The Gluten-Free Life is Good in Colorado!

You may have noticed that the blog has been pretty quiet lately. That’s because we were enjoying a wonderful vacation in Denver, Colorado! Here are some highlights from our trip.

• A hike through the mountains at Vail, powered by granola bars from Annie’s and Kind (sadly, neither of which are available here yet)
• An amazing time at the Great American Beer Festival, where I sampled brews from Omission, New Planet, Rickoli, Sprecher, Lakefront, and more
• A visit to New Planet Brewing, which makes gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers
• Delicious gluten-free sandwiches at the Olive & Finch eatery
• Gluten-free fried chicken at The BSide
• An amazing shared-plates meal at Root Down, where 90% of the menu is or can be gluten-free
• Plenty of fabulous Mexican food!
• A late-night gluten-free ice cream cone at Little Man Ice Cream
• Amazing gluten-free pizza from Tony P’s (probably the best I have ever had, in fact!)
• Tons of varieties of cider from Woodchuck Cider, the Colorado Cider Company, and Stem

Now, all of this didn’t happen by accident. My very thoughtful brother-in-law did a ton of research and checked out the Denver Celiac Support Group before our visit. It certainly paid off, and in the future I’ll be sure to check out local Celiac associations for dining ideas!

Results are in From the Great Gluten-Free Beer Experiment!

It can be hard to find good gluten-free beer. Brands that are 100% gluten-free use grains like sorghum, rice, buckwheat, quinoa, and millet. Unfortunately, it can be hard to mimic the taste of “real” beer without the flavour of barley. (Montréal-based Glutenberg is our favourite, and pretty easy to find in Nova Scotia. Other parts of the country and the U.S. have far more options, such as Mongozo, Green’s, and New Planet.)

Another, more controversial, method of making gluten-free beer is to make beer in the traditional way (with barley) and then treat it to remove the gluten. U.S.-based brewery Omission does this, as well as the Spanish brewery Estrella Damm Daura. Both take great lengths to assure consumers of the safety of their products: Estrella Damm Daura is marketed as “suitable for Celiacs” and Omission tests each batch and puts the results on each bottle, with a QR code that takes you to a more detailed report.

Some Celiacs feel that it’s dangerous to consume anything that originally contained gluten, but there are other products (like wheat glucose and blue cheese) that are manufactured to remove gluten. What sold me on Omission is their Celiac CEO, who has been testing their products for years.

Michael recently started making homemade beer and decided to look into how Omission makes their beer gluten-free.

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FDA Releases Gluten-Free Position Statement

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an official position statement on what foods can be labeled gluten-free. Key points of the ruling:

• Foods labeled “without gluten,” “free of gluten,” and “no gluten” are all held to the same standard
  
• Foods must contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten to be declared gluten-free
• Gluten-containing grains that have been processed to remove gluten (such as Omission and Estrella Damm Daura beers) can be labelled gluten-free as long as they are tested and show less than 20 parts per million of gluten

Food producers have a year to meet the new guidelines. The FDA estimates that about 5% of foods in the United States that are labelled gluten-free actually contain more than 20 parts per million of gluten, so Americans may see fewer gluten-free foods on the shelves.

These guidelines are similar to Health Canada’s position statement on gluten-free labeling.

This comes on the heels of a recent announcement by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (the American equivalent to the Canadian Celiac Association) that they are partnering with the CCA in their gluten-free certification program, ensuring consistent gluten-free certification in both countries. This certification process is much more rigorous than the gluten-free labeling rules, requiring extensive auditing, interviewing, and testing.

Road Tripping in Search of Gluten-Free Beer!

Michael and I just got back from a short road trip down through Maine. I love outlet shopping and seeing what kind of gluten-free goodies I can find at grocery and liquor stores. I tried three new gluten-free beers in four days! Unfortunately, none of these are currently available in Canada, so I think it’s time to do some lobbying.

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