I wasn’t sure if I would say anything about this. Oats have long been a controversial topic in the gluten free universe. Which oats are safe for those of us with Celiac Disease? Where to find them?
That’s right, Gluten Free Watchdog is saying that NO oats are safe. Not certified gluten free oats, not purity protocol oats. Too many of their recent product samples have tested above the limit (20 parts per million) for gluten.
Read: Brief history of oats & Gluten Free Watchdog’s evolving opinion [2]
So, what changed? If oats are a naturally gluten free grain, why are they so vulnerable to contamination with gluten? Here are a few ways that it can happen.
In the field, oats may be grown alongside gluten containing grains (wheat, barley and rye). The farm may employ crop rotation, where the land used to grow oats may have been planted with gluten grains in previous years.
The oats may become contaminated with gluten grains during harvesting and transporting, when the same equipment is also used for wheat, rye and barley. Exposure may occur during the production and packaging of the product. The optical/mechanical sorting of grains and random methods of batch testing add yet another layer of complexity.
Even with so many opportunities for oats to become contaminated with gluten before they find their way to your bowl of oatmeal, I think many of us always believed that we had safe options, like purity protocol oats. Now we are advised that there are no safe options, and I’m stunned.
And a little sad, actually that yet another food I love may be on the forbidden list. Angry that companies whose oat products I trusted (and paid a hefty premium for) may not be gluten free.
And while I have faith that there are some very smart people out there who will eventually figure this out, right now this is our reality. So, what to do?
Whether or not you continue to consume oats is a personal choice. As we await more information, I have identified the recipes in this blog that include oats as an ingredient (thankfully, there are not many). For now, I will preface each of those recipes with an alert and link to this post. Moving forward we will see if oats are truly off the table for good. If that’s the case, I will either remove or revise the recipes, with alternatives for the oats. Hopefully, more updates will be coming soon with better news.