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Wohoo, I am super excited! Custom Choice Cereal is featured in the GIG Quarterly, the magazine of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America!
 The GIG and their website is extremely helpful and informative, so we include it in on our page of useful links for anyone new to the gluten-free diet. Besides the fact that our young company is featured in such a highly regarded publication, I am particularly happy that they mentioned the various measures we take to ensure the safety of your customized cereal: we source only naturally gluten-free ingredients, test each ingredient for potential gluten contamination, and hand-mix each cerealization in a dedicated gluten-free facility.
It’s great to see my mugshot in the magazine… What I really hope for though is that this article will help more people realize that they can enjoy a tasty gluten-free cereal by simply creating their own. Having to follow a gluten-free diet is tough enough, let’s try to make it an enjoyable experience!
The gluten-free diet has many challenges – constant studying of ingredients labels and searching for words such as “barley malt” or “brewer’s yeast” that make you put the item in question right back on the shelf is just one of them. In order to make things a little bit easier for you, we at Custom Choice Cereal have therefore collected a few tips & tricks on how to master your gluten-free life.
Your safety is our highest priority! That’s why it has been our policy to test all of our naturally gluten-free ingredients for potential cross-contamination with gluten before they enter our facility. Our test is accurate to 10 parts per million (ppm) and thus twice as strict as the FDA’s proposed contamination threshold of 20ppm.
It turns out that it was wise to implement this safety measure. Researchers analyzed 22 naturally gluten-free grains, seeds, and flours available on supermarket shelves that were not specifically labeled gluten-free. The tests revealed shocking results:
- Almost a third (seven) products would have failed the FDA test
- One product (soy flour) contained >3,000 ppm of gluten
Tricia Thompson, nutrition consultant and lead author of the study, admits that the sample was too small to make people with celiac disease especially wary. However, it shows that it is unfortunately not safe to assume that an item can be consumed safely just because no gluten-containing ingredient can be found on the label.
You sent us at Custom Choice Cereal tons of emails over the past few months. Thanks for being so outspoken because your feedback is the best input we can get to improve what we do!
Earlier today, we reflected on the core values that govern our daily work. In line with the first two values, we work hard with various suppliers to find the highest quality gluten-free ingredients for you. Since we know how difficult it is for those of you with celiac disease or gluten intolerance to find a tasty cereal that is safe to eat, it is Custom Choice Cereal’s mission to alleviate this difficulty!
You asked for more ingredients in general, and you asked for organic ingredients in particular. It is therefore our pleasure to announce the introduction of Organic Mango and Organic Raisins as new ingredients for you to add to your personal cerealizations!
As always, we have carefully selected the highest quality ingredients that we could find and tested them for potential gluten-contamination with EZ Gluten before accepting the delivery. As stated in our values, we at Custom Choice Cereal truly are concerned about your personal safety and well-being!
We continue to work on broadening our offering, and if you have any suggestions for a particular ingredients, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time! You are also invited to read our newest press release about the broadened product portfolio.
May is Celiac Awareness month, and the States of North Carolina and New York even officially recognize this fact! As awareness for the disease and a gluten-free diet is on the rise, we at Custom Choice Cereal decided to share some interesting facts about the history of celiac disease.
Early Discovery
 A celebrated physician of the 1st or 2nd century AD, Aretaeus of Cappadocia mentioned a malabsorptive syndrome that he named “Cœliac Affection” (after the Greek word “koiliakos” = abdominal). But celiac disease didn’t get much attention until Francis Adams presented his translation of Aretaeus’ work in 1865. Even after that it took more than 20 years for a first ‘modern day physician’ to recognize celiac disease.
Turn of the 19th/20th Century
The English paediatrician Samuel Gee was a smart man – he realized in 1887 that celiac patients need to avoid highly starched foods and stated “If the patient can be cured at all, it must be by means of diet”. In the United States, Sidney V. Haas successfully treated celiac children with his ‘banana diet’ in the 1920s.
Breakthrough and Modern Day
The breakthrough came when Dutch paediatrician Willem-Karel Dicke realized that the bread shortage of 1944 significantly reduced the death rate of celiac children from over 35% to zero and soared to previous levels once bread became available again. The final link between celiac disease and the protein gluten was made by a team of researchers from Birmingham in England, which resulted in biopsy as the predominant form of diagnosis. Celiac disease was identified as an autoimmune disease and linked to specific genes in the 1990s. We invite you to watch a few videos and read about modern day definitions of celiac disease.
Custom Choice Cereal is glad that we’ve come a long way. We encourage all of you to embrace this May as Celiac Awareness month. Maybe you can help someone you know and who has felt miserable for years find out the reason for their suffering and end it!
The celiac community in North Carolina, across the United States, and even internationally was very upset when the news surfaced of a company in North Carolina advertising its bread as gluten-free even though it wasn’t. Local celiacs helped unmask this scheme by writing about it on their blogs (such as Fred from Juno Nutrition whose tests revealed the bread did contain gluten). Since the company was subsequently shut and and since Custom Choice Cereal tries to look at the bright side of things, we looked at the potential positive long-term effects of this de-facto enforcement of gluten-free labeling in January.
A very active local celiac who writes the blog Gluten Free Raleigh provided a great summary of the court hearing on Great Specialty Products and its owner Mr. Seelig that took place on February 2 here in Raleigh. During a meeting of the local chapter of the Celiac Sprue Association that took place last, representatives of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services were so kind to give an update on the case. We try to summarize the most important take-aways below.
- They thanked the celiac community because without them this would not have been possible – from bringing the case to their attention, to testifying in court, to increasing the number of complaints, local celiacs played a crucial role
- Great Specialty Products has been shut down, and the website has been taken offline
- Please do NOT consume any products you might still have at home!
- A Preliminary Injunction is in effect, and while the word “preliminary” might sound like this measure might expire or be temporary, it does in fact mean that additional legal action is required to remove it
- Complaints keep coming in (including one from Iowa on Wednesday). If you purchased bread or other bakery products from Great Specialty Products - especially in January 2010 – and have not already done so, please contact the NCDA&CS
- Anonymous complaints can be filed and have the same weight, the only difference is that the filer won’t be contacted
The next court date is set for February 24th, and we will definitely keep you posted on what will happen then.
The moment Custom Choice Cereal launched we were told again and again that we have to meet with Zach, a local celiac and author of the blog Gluten Free Raleigh. His blog is a great resource about anything gluten-free, and he shares his experiences about eating out, testing products, and other advice for (newly diagnosed or veteran) celiacs. He is also very active in the celiac community and launched a petition for the requirement of posting a food allergy poster at every restaurant in Wake county.
After recently having met Zach at our facility we are extremely happy to see his review of the custom gluten-free cereal mix that he created while he was here. He writes that “Hajo told me that I wouldn’t have to worry about the bag lasting very long and he was right. Although it’s nice to finally have a resealable bag for cereal – this product honestly doesn’t last long enough to need it!”.
Given the recent incident where a company sold bread labeled as gluten-free that tested positive for gluten, Zach was especially glad to hear about our rigorous testing policy. Custom Choice Cereal does everything in our power to ensure that our custom gluten-free cereal mixes are safe to consume, and we will never compromise on this! You can read his entire product review by clicking on the picture below.
There are two sides to everything, and Custom Choice Cereal likes to look at the positive side of what if confirmed is a rather nasty incident that happened right here in the Triangle in North Carolina. Some of you probably came across the newspaper article about a company selling gluten-free bread that might in fact have turned out not to be gluten-free.
 Several people with celiac disease who purchased the bread at the NC State Fair in Raleigh last year said they showed their typical celiac symptoms like rashes and bowel movements. The rash Rebecca Fernandez’ pre-school aged son developed are captured in a movie at MyNC.com. Blogger Fred Lybrand also tested seven loafs of the supposedly gluten-free bread and tested them for gluten. All of his tests came back positive.
The owner of the company claims that if his bread really had been gluten-contaminated he would have received many more complaints. While he is presumed innocent until proven guilty this is a bad argument as not all celiacs necessarily show symptoms despite damage being done to their small intestine.
Taking their job very seriously, the NCDA&CS filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against the company. While we are saddened that this incident happened in “our” State, it also sets a precedent for the de-facto enforcement of gluten-free labeling. Custom Choice Cereal thinks this is good news! It is also a good reminder to constantly read labels, coordinate with other celiacs in your respective communities, and to speak up!
Custom Choice Cereal has been wanting to write about this great social networking website for a while now. Adding this to our list of New Year’s resolutions apparently helped…
Gluten-Free Faces is a great website that allows anyone interested in or already on a gluten-free diet to connect with people from the gluten-free community. The functionality is obviously similar to facebook – by the way, if you have not done so already, feel free to become a fan of Custom Choice Cereal on facebook  – but there is more. We especially like the very active discussion forum where members talk about food safety, gluten tests, celiac disease, symptoms, recommendations, etc. because it is a great resource for anyone new to the gluten-free lifestyle.
Other features include gluten-free recipes, resources with links to gluten-free information and products, events, and videos. We suggest you definitely check it out. Just click on the picture below, and you are directed straight to our presence on Gluten Free Faces!
 The Huffington Post published an article by Dr. Mark Hyman on the long-term effect of gluten-intake entitled “Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You“. The article summarizes the findings of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at almost 30,000 patients between 1969 and 2008 and examined their deaths. Key findings are
- Those with celiac disease had a 39% increased risk of death
- Those with gluten-caused gut inflammation had a 72% increased risk of death
- Those with gluten sensitivity but not celiac disease had a 35% increased risk of death
This confirms a study by Dr. Joseph A. Murray that we wrote about on October 16, 2009. His research showed that over the past 50 years (a) the frequency of celiac disease increased significantly and that (b) those with celiac disease were almost four times(!) as likely to have died than those without it.
These are scary news that become even more scary when taking into consideration that the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center estimates that 97% of celiacs are currently still undiagnosed.
Dr. Hyman’s recommendation (and Custom Choice Cereal agrees): eliminate 100% of all gluten for 2-4 weeks from your diet and see if you feel any better. Then reintroduce gluten into your diet, and if you feel bad at all you should permanently switch to a gluten-free diet.
It’s 2010, and to start the year on the right foot Custom Choice Cereal now allows you to add Goji Berries to your gluten-free cereal!
We know how big a concern potential cross-contamination of naturally gluten-free ingredients is for some of you. We therefore carefully selected a vendor and tested the incoming goji berries with gluten using the EZ Gluten test from Elisa Technologies (sensitive to 10 parts per million) to make sure that they are safe to consume.
Did you know that goji berry is the commercial name for the fruits also known as Wolfberries? Native to Asia, this sweet red fruit is often times described as ranging in taste somewhere between a cherry and a cranberry. We usually display all ingredients alphabetically but chose to make an exception in this case  . Find out for yourself and add a serving of dried goji berries to your customized gluten-free cereal – start mixing now!
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Gluten-free Cereal Cerealize your Gluten Freedom! This blog serves to provide you with news on gluten-free food and updates at Custom Choice Cereal
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