Pica Pica -more info on the flour

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I spoke with , one of the owners of Pica Pica to ask about potential traces of wheat or oats in the arepa flour. They use the Arina Pan arepa flour product from Colombia. She said that the facility that this flour is processed in is not dedicated wheat or gluten free. She is currently in the process of having the flour tested and certified gluten free by a testing laboratory that tests to 5ppm. If and when it passes the test, she will make an announcement. This flour is only used in the arepas (it is pre-cooked flour). The other products are made from regular corn flour. so if you want to be extra careful, you can skip the arepas for now.

She also said that they have been serving arepas made with this flour for 3 years at their other location with no incident. She understands what we all go through - her grandmother had Celiac.

Best,

From: Victor Dolcourt <vdolcourt@...> Sent: Mon, June 7, 2010 5:08:04 PMSubject: [ ] When you go to Pica Pica .....

Pica Pica says that their products are gluten free. Perhaps when you go to Pica Pica you can ask them where they get their Arepa flour (Harina de maiz blanco precocida - pre-cooked white corn flour). Here is why:Since it may be a while before I get to Pica Pica I decided to make arepas at home. The recipe is simple. I also found out from Wikipedia that the largest producer arepa flour is Alimentos Polar, and the name of the product is PAN. It was easy enough to go to Chavez Market and find the real thing. I bought a 1 Kg package and took it home. A note under the ingredients list says "may contain traces of wheat and/or oat." Of course, that ruled out using the flour to make arepas.It is possible, according to wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arepa ) to make your own aripas starting with just corn - it is labor intensive. Maybe Pica Pica does it that

way. If not, it would be good to find out where their aripa flour comes from. If it is PAN, the importer of PAN - Goya Foods, or Alimentos Polar Columbia S.A. then the gluten free aspect is not guaranteedVic