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Gluten Free Cheerios

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Gluten Free Cheerios, Are They Really Gluten Free? Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects about 1 in 133 Americans. Those with Celiac must stick to a strict gluten free diet in order to heal the lining of their intestines. When people with Celiac ingest gluten, their body triggers an immune response that attacks the small intestine. Some experience mild discomfort and bloating while others experience a more serious reaction which can make them very sick for many days. Having Celiac can change your life dramatically, but in the past five years the selection of gluten free foods has significantly improved. In 2007, Phil Zietlow proposed the “Gluten Free Project” to General Mills. He was not the only person to propose this major …show more content…

For years, General Mills used their greatest planners and engineers to conduct a plan that would be safe for those with Celiac and Gluten Intolerance. General Mills heavily invested in new facilities and equipment for Gluten Free Cheerios. Millions of dollars were put towards a new multi-floor facility purely dedicated to separating gluten free oats. This new facility is where the various grains are separated and later ground into oat flour. An immense amount of money was also spent on the installation of walls, machinery, and thorough cleaning for other facilities. The extreme cleaning of all General Mills facilities that would process Gluten Free Cheerios would eliminate and possible threats of cross contamination (Olmsted). Ever since 1880, General Mills has been trusted for their exceeding quality and their perpetual satisfaction, “If General Mills indicates that Cheerios are gluten free, then I would believe that they are indeed gluten free,” he said. “I also personally know that General Mills is a very cautious company and that they would be unlikely to take any chances with the labeling decision” (Steve L. Taylor, Ph.D). Based on the amount of time and money invested into this project, General Mills highly cares about the safety of their customers and their main goal is for everyone to be …show more content…

Throughout the letter, he explained what mistakes were made during the production of this lot of Cheerios. During the time that the error took place, “Our Lodi production facility lost rail service for a time and our gluten-free oat flour was being off-loaded from rail cars to trucks for delivery to our facility on the dates in question. In an isolated incident involving purely human error, wheat flour was inadvertently introduced into our gluten-free oat flour system at Lodi. That error resulted in an undeclared allergen – wheat – being present in products labeled as gluten free at levels above the FDA gluten-free standard. This mistake occurred at just one plant, in Lodi, and the Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios produced at our other plants were not affected” (Murphy). Press releases of the situation confirmed that, in fact, the problem was nothing but human error. No evidence of production and oat separation error occurred at any of the General Mills facilities, therefore no other accusations could be made about the situation. Jim Murphy was very remorseful and embarrassed about the situation; he wanted to make it clear that General Mills was going to work even harder to earn back the trust of those affected or those put at

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