in something at a lower level than you can accurately say how much there is)
The only accepted & verified test for determination of gluten is Enzyme-linked Immunoassay (ELISA) R5 Mendez Method.
The most sensitive test available to science (that is recognized) is the R5 ELISA Quantitative test, with a Limit of detection of 1.5ppm gliadin/3ppm gluten.
We use both the R5 ELISA Quantitative (how much) test and the R5 ELISA Qualitative (yes/no) test which has a limit of detection of 2.5ppm gliadin/5ppm gluten.
The large majority of our suppliers are dedicated gluten free. For those that aren't, where alternatives are not possible, we have extensive documentation on their procedures and rigorous testing of every lot.
We test both incoming ingredients and finished products using both the qualitative and quantitative tests depending on the ingredient.
All our finished products must test below 2.5ppm gliadin/5ppm gluten.

The most important point for this blog entry are points 4 & 5. The testing we use is the only one that is universally accepted to be accurate. The very smallest amount that it can identify is 3ppm gluten. Not 1ppm and certainly not 0ppm. Can a company who claims to be 100% gluten free (which is 0ppm) have absolutely no gluten in their product. Yes. Can they prove it? No. Since the most accurate test in the world can only test to 3ppm, the most they can say is they have 3ppm or less or perhaps < 5ppm (see where I'm going with this?)

< 5 ppm and the real world.

Let take an example of a gluten free bread by Brand X. We'll say that 1 slice of our example bread is approximately 1 ounce or 28 grams. (your brand may be heavier & denser ;)

How much gluten would be in the product under the 20, 10 & 5ppm standards.

I'm only going to work in grams because there's really no useful measure below ounce.

So using our example above we know that 1ppm = 1 gram in 1000 kilograms.

20ppm = 20grams in 1000 kilograms or 20000mg in 1000000000mg = 0.00002
10ppm = 10grams in 1000 kilograms or 10000mg in 1000000000mg = 0.00001
5ppm = 5grams in 1000 kilograms or 5000mg in 1000000000mg = 0.000005

So for a 28 gram sample (28000 millgrams) we get the following totals.

20ppm = 0.56mg gluten/28 gram serving
10ppm = 0.28mg gluten/28 gram serving
5ppm = 0.14mg gluten/28 gram serving****

(ok for those of you who still want ounces - 5 ppm = 0.0000128oz/1 oz serving)

Now even at 20ppm, 0.56mg is not very much. About the weight of half of an eyelash. Or perhaps 1 crystal of granulated sugar. Or a grain of sand. It's a truly tiny amount. But our bodies ("our" being us celiacs) are truly remarkable and this tiny amount can cause issues for some people. Based on our current knowledge ("our" being Science's) very few would react to 0.28mg and virtually none to 0.14mg.

But here's the thing. You'll notice I've added **** to the 5ppm amount calculation.

When we do the testing on our finished products we use the 5ppm Quick Test (qualitative yes/no). A Pass mean no detection. A fail means detection. (we've never had a fail by the way) So a pass means that there is, yes, you guessed it < 5ppm.

Update: I just received and email from our QA lab manager saying "hey, we haven't used quick tests for finished products for quite a while."

Here's what he had to say:

For finished products we use microwell strip format ELISA with heated cocktail extraction based on AOAC Official First Action Method No. 2012.01.

As a routine procedure we use the kit in a screening mode by running a 5 ppm standard alongside the samples and then comparing optical densities of the sample wells to that of the 5 ppm well using a spectrophotometer. If we were to encounter a positive sample that tests above 5 ppm we would build a full scale calibration curve with 5 standards.

It’s more time consuming (1.5 hrs just for the assay), but ensures better detection and/or quantification of glidain in heat treated foods.

(I actually knew this but yesterday had me linking to the post from 18 months ago and that's how we -used- to do it)

Now I'll translate. Turns out that heat treated products (ie: any baked goods) are much harder to test because heat treatment changes the protein structure. Quick tests can't properly do the job. Even the sensitive test has challenges and the samples require extra, specialized processing (the heated cocktail extraction thing)

Another point to make. Every test we do takes an minimum 90 minutes.This stuff is not easy or cheap folks.

Here's the really important thing. The reason for this post. If we say our products are guaranteed to < 5ppm, this does -not- mean there is 0.14mg of gluten in it. (or rather less than 0.14mg) It means this:

We have researched our suppliers products, procedures and standards.
We have tested incoming ingredients.
We have made our products in our 2 dedicated facilities (where staff are forbidden to even bring gluten containing bread to lunch).
We have regularly verified our testing results with outside labs.
We have tested our finished products to have < 5ppm gluten.

It would be awesome if I could tell you that our products had 0ppm gluten, but to do so would be inaccurate because the Science won't let me.

What I can tell you is that our products are the gluten free-est gluten free products around*.

* If some other manufacturer wants to dispute that I'm fine with that. Just post your testing and protocols for everyone to see, like we do. As a celiac of 16 years and gluten free consumer, I really wish you would.

Jay Bigam
Executive VP
Kinnikinnick

Kinnikinnick is now a Sesame Free company

2013-08-05T15:01:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, Sesame Seeds are one of the top allergens. For several years now, our K2 facility that produces our cookies, muffins, waffles, mixes and some breads & buns has been sesame free. About 2 weeks ago, we stopped producing our last product that contained Sesame Seeds at our K1 facility.

This makes us now a completely Sesame Free company to go along with being Gluten, Dairy, Peanut & Tree Nut, Shellfish, Fish & Mustard & Latex Free company.

Packaging that mentions Sesame in an allergy warning will now gradually disappear as we reprint.

Kinnikinnick Foods Sends 250 Kgs of Gluten Free food to Calgary Food Bank for flood relief.

2013-07-04T12:21:00.003-06:00

As regular readers will know, Kinnikinnick Foods has been a supporter of the Edmonton Food Bank (see HERE and HERE) for quite some time.

While we do focus on helping the great work done by our local Food Bank, we have had the opportunity to help others. (see HERE)

Then 2 weeks ago this happened

We all watched helplessly as our sister city 3 hours south was overrun by the 2 rivers flowing through it.

Last week, Jessica Fielding (@GlutenFreeAZ) tagged us in a retweet on Twitter saying

"Hey @GF_Insider. Can u help #yyc? @CalgaryFoodBank ‏We can always use #glutenfree items for our specialty hampers. #yycfloods"

Since we were just finishing up our month of donation hamper collection for the Edmonton Food Bank, we decided we would take the donated hampers for the last 2 days of June and send them to Calgary. In those 2 days, Kinnikinnick Fresh customers bought 23 - $20 food hampers which total about 45kgs of food.

In addition, Kinnikinnick is donating approximately 200 kg of frozen product with a retail value of about $1800.

This brings the total donated to around 250kgs of food.

It's not a lot but hopefully it helps some of those with food allergies & intolerances who have lost everything.

You can help and donate to the Calgary Food Bank or the Canadian Red Cross for flood relief.

Kinnikinnick Soft Multigrain Voted Best Gluten Free Bread - Again!

2013-05-14T11:56:00.001-06:00

For the second time in as many years, SELF Magazine (circ. 1.5 million) has chosen Kinnikinnick Soft Multigrain Bread Best Gluten Free Bread in the Healthy Food Awards 2013.

The minimum criteria for the award was:

Gluten-Free Bread (per slice)
• At least 2 g fiber
• No partially hydrogenated oils/trans fats
• No more than 160 mg sodium

Breads were also judged on taste, texture & overall appeal in blind taste trials by 175 readers. (not necessarily gluten free eaters)

Our soft Multigrain

5 g of Fiber per serving (2 slices)
Zero Cholesterol
Zero Trans Fat
1 g sugar
Fortified with 5 essential nutrients
180mg sodium (90mg per slice)
No Artificial Colours, Flavours or Preservatives
20g carbs per serving

At a suggested retail price of $4.99 for a full size loaf our soft breads are great nutrition and great value.

Hundreds of retailers are now carrying this bread including Kroger, Canada Safeway, Loblaws and many more. Check out our store finder, join our BreadSpotter program (and win!) or follow BreadSpotter on Twitter to find stores carrying them.

And you can always order online at kinnikinnick.com or by calling 1-877-503-4466.

Kinnikinnick Launches New Boiled Soft & Chewy Bagels

2013-04-22T10:15:00.003-06:00

We are so pleased to be able to announce the launch of our new Soft Bagels.

A Bagel isn't just bread with a hole in it. A true bagel has a chewy crust with a soft interior. The traditional way to do this is to boil them so that's what we are doing. We believe these are the only widely available boiled gluten free bagels in the world!

Check out the awesome

Available in Plain, Cinnamon Raisin and Blueberry (made with REAL blueberries).

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, OU Kosher

VEGAN

Fortified with 5 vitamins and minerals

Zero cholesterol

At least SEVEN grams fiber per bagel

The bagels are available for ordering right now on our website and are shipping to our distributors over the next couple of weeks. Suggested retail price for 4 bagels is $5.99.

They've been picked up by several major chains in the US & Canada and we'll be updating this post, Twitter & Facebook with information as stores begin to stock them.

For Kinnikinnick Fresh customers in Edmonton, These bagels will be available from the freezer starting April 27 and watch the bulk bins for special flavours only available in store.

Check out the complete press release here

These new bagels also have the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation's Health Check ® Program seal. To earn the Health Check symbol, every food or menu item in the program must meet nutrient criteria, established by Health Check, based on the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide. The Health Check logo tells you the food or menu item has been reviewed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s registered dietitians and can contribute to an overall healthy diet.

✝ The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s registered dietitians have reviewed these items to ensure they meet the specific nutrient criteria developed by the Health Check™ program based on the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide. A fee is paid by each participating company to help cover the cost of this voluntary, not-for-profit program. See www.HealthCheck.org.

Major upgrade to our store finder!

2013-02-14T11:13:00.002-07:00

Today we are launching a brand new store finder which combines information from our BreadSpotter program, information from some of our distributors and the power of Google Maps.

You can search by an address, a neigbourhood, a landmark or a postal code. (link here)

All the stores that we have reports of will be indicated by the Bread icon.

Click on an icon and you will be able to view the store name, address and products they are carrying (if that information is available)

You can also show only stores that are carrying our new soft breads & buns by clicking on the BreadSpotter Stores Button. This filters out any stores that do not carry the breads or that we do not have product information for. (Become a BreadSpotter for a chance to win great prizes and help others locate our products. Login if you've already joined. )

Disclaimer: While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of this store finder, store locations and product listings may change without notice. Please contact the store prior to making a trip.

Loblaws/Superstore Now Carrying New Kinnikinnick Soft Breads & Buns

2012-11-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Canada's largest grocery chain is now stocking new Kinnikinnick Soft Breads (& Buns?)

It's been a busy couple of weeks for announcements of major chains starting to carry our new Soft Breads & Buns. There was the announcement that Kroger family of companies were now carrying them in over 900 stores. Then the announcement that Sobeys Group stores as well as Metro Quebec were carrying them and now we're pleased to announce that the Loblaws group is now carrying the Soft Breads and possibly the buns.

We don't have any official word quite yet as to how many stores or which banners (Loblaws, Superstore, Supercentre) will be carrying the products but we do know that products are in the Loblaws warehouses and are starting to show up in stores. In fact, we've just had our first Spots of them in our BreadSpotter! program. We'll update this post when we know more.

Don't forget that you can join BreadSpotter and earn chances to win our monthly $100 prize package simply by reporting where you find our new breads & buns.

You can also search for Spots of the new Breads & Buns using our Spot Search utility on the homepage of our website. Follow @BreadSpotter on twitter to get tweets of the location of every new Spot.

Kinnikinnick Soft Gluten Free Breads and Buns Launch in Eastern and Atlantic Canada

2012-11-05T11:35:00.002-07:00

Products will be available at CO-OP, FoodLand, Price Chopper, Sobey's & Metro starting November 2012.

Following on the heels of our announcement last week about our launch in the Kroger Family of companies we are excited to be announcing that Kinnikinnick Soft White Bread, Soft Multigrain Bread, Soft Hamburger Buns and Soft Hot Dog Buns will be much wider distribution this November across Ontario, Quebec & Atlantic Canada.

You'll be able to find these products in:

CO-OP Atlantic

FOODLAND Atlantic

FOODLAND Ontario

PRICE CHOPPER Atlantic

SOBEY'S Urban

SOBEYS Independent stores

SOBEYS Maritimes

SOBEYS Newfoundland & Labrador

SOBEY'S Ontario

METRO Quebec

The products are already on the shelves of many of these stores. Price and availability will vary by region. Please check with your local store before making a trip.

Kinnikinnick Soft Gluten Free Breads and Buns Launch in Kroger Family of Companies

2012-10-31T15:05:00.001-06:00

Products will be available at over 900 Kroger, Ralphs, Dillons, Smith's, King Soopers, Fry's, QFC and Fred Meyer starting November 2012.

We're so excited to be announcing that Kinnikinnick Soft White Bread, Soft Multigrain Bread, Soft Hamburger Buns and Soft Hot Dog Buns will be available this November across the United States in stores of the Kroger family of companies.

You'll be able to find these products in most banners of Kroger which include Kroger, Ralphs, Dillons, Smith's, King Soopers, Fry's, QFC and Fred Meyer. Initially, the breads will be available in over 900 stores and the buns in over 450 stores.

The products are already on the shelves of many Kroger brand stores and will be full rolled out by the end of November. The products are priced nationally at $4.49 for the breads and $3.99 for the buns. Prices may vary by region.

Read the full Press Release

Don't forget that you can earn entries to our monthly $100 prize pack draw by reporting when you see these 4 new products at Kroger brand stores (or any where else!). Visit our BreadSpotter page for more details. And follow BreadSpotter! on Twitter to see all Spots as they happen.

Live Streaming Gluten Free Cooking Class October 15

2012-10-05T10:04:00.000-06:00

It's Holiday Party Time! Do you know what to bring to your next potluck? How about something gluten free that everyone will enjoy (and only know it's gluten free if you tell them!)

On October 15, 6:00pm MT (8pm ET) at we'll be hosting another Great Food, Gluten Free Cooking Class for the lucky few who can be there in person (tickets are already sold out) but everyone else can watch as we live stream to the internet.

UPDATE: We've just decided that we'll be doing some giveaways to those joining us on Twitter and Facebook during the broadcast.

For those on Twitter, live tweet your questions or comments with the hashtag #GFInsiderLive You can also use #KinnikinnickLive if you can spare the characters :)

For those on Facebook, you'll be able to watch the class from our Fan page
so just post in the comments

We'll draw randomly throughout the broadcast.
Prize packs will be in the $50 range and will include some of our new soft products.

The theme for this class is

Perfect Potluck Party

Traditional Caesar Salad

Start your party off with a traditional tangy Caesar salad with homemade dressing, served alongside a crunchy baguette crisp.

Featuring: Baguette

Artichoke & Asiago Cheese Dip

Be the life of the party with a fun and cheesy dip! A punch of flavor from the artichoke & Asiago cheese dip, served alongside golden garlic bread crisps.

Featuring: Baguette

Turkey Dijon Ginger Sliders

Not your average bar food! Even bite-sized food can be fancy… enjoy the sweet and tangy Dijon ginger sauce smothered on a fresh and juicy turkey burger.

Featuring: Panko Style Bread Crumbs & Slider Buns

Seafood Mac & Cheese

Comfort food is taken to new levels with succulent crab meat and creamy cheese. Don’t forget to save room for dessert!

Featuring: Panko Style Bread Crumbs & Tinkyada Noodles

Double Duo of Chicken Wings

Whet your appetite with an offering of two different flavours of chicken wings, prepared two different ways. Enjoy the juxtaposition of sweet and sticky hot wings, next to wings that are lightly breaded and simply tossed with sea salt and pepper. Served with artichoke & Asiago cheese dip.

Featuring: All Purpose Flour Blend

Sampling of Dessert Creations

Enjoy the traditional holiday favourite of pumpkin, and indulge in the tangy and tart flavour of tropical key limes.

Featuring: Ginger Snaps & Graham Style Crumbs

The show will be available on our UStream channel

or directly on our Facebook Page

We'll be hosting an online chat during the broadcast on UStream so you can ask questions and we'll pass them on to the hosts.

Can’t watch the live show? Don’t worry… the show and all our previous classes are archived on UStream.

Pumpkin Spice Donuts are Back + Free Stuff!

2012-09-14T11:48:00.002-06:00

In what has become a much anticipated fall tradition we're pleased to announce that our Pumpkin Spice Donuts are available again right now!

"a wonderfully spiced circle of heaven,"

"delights my insides and fills me with joy"

" It is like fall wrapped up in a neat little package"

As always these are available exclusively on our website.

While you are ordering these, make sure you add some of our new Soft Breads & Buns

"When the box arrived I rushed in the house to open it. Through the cardboard box I could smell the bread - the smell of fresh bread filled the room. I actually found myself sniffing the box before I sliced it open. Inside was a loaf of white bread, multi-grain bread, hamburger buns and hot dog buns. All were soft and looked (and smelled) freshly made."

PLUS!

For the rest of September (or while supplies last), every web order will receive a free package of our new Soft Dinner Rolls. Perfect for the holidays.

"These are fantastic!... You'll want these for Thanksgiving for sure."

Texas Eagle Scout Raises Over $10,000 for Local Gluten Free Food Bank.

2012-08-13T07:31:00.000-06:00

We were so pleased to be able to support this great project. We asked Carey to be a guest blogger so he could tell his story and to perhaps inspire others to get involved in local efforts to making gluten free available to those in need. Fantastic job Carey!

Two years ago, at the age of 14, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Since then I have been placed on a very strict gluten free diet which has improved my health greatly. This new diet has taken a toll on my family. Our monthly family grocery bill more than doubled, and my mom had to get complete new sets of kitchen supplies and designate sections of drawers to hold them. Not to mention, gluten free food can be very expensive and is not found in many common stores.

After speaking with my dietitian, I realized that celiac’s from lower income families choose to live with the symptoms because they cannot afford gluten free food. This is when I made it my mission to start a gluten free food section at the Montgomery County Food Bank in Conroe, Texas - and I would use my Eagle Scout project to make this a reality! After talking with my Eagle Scout advisor and talking through various options for achieving Eagle badge, the most prestigious rank in Boy Scouts, I decided that I wanted to try to start a gluten free section at the local food bank in my town. I had set a goal of filling a truck full of food - hoping to get $3000 worth of GF food.

I started my project by sending letters to family and friends asking them for monetary donations to purchase GF food. I held two food drives at the local Kroger grocery stores. I was able to collect over $2500 in food and money donations at these food drives. Needless to say, I cleared shelves taking nearly all the gluten free food from our 2 Kroger and HEB grocery stores!! After the food drives were completed I reached out to businesses to achieve even more funds and food. With the generous donations of family, friends and even strangers, we raised over $3600 in additional cash. Gluten Free Houston also donated 13 cases of food.

Having been on a gluten free diet for the past 2 years, I have developed a strong preference for certain brands of GF foods. I decided to contact several of my favorite gluten free companies trying to get donations for the food bank. Surprisingly, Mr. Jay Bigam from Kinnikinnick was the only company to respond and graciously agreed to support my project. Mr. Bigam and the team at Kinnikinnick were nothing short of miracle workers. Kinnikinnick supports many food banks in Canada and the Edmonton area so I should not have been surprised to find them willing to support our efforts in Montgomery County, Texas!

After many emails and working the details between Mr. Bigam and the food bank, I received a generous donation of 120 cases of Gluten Free Food from Kinnikinnick this past week. Delivery day was so exciting! On Thursday, August 9 my family and I loaded my Boy Scout troop trailer with the food I had purchased and collected and went to the food bank. After unloading my trailer, the truck from Canada showed up with a pallet of gluten free food donated from Kinnikinnick. The impact of the project was evident when the food bank staff came outside to watch. A reporter from the Conroe Courier showed up to take my picture with all of the food and write a story. It was a very exciting time for me. After all the food was weighed, the food donations weighed over 1600 pounds with a value of over $10,000!!!

I am amazed at the response of the community during this project. With the use of Facebook (liking Kinnikinnick, Montgomery County Food Bank, Gluten Free Houston), family, friends and strangers alike have become more aware of the prevalence of Celiac Disease and gluten intolerances and I don’t feel so isolated as I confront this life challenge. In fact, with the experience of this project and having met many wonderful people, my life is enriched and we have helped to educate a community on how to take care of its own.

The food bank was overwhelmed with the amount of food they received from my Eagle Project and are excited about being able to help many families in the community suffering with celiac disease and gluten intolerances. Thank you Mr. Bigam and Kinnikinnick. Your generosity is overwhelming and I appreciate all the help you provided - helping me exceed my goal!!

If you would like additional information on my project or the Montgomery County Food Bank please email me at Ulrichcarey@yahoo.com.

Carey Ulrich

The Woodlands, TX

Introducing Bread Spotter! Report Sightings of Kinnikinnick Soft Breads & Buns & Win

2012-07-11T11:57:00.000-06:00

So many people want to try our new soft breads & buns, but can't find them in stores yet. We want to use the power of social media and "crowd sourcing" to help.

With that in mind, we've developed Bread Spotter!

It's simple to use. If you see one our our new breads or buns, you can report it using the Bread Spotter! app and once verified, we'll reward you with Spot Points.

How It works

You can sign up & login on Facebook or on our website. If you are on Facebook, go to our Fan Page and click the Bread Spotter! tab (Note: Facebook does not allow page tab apps in Facebook Mobile so you can only use the Desktop version of Facebook at this time. You can still use the website link to sign up and submit spots. It's not optimized for mobile but it does work. A fully optimized Mobile App is under development.)

Once you've logged in, you'll see a map centered on the Postal/Zip code you entered when you signed up. If there are spots nearby, they'll show up as an Icon you can click. This will show the store's address, what was spotted & a price if it was reported. To see areas outside your immediate location, you can pan around the map by clicking and dragging or use the zoom buttons in the upper left hand of the map. You can also enter other locations using Postal/Zip Codes, Address or Area (neighborhood, landmark, airport code, etc.) to see what's available in those areas. Want to see what stores close to Disneyland are carrying one of the soft products? Just enter Disneyland in the search box and click Find Spots.

In the Store
When you're out shopping and you spot one of our new bread products, make note of the store name & as much address information as you can and the regular price. Take a picture of the product on the shelf with your phone if you can because we award 10 Bonus Spots Points for images.

Submitting a Spot

Register if you haven't already and Login
Click the Report a sighting button from your home screen.
Select the product you sighted from the I Spotted list
Enter the Price of the item.
Enter store & address information.
If you don't know the specific address of the store you are shopping in, add as much detail to the address field as you can. ie: 5th street & 6th avenue, Edmonton, AB
Press submit and your Spot will be saved.
10 Spot Points are awarded for a Spot.
50 Bonus Spot Points are awarded for being the first to spot a product at a store. "First Spots" are subject to verification..
10 Bonus Spot Points are awarded for uploading a picture of the item on the shelf.
Spots need to be verified so we don't have multiple entries in the system. You will be credited for every spot you make even if it's been made before. However you can only get a credit for a spot for one item at one location. If you return to that location at a later date, you won't be able to submit a spot for the same product again.
Spot points are converted into contest entries at a rate of 1 entry per 10 pts.
Once you've submitted your spot you can submit another product at the same location. (max 4 total per location)
Important Note: Spots at the Kinnikinnick Fresh Retail store in Edmonton are not eligible for participation.

What's in it for me?

Bread Spotter! is a tool to help people find our products and this is very helpful to our customers and to Kinnikinnick. As a Bread Spotter! you will earn points which are converted into entries in our monthly draw for $100 worth of Kinnikinnick products.

There's only one store near me and I've already Spotted everything!
You can report spots from anywhere so if you are on holidays you can earn points from those Spots as well. Even if you only have a few Spots, you'll still be entered in the monthly draws (you just won't have as many entries/chances to win). Your name remains in the drawing until the end of the promotion (but you can only win once every 90 days).

Don't want to be a Spotter?
You'll miss out on some great prizes but you can still use the Spots collected by others by going to our website Homepage and use the interactive search tool. Whether you are home or planning a vacation, you can check to see if there's a store carrying one of our soft products near you.

Let's Get Spotting!

Health Canada Releases New Guidelines for Gluten Free

2012-06-20T13:10:00.000-06:00

As readers of this blog may know, we write a lot about gluten testing, dedicated facilities, and cross contamination. Readers may also know that, unlike the US, Canada has had regulations for the labelling and sale of gluten free foods for at least 20 years. This has been a huge benefit to Celiacs buying gluten free products made in Canada as there is rarely a question that a product labeled gluten free is safe (ie: contains less than 20ppm gluten).

The regulation was short and sweet consisting of one line.

"A food is not permitted to be labelled, packaged, sold or advertised in a manner likely to create an impression that it is "gluten-free" unless it does not contain wheat, including spelt and kamut, or oats, barley, rye, triticale or any part thereof."

Over the past couple of years or so, Health Canada has been consulting with the medical community, researchers, industry and consumers. It has come up with new guidelines to replace the old one line entry and modernize the regulations.

As of August 4, 2012, section B.24.018 of the Food and Drug Regulations will state that:

It is prohibited to label, package, sell or advertise a food in a manner likely to create an impression that it is a gluten-free food if the food contains any gluten protein or modified gluten protein, including any gluten protein fraction, referred to in the definition "gluten" in subsection B.01.010.1(1).
Subsection B.01.010.1(1) reads:
"gluten"
(a) any gluten protein from the grain of any of the following cereals or the grain of a hybridized strain created from at least one of the following cereals:
(i) barley,
(ii) oats,
(iii) rye,
(iv) triticale, or
(v) wheat, kamut or spelt; or
(b) any modified gluten protein, including any gluten protein fraction, that is derived from the grain of any of the cereals referred to in subparagraphs (a)(i) to (v) or the grain of a hybridized strain referred to in paragraph (a). (gluten)

Along with the regulations, they have published guidelines which offer interpretations of what this actually means.

The Mostly Good

One of the problems with the old one line regulation was that there have been some instances where the regulations were not entirely clear or conflicted with other regulations.

For example, it was not clear if seasonings that had some gluten containing carrier would have to list that carrier as an ingredient since one part of the food and drug regulations exempted companies for having to list components of seasoning, natural flavours and other similar ingredients. This has resulted in most Celiacs considering anything with these types of ingredients as off limits.

The new guidelines state: "Based on the enhanced labelling regulations for allergens and gluten sources, any intentionally added gluten sources, even at low levels (e.g. wheat flour as a component in a seasoning mixture which makes up a small proportion of the final food), must be declared either in the list of ingredients or in a "Contains" statement. In these cases, a gluten-free claim would be considered false and misleading."

Yay!

Health Canada has done a fairly extensive review of the literature and based on this, they have determined that the maximum safe level of gluten in a product is 20ppm. This has been the accepted standard in Canada for years, but this is a reaffirmation of that level.

Based on the available scientific evidence, Health Canada considers that gluten-free foods, prepared under good manufacturing practices, which contain levels of gluten not exceeding 20 ppm as a result of cross-contamination, meet the health and safety intent of B.24.018 when a gluten-free claim is made.

Now I know a lot of people will say that 20ppm is too much and that the number should be much smaller. I believe Health Canada is taking a view to risk vs. benefit; that for most Celiacs, the broader availability of products with the higher threshold outweighs the risk to the portion of the population that react at a lower level. For those who do react at lower levels or those who feel that level is too high, the only option is to look for companies like Kinnikinnick who test to < 5ppm.

One thing, that as a Celiac, I have some reservations about is "With respect to gluten-free foods, only those foods that have been specially processed or formulated to meet the needs of individuals, including individuals with Celiac disease, who need to follow a gluten-free diet in order to protect their health, are considered foods for special dietary purposes and are allowed to carry a gluten-free claim."

On one hand this is a good thing as it eliminates plainly silly claims such as water labeled gluten free, which I have seen. However, taken strictly, this might prevent a mass market company from labeling a product gluten free even if it is.

The guidelines do go on to say "If a food is determined to be protective of the health of people with Celiac disease, and meets the other requirements of Division 24 (specially processed and formulated), it follows that such a food should be able to use the claim "Gluten-free", as long as it is being done in a manner that is truthful and not misleading."

This seems to give companies who are not specifically targeting people with Celiac the ability to label a product gluten free, provided they meet the standards. If that is the intent then I think that's a good thing for Celiacs.

The Not So Good (possibly, actually quite bad)

The one thing in the regulations that raises some red flags is: "If, however, a manufacturer using a cereal-derived ingredient includes additional processing steps which are demonstrated to be effective in removing gluten, then the food may be represented as gluten-free."

My interpretation of this is that companies could be using ingredients based on gluten containing grains such as wheat starch, provided they test below the threshold of 20ppm. If this is the case, this is concerning from 2 perspectives.

Firstly, do we really need to add more confusion to what is gluten free by saying "completely avoid wheat, barley, rye and oats, (except if they are specially treated and contain less than 20ppm gluten)". What are newly diagnosed Celiacs to make of that? How is it regulated, tested and enforced?

Secondly, do we know that intentionally adding gluten based grains to gluten free foods isn't going to be harmful to more sensitive individuals? As with our position with oats (more on that in a minute), we think that intentionally allowing gluten containing grains to be added to gluten free foods is a very bad idea. Our position is that if it isn't safe for all celiacs, it shouldn't be allowed.

The Really Good

As readers will know, Kinnikinnick has been opposed to allowing the use of oats in gluten free foods (even when specially raised and harvested) due to confusion, unknown risks and a clinically proven number of Celiacs who can not tolerate oats in any amount. The link above, along with the comments to the post formed the basis of our submission to Health Canada opposing any change allowing oats in gluten free foods.

We are very pleased the new regulations continue the status quo and do NOT allow oats to be included in products labelled gluten free in Canada. As a Celiac, you will still have the ability to buy and consume oats if you choose to, but they won't be labeled gluten free. As we outline in our previous post, we believe it is a very good thing that Health Canada has kept oats off the gluten free table.

Not Perfect but Not Bad.

Overall, I think Health Canada has done a pretty good job of balancing all the various factors in coming up with the new regulations. For us as a company, it's business as usual. We'll keep producing products in our dedicated gluten free facilities, testing incoming ingredients and outgoing products to <5ppm and providing consumers the safest and best tasting products we can make. As a Celiac, I look forward to being even more confident in products acceptable for sale in Canada that are labelled gluten free.

Now, FDA, about those regulations due in 2008......

Kinnikinnick Soft Multigrain Bread Wins SELF Magazine's 2012 Healthy Foods Award - Best Gluten Free Bread

2012-05-17T07:46:00.001-06:00

18 months ago, when we first started the development of our new soft breads and buns, we outlined three objectives.

To make a gluten free bread that was soft and tasty even out of the freezer.
To make a full size loaf gluten free bread with a price that was below $5.00
To make a gluten free bread that was at least as nutritionally sound as standard whole wheat bread

Your amazing comments on Facebook, Twitter and in blog reviews have shown us that we were pretty successful with #1.

Our suggested retail price for the new Soft Multigrain and Soft White is $4.99 so we nailed #2.

The new soft breads and buns became the first Gluten Free Bakery Products to qualify for the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada ^TM Health Check ^TM Program and we are very proud of that fact.

And now, we're pleased to announce that the new Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Soft Multigrain Bread has been voted by SELF Magazine (circ. 1.5 million) as Best Gluten Free Bread in the Healthy Food Awards 2012.

According to SELF Magazine:

SELF experts Willow Jarosh, R.D., and Stephanie Clarke, R.D., of New York City created the criteria to help select food awards contestants, ensuring that winners are low in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar, and are free of artificial sweeteners. Take this list along with you when you shop (or to audit what's already in your kitchen) and feel good about digging into any product that meets the guidelines!

And the award details

Kinnikinnick Soft Multigrain (150 calories, 6 g fat per 2 slices)
Made with brown rice and quinoa flours versus wheat flour, these slices are great for gluten shunners. Carb lovers were pleased with the fluffy factor. And unlike many no-gluten foods, this loaf is high in fiber: A serving supplies 5 g.

We are so pleased that we are being recognized for being the first company to disprove the notion that gluten free has poor taste and texture, is expensive and is not healthy.

We love the fact that the taste and texture of the new breads and buns are what people have been looking for and that we've been able to keep the price down.

Most of all though, we are pleased that we've been able to produce a product that you and your family can feel good about eating. I think we knocked #3 out of the park.