Are Gluten-Free Cheerios Really Unsafe for Celiacs?

Biggest concern I have is the chemical additives in Cheerios including some that are banned from commercial use but the US government says are okay to eat! Organics don't seem to have them.

What "chemical additives" are you talking about, and what do they have to do with the gluten-free status of the cereal?

I was beyond excited to try Cheerios again after years of going without, but unfortunately I got pretty sick off the non-contaminated Cheerios.

Perhaps you are one of the 10% of celiacs who also have an oat sensitivity?

My 8 year old daughter has medically diagnosed Celiac disease, she was diagnosed at 18 months old. She vomits uncontrollably 2 hours after eating anything that isn't gluten free. She is very sensitive to it. The slightest cross contamination sends her into a vomiting frenzy that lasts up to 4 hours. This weekend she ate a bowl of gluten-free chocolate cheerios for the first time at ever. She ate them at 830am. At 1045 am she began vomiting and she knew immediately it was the cheerios. It was the only thing she had eaten that day so far. The vomiting lasted until 3pm that day. Gluten free cheerios are NOT safe for Celiacs!

My 8 year old daughter has medically diagnosed Celiac disease, she was diagnosed at 18 months old. She vomits uncontrollably 2 hours after eating anything that isn't gluten free. She is very sensitive to it. The slightest cross contamination sends her into a vomiting frenzy that lasts up to 4 hours. This weekend she ate a bowl of gluten-free chocolate cheerios for the first time at ever. She ate them at 830am. At 1045 am she began vomiting and she knew immediately it was the cheerios. It was the only thing she had eaten that day so far. The vomiting lasted until 3pm that day. Gluten free cheerios are NOT safe for Celiacs!

Is it possible your daughter is also sensitive to oats? About 8-10% of celiac sufferers are also sensitive to oats. Also, did you report this to the FDA, or to General Mills? They just need the batch information from the box for reference, and they will likely follow-up. They can do that these days. If you feel the product is unsafe, it would be good to get that info out as quickly as possible, I would think. You might save many people needless suffering.

As celiacs we must come to terms with being guinea pigs in our ever changing understanding of what is and isn't safe. If you don't feel comfortable with eating Cheerios then just wait for there to be more studies on it before trying. In the meantime please thank all the brave souls who are willing to risk their health so that you can eat your favorite foods with peace of mind.

This is focused on the sorting process. That is the FRONT END of the production. The real problem is the testing being done at the BACK END. General Mills gathers a box from all production runs for 24 hours, combines them and then tests that for Part Per Million (PPM). That is an AVERAGE PPM for the entire days production. It has no bearing on the individual box. Proof is that this testing process was in place when the recalled boxes were sent to consumers. If the testing was adequate, those boxes should never have left the plants at all. The focus of this article is on the sorting process. That is the START of the process. Cleary, if the only thing that mattered was the sorting process, then General Mills would never have needed to recall nearly 2 million boxes. I have a few questions: How many boxes are produced in a 24 hours period? Where is the raw data for the ppm testing results for those recalled products? If General Mills is so anxious to encourage customer confidence, they would be releasing these numbers to show us how these boxes made it onto shelves and into consumers hands. It is disappointing to see such a one sided argument implying that the start of the process is all that matters. Regardless of the CCA argument, General Mills continues to hide facts from consumers who need 100% transparency in order to stay healthy.

Months ago, when Cheerios came out with their Gluten Free boxes, I ate some and was just fine. However, this time around, not fine. I started snacking on them at work instead of other things as an alternative. I was feeling funky here and there but it was so minimal I chalked it up to stress. I ate a bowl Thursday night, woke up Friday fatigued, massive headache, not "right." Ate a bowl for breakfast Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Headache is more intense, my moods are sour, I'm lethargic, I feel really, really weird. BOOM! IT HAS TO BE THE CHEERIOS. It's the only new thing I've brought into my diet in the last week. For some, it may not affect them. For me, Cheerios are back on the no list.

On 10/31/2016 at 8:30 AM, Guest Doug said:

Less than 20 ppm is NOT gluten-free. I affirmed this years ago, by binging on allegedly "gluten-free" [not!] Chex when they first came out a few years ago, which incited a severe skin reaction. [i have DH, and consider myself a canary in the coal mine of gluten contamination.] I called in the FDA to test , but with their limited resources they were unfortunately unable to detect traces of gluten below 20 ppm. But, the evidence was clear: empirically, Chex was not "safe" for me. The symptoms were unmistakable, and directly related to the ingestion of Chex. I have never purchased another box, and refuse to trust General Mills "gluten-free" product line. Once bitten, twice shy. Caveat Emptor!

Fool me twice, shame on me! I just realized that "gluten free" Multi-Grain Cheerios have struck again. Foolishly, after many years hiatus, I succumbed to the ongoing discounts at CVS ($1.89/box) and picture of Ellen on the box, stocked up on a half-dozen or so . . . and have slowly been poisoning myself over the past few months. Today it all came to a head with brain fog, a sudden crash "nap" and generally itchy skin along with a stinging pustule on one of my knuckles. And then a big "Aha!" ~ Glutened again! The loose stools I've been having for the past few months, since resuming the Cheerios habit, suddenly now all made sense. Last week was a pustule on another knuckle joint, and some under-the-skin fluid buildup at the back of my neck. Why was I so stupid? So daring? So trusting? So naive? You got me once more, General Mills. Last time it was gluten-free Chex (big sales at Walgreens). Now gluten-free Cheerios. But never again! Here's the Watchdog's position statement, which hasn't changed in the past few years: Open Original Shared Link  I should have known better!