I Am Also Having Problems With Gluten Free Chex

[dogle]

Could it be possible a product isn't gluten free after announcing it as such? It's not the milk I'm sure of that.

[jststric]

my first thought is that could you possibly be intolerant of other things too? I have discovered I am intolerant of rice also and thats an alternative that is usually used when making something gluten-free.

My only other thought is that perhaps they don't do all the cleaning that's necessary to be "certifiably" gluten-free between their making of the gluten-free cereals and their other products? I know some people can tolerate that kind of cross-contamination and others can't. I can't. Just an idea. You might call and ask what their procedure is to guarantee its kept seperate from the other products.

[tom]

Could it be possible a product isn't gluten free after announcing it as such?

I *still* haven't seen the gluten-free cinn here, even tho the plain rice chex were here from the beginning, I think.

Read a box yesterday.

Soooooooo .. ..I gotta ask - for all I know someone else picked it up for you - any chance it was pre-gluten-free box?

[Roda]

It could be the cinnamon flavoring. I used to have trouble with cinnamon life but not the regular before going gluten free. I have not had an issue however with the cinnamon chex.

[bklynceliac]

i've had several boxes without any problem. I doubt cc is a problem, they've put too much into this gluten-free line too be lazy about something like that.

[ksymonds84]

I already mentioned in the other post that the cinnamon one does bother me. Its the milk powder, I am very dairy sensitive. Soy lecithin is an ingredient as well. Not every reaction necessarily means gluten.

[BigDogz]

I've been pretty lucky that my local Wal-mart carries gluten-free Rice, Honey Nut, Corn and Cinnamon Chex. BUT...I had an experience of my own with that.

I bought a box of Honey Nut Chex that had the gluten-free designation on the front. Ate half the box, no problem. Had a bowl one morning, prepared as I always do with fruit on the top and the same brand and type of milk as usual. As I was eating, I noticed 2 slightly smaller and darker appearing Chex in the bowl. It brought me up short and I hemmed and hawed around about eating them and/or finishing the bowl. Eventually, I figured they were nothing more than over-browned, over-cooked Honey Nut Chex and that I was just getting paranoid about nothing.

Yeah, wish I had THAT one to do over. Just those 2 little Chex glutened the crap out of me and I felt horrible for 4 or 5 days. The next time I went to the grocery store I made it a point to look at the box of Wheat Chex and compare what had been in my bowl with the photo on the front. Yahtzee! We had an exact match. How just those 2 got in my box of Honey Nut Chex is anybody's guess, but they were there, alright.

I've bought another box since then and have done just fine, but I will tell you that I look at each and EVERY spoonful to make certain I don't find any more stray Wheat Chex lurking there. There are times that I wish people and manufacturers could experience, just once, what it is that we go through when we get glutened. I'd hazzard a bet they'd be a H

[Franceen]

I THINK I had a problem with the Cinnamon Chex, but am not 100% sure that was what it was. A Wegman's just opened up here and I've been trying out a lot of new "gluten-free" stuff. I LOVE the Cinnamon ones to eat for a snack just plain, but for now will stop. The Chocolate ones are also on my shelf now (my Hubby bought them for me as a surprise), and I'm reluctant because they, too, are flavored. In any case, my reaction wasn't severe, so I suspect it might have been just a bit of cross contamination - which I can normally tolerate.

I have no problem with the Honey Nut, Corn, and Rice ones though.

Hopefully some of us are telling General Mills so they can investigate if they have any training, cleaning or ingredients problems.

[jcford33]

Put me down for having a problem with the Cinnamon. I can't say I was glutened because my reactions are usually long and bad, but I definitely felt some gut pain for a few hours. I tried a little a couple of days later and felt the same. I've had no probs with the Rice or Honey Nut.

[Gfresh404]

Could be the whole grains.

I still have slight issues with any type of insoluble fiber, although I have gotten a lot better.

[dogle]

I know it can't be related to cinammon because I've had some desserts containing it and I didn't experience any problem. Today I still feel bad and my feces are a mess again. I really take care of the food I'm eating so I know it is not a cross contamination on my side.

[FMcGee]

I was having problems with the cinnamon one too. Today I went to the store and decided to look at the ingredients list again. Barley malt. My freakin grocery store put them in the gluten free section even though these are apparently STILL the pre-gluten-free ones. I am ashamed to admit that I cried. Aaaaaaaaaaargh.

[jayhawkmom]

I picked up a box of the cinnamon ones just the other day - both the Cinnamon AND Chocolate had barley malt in them. I put them right back on the shelf.

[FMcGee]

I picked up a box of the cinnamon ones just the other day - both the Cinnamon AND Chocolate had barley malt in them. I put them right back on the shelf.

Ugh. I didn't see barley malt in the strawberry, but can we assume the "mixed tocopherols" are safe?

[psawyer]

The new version packages have the words "Gluten-Free" in big letters on the front. If you don't see that, then you have the older version. I understand both are on store shelves.

[Judyin Philly]

I can't remember which one i saw but one of the gluten-free ones has peanut flour in it

Judy

[FMcGee]

Sigh. Are there any good, reasonably inexpensive, reasonably healthy cereals out there? I'm not into Kix and coco puffs and that kind of thing (cinnamon Chex is about as far down that path as I'll go) but I can't afford EnviroKids all the time either.

[taweavmo3]

I would love to know thier manufacturing process too.....as for us, we aren't buying any more. My dd was acting glutened for weeks, and I could not figure it out. I finally just quit buying Chex all together, even the Rice Chex that I thought she was fine with at first.

She has been her old self again, it's so nice to have my sweet little girl back! I do think it was the Chex, it was the only thing I cut out of our diet, and I waited forever to do it b/c I thought for sure that couldn't the culprit. She is now eating other whole grains just fine, which I originally thought was the problem instead of the cereal itself. So, I don't hink you are crazy for thinking it's the Chex!!!

[Judyin Philly]

I thought they said that they had dedicated lines and a room just for the gluten-free cereals b/c that's what the people wrote and said they wanted

I'll try to find the article i read.

found this article just now but guess it didn't address the cc issue

does anyone know if they wrote this somewhere else?

shoot........know i read it some where.

[Social Media Allows Giants to Exploit Niche Markets

General Mills No Longer Needs Huge Budgets to Talk to Specific Segments

By Emily Bryson York

Published: July 13, 2009

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The package-goods model has always been a no-brainer: Create a mass-appeal product; distribute it nationally; stoke demand with big-budget, shotgun-style advertising to spray the widest possible market; and hope sales hit the magical $100 million first-year benchmark.

HOT TOPIC: News of product spread fast.

But in this age of personalized web pages, super-sophisticated direct marketing and social-media tools that allow like-minded consumers to share and promote products, that traditional model is evolving at major marketers like General Mills. The $14.7 billion package-goods giant is now offering gluten-free baking products aimed at the 2% of the population with Celiac disease (which is characterized by an intolerance to gluten), and the additional 10% interested in avoiding gluten -- a niche the industry would once have dismissed as too small to target profitably.

"The classic new-product-development model was all around finding costs to pay for TV advertising," said Ann Simonds, General Mills' president-baking. But while TV is still the best way to generate mass trial and awareness, it's "not the only way anymore." Especially to reach consumers who require gluten-free foods, who are, of necessity, savvy social networkers.

But it's not just 88-year-old Betty Crocker adopting a more forward-thinking marketing recipe when it comes to package foods. Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert said the major industry players aren't just looking to develop billion-dollar brands anymore. "Just like fragmentation of TV viewing, we're seeing the same thing on supermarket shelves," he said. "It's not just about coming up with a product and selling a $1 billion or $100 million. They have to carve out these niches that very own-able and brand reliant." He added that package-food companies have grown increasingly responsive to consumer requests, removing high-fructose corn syrup, antibiotics and growth hormones whenever it makes financial sense.

Moreover, in many cases, package-goods players are developing their own niche products rather than relying on the old model of waiting to see if an upstart niche brand will be successful and then snatching it up, much like Coca-Cola did when it purchased the now-mass Vitaminwater. "For a while, the larger companies said, 'We'll let someone else do it, and then buy them if they're any good,'" said Bill Bishop, chairman of consulting group Willard Bishop. "Now it's become evident that you give up too much in opportunity by letting it get developed by the smaller players."

More variety

But what about the second key ingredient to product success, mass distribution? After all, gluten-free products would appear to run counter to the trend of retailers decreasing their product assortment counts 15% or more. But Mr. Bishop said stores are really shedding duplication, such as dozens of kinds of olive oil, and that frees up room for new products that target a need.

"What we're finding is the stores aren't really getting smaller; the retailers are saying, 'We're going to take the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 brands and our store brands, and that's it,'" Mr. Lempert said. "So there's more shelf space available than a year ago, and it allows for more [varieties] of the No. 1, No. 2 and probably No. 3 brands and store brands."

In the past year, gluten-free baking products became the most consumer-requested item at General Mills, a fact Ms. Simonds said was partly gleaned from social media as the company has more and deeper conversations with consumers. What was once a call to the consumer hot line or a two-paragraph letter is now an in-depth conversation about feelings and need states.

"The combination of talking to our own employees who have this challenge and the consumer requests we've been receiving -- the number there were, their depth and the passion -- was really compelling," Ms. Simonds said. "The fact that it happens to be a niche or smaller group of people than we traditionally serve didn't faze us, because we have this vehicle in the internet that allows us to reach those folks."

General Mills launched a gluten-free version of Chex cereal last year, and gluten-free Betty Crocker baking mixes hit the shelves last month. The platform is launching with mixes for chocolate-chip cookies, brownies, devil's food cake and yellow cake.

Passionate interest

Dena Larson, marketing manager-baking products at General Mills, said while consumers with Celiac disease are a small percentage of the population, they are well-connected. She said rumors that General Mills was developing gluten-free baking products spread across Twitter like wildfire.

Since the audience was already clamoring for gluten-free news, General Mills knew consumers would carry the message. "We felt that this was a product that was going to be marketed almost entirely digitally," said Kelli Ask, interactive-marketing manager at General Mills. "We knew this was a group of very passionate consumers, always talking to each other and looking for solutions."

The company has partnered with the major Celiac disease foundations, and invested in search-engine optimization. That's a logical move, since Ms. Ask said once a person gets a Celiac diagnosis, "the first thing they do is turn to the search engine to figure out what they can eat." And when they do, "We want them to enter 'gluten-free' or 'Celiac' and be directed to our website."

Advertizing Age Mag.

[dilettantesteph]

Gluten free doesn't mean absolutely no gluten. It just means under some certain amount. Soon to be set at 20 ppm, I think. Some of us might be sensitive to smaller amounts. That might have something to do with why the gluten free amount is set to under 5 ppm in Australia and New Zealand.

When I ate rice chex I seemed to get a gluten reaction too.

[Glutenfreefamily]

I have ate two boxes of the honey nut gluten free without a problem. My reaction is pretty obvious too that is distinctive to gluten. I havent tried the cinnamon yet as we dont eat milk.

[larry mac]

I rotate between the rice, corn, and honey nut every morning now for months. Have also had the strawberry, chocolate, and cinnamon. Haven't had any problems with any of 'em.

best regards, lm

[Ahorsesoul]

When this topic of problems with the Cinnamon Chex posted I thought to myself, "well, they don't bother me". But then I got to thinking I'd only eaten the Rice and Honey Nut gluten-free cereal.

So last week, being out of cereal, I pull out the Cinnamon Chex that said gluten free across the front. I've eaten it three different times within the last week. Once in early morning, once late afternoon and now today about 30 minutes ago.

I can hardly keep my eyes open. I was fine when I got up this morning, filled with energy and ready to go. Have had great sleep habits for several weeks. I figured it was a good time to check the chex.

All three time I've become overly tired when eating the Cinnamon Chex. Next I'll make something with cinnamon, probably Crock-pot pumpkin pudding to see if it's the cinnamon making me tired. This is the recipe I use. I just substitute my gluten free flour for the Bisquick. I've never noticed before getting this tired after eating cinnamon.

http://myallrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/10/...umpkin-pudding/

[msmini14]

When this topic of problems with the Cinnamon Chex posted I thought to myself, "well, they don't bother me". But then I got to thinking I'd only eaten the Rice and Honey Nut gluten-free cereal.

So last week, being out of cereal, I pull out the Cinnamon Chex that said gluten free across the front. I've eaten it three different times within the last week. Once in early morning, once late afternoon and now today about 30 minutes ago.

I can hardly keep my eyes open. I was fine when I got up this morning, filled with energy and ready to go. Have had great sleep habits for several weeks. I figured it was a good time to check the chex.

All three time I've become overly tired when eating the Cinnamon Chex. Next I'll make something with cinnamon, probably Crock-pot pumpkin pudding to see if it's the cinnamon making me tired. This is the recipe I use. I just substitute my gluten free flour for the Bisquick. I've never noticed before getting this tired after eating cinnamon.

http://myallrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/10/...umpkin-pudding/

mmm the pumpkin pudding sounds really good. Can I use soy instead of the milk? I eat pumpkin in the morning for breakfast hehehe

[Ahorsesoul]

I'm sure soy will work.

Soy Evaporated Milk recipe here:

http://www.godairyfree.org/Recipes/Milk-Su...-Recipes-I.html