Rice Dream and Imagine Foods

[Guest guest]

Following is response directly from Imagine Foods regarding all of their

products:

Subject:

Re: Rice Dream " Ice Cream "

Date:

Wed, 18 Oct 2000 07:00:12 -0700

From:

To:

Gurin

Hello again,

There IS Soy Lecithin in small amounts in ALL of the frozen desserts. We are

in the process of re-designing and printing/ updating our frozen dessert

packaging at present to include the Soy Lecithin as an ingredient on the

ingredient panel.

Here is our info on gluten free, dairy free and Kosher for your information:

The following products do not contain dairy ingredients:

Power Dream, Soy Dream, Imagine Natural Garden Vegetable Soups, Rice Dream

Beverages, Imagine Pudding Snacks, all Kosher Parve flavors of The Rice Dream

Frozen Desserts , and the Pot Pie, Szechuan Veggie, and Indian Curry. Note:

The remaining Stuffed Sandwiches contain organic dairy cheese, and the Veggie

Burgers, while cholesterol and lactose free, are made with " soy cheese " which

contains casein (an isolated milk protein).

Rice Dream Frozen Desserts (Pints & Quarts), Rice Dream Bars - Rice Dream

Pies:

Our basic line of Rice Dream Frozen Dessert products is completely free of

dairy ingredients. However, a number of our items and flavors contain added

chocolate or carob coatings, chips, coated almonds or peanuts.

Since we cannot make these carob and chocolate coating products ourselves, we

purchase them from a very reputable, California based, natural ingredients

supplier, nSpired. Like most confection companies, nSpired's manufacturing

facility for chocolate and carob products includes the production of milk

chocolate products. Due to the nature of chocolate manufacturing and cleanup,

it is impossible to absolutely guarantee 100% that no trace amount of dairy

ingredients is present when non-dairy chocolate formulations are produced.

nSpired adds no dairy ingredients of any kind to their formulas for any

non-dairy chocolate or carob product that they make for us, or sell themselves.

Each batch of nSpired chocolate or carob is lab tested to detect the presence

of trace amounts of dairy. If any trace amount is detected, the chocolate is

rejected. nSpired can only " guarantee " the products to be dairy free down to a

level of 0.5%.

Because their carob and chocolate is only one ingredient in our frozen

desserts, if there were to be any trace of dairy in their product below 0.5%,

it would be in Rice Dream Frozen Desserts at a parts per million level.

Cloud Nine, an East Coast based chocolate company making Tropical Source bars,

obtains guaranteed 100% dairy free chocolate from Israel, where no milk

chocolate is run on the same manufacturing line as the nondairy chocolate. As

far as we are aware, this Israeli source is the only plant in the world that

does this.

Because of our manufacturing needs for different ingredients, and the timing

for obtaining these products, purchasing from the Israeli company is not a

practical solution that could work for us.

We remain very confident in the integrity and quality of the chocolate and

carob products we purchase from Sunspire. However if an individual is extremely

allergic to the presence of even trace amounts of dairy (parts per million), it

is our advice that s/he avoid the use of any of our Rice Dream products which

contain chocolate or carob coatings or chips. These include the items and

flavors listed below. The rest of our line of Frozen Dessert products are 100%

dairy free and can be safely consumed even by highly allergic individuals.

(Note: We are currently in the process of printing a warning on the appropriate

packages to indicate the possible presence of dairy at a parts per million

level.)

The following flavors of Rice Dream Frozen Novelties and flavors in pints and

quarts may contain trace (parts per million) amounts of dairy:

All flavors of Rice Dream Frozen Pies and Bars

Chocolate Chip

Mint Carob Chip

Vanilla Swiss Almond

Mint Chocolate Chip

Cherry Chocolate Chunk

Chocolate Almond Chunk

Double Espresso Bean

Peanut Butter Cup

THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS ARE CERTIFIED KOSHER PARVE O.U.

RICE DREAM® BEVERAGES SOY DREAM™ BEVERAGES

Original Original

Original Enriched Original Enriched

Carob Carob

Chocolate Enriched Chocolate Enriched

Vanilla Vanilla

Vanilla Enriched Vanilla

Enriched

IMAGINE NATURAL® PUDDINGS

Banana Pudding

Butterscotch Pudding

Chocolate Pudding

Lemon Pudding

POWER DREAM™ BEVERAGES

Chai

Chocolate

Coffee

Raspberry

Vanilla

IMAGINE NATURAL® GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUPS

Organic Creamy Butternut Squash

Organic Creamy Broccoli

Creamy Portobello Mushroom

Organic Creamy Potato Leek

Organic Creamy Sweet Corn

Organic Creamy Tomato

Organic No-Chicken Broth

Organic Free Range Chicken Broth

Organic Vegetable Broth

RICE DREAM® FROZEN DESSERTS

Cappuccino

Cappuccino Almond Fudge

Carob

Carob Almond

Chocolate

Cocoa Marble Fudge

Orange Vanilla Swirl

Pralines 'N Dream

Vanilla

THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS ARE CERTIFIED KOSHER DAIRY O.U.D.

RICE DREAM® FROZEN DESSERTS

Cherry Vanilla

Chocolate Chip

Cherry Chocolate Chunk

Chocolate Almond Chunk

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Cookies 'N Dream

Double Espresso Bean

Mint Carob Chip

Mint Chocolate Chip

Mint Chocolate Cookie

Neapolitan

Peanut Butter Cup

Strawberry

Vanilla Swiss Almond

THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS CARRY NO KOSHER CERTIFICATION:

IMAGINE NATURAL® STUFFED SANDWICHES

RICE DREAM® BARS

RICE DREAM® PIES

The following Imagine Foods products are gluten free:

Imagine Natural® Garden Vegetable

Soups

Soy Dream® Beverages

Imagine Natural® Puddings

Power Dream® Natural Energy Drinks - Raspberry and Chai

flavors

Rice Dream® Frozen Desserts in plain Carob, Chocolate, and

Vanilla flavors only

There are two primary areas of concern regarding the gluten content of our Rice

Dream products. They are:

1.) The use of enzymes grown on grain in processing.

2.) The use of grain alcohol based flavoring extracts.

Rice Dream Beverage is made primarily from rice; it contains no whole wheat or

barley ingredients. However, our patented enzyme process utilizes enzymes to

convert the complex carbohydrates in brown rice to naturally occurring sugars.

These enzymes are derived from various grains including barley. It is this

process that gives Rice Dream products their sweet flavor without the need for

added sweeteners. The actual grains used to grow the enzymes are discarded

after the enzymes are extracted.

It is possible that gluten may exist in minute amounts in the final product.

The barley protein in the final Rice Dream Beverage product, if present at all,

would occur in parts per million amounts (less than 5 mg barley per 8 oz

serving).

The Imagine Foods Non-Dairy Frozen Desert products that do not contain alcohol

based flavoring extracts are the Carob and Chocolate flavors. Products that

contain corn-based extracts are: All flavors of Power Dream, Imagine Natural

Puddings, and The Vanilla Flavor Rice Dream Frozen Dessert. These products

should be acceptable in a gluten-free diet.

The following products do not contain DAIRY ingredients:

Power Dream, Soy Dream, Imagine Natural Garden Vegetable Soups, Rice Dream

Beverages, Imagine Pudding Snacks, all Kosher Parve flavors of The Rice Dream

Frozen Desserts , and the Pot Pie, Szechuan Veggie, and Indian Curry. Note:

The remaining Stuffed Sandwiches contain organic dairy cheese, and the Veggie

Burgers, while cholesterol and lactose free, are made with " soy cheese " which

contains casein (an isolated milk protein).

Rice Dream Frozen Desserts (Pints & Quarts), Rice Dream Bars - Rice Dream

Pies:

Our basic line of Rice Dream Frozen Dessert products is completely free of

dairy ingredients. However, a number of our items and flavors contain added

chocolate or carob coatings, chips, coated almonds or peanuts.

Since we cannot make these carob and chocolate coating products ourselves, we

purchase them from a very reputable, California based, natural ingredients

supplier, nSpired. Like most confection companies, nSpired's manufacturing

facility for chocolate and carob products includes the production of milk

chocolate products. Due to the nature of chocolate manufacturing and cleanup,

it is impossible to absolutely guarantee 100% that no trace amount of dairy

ingredients is present when non-dairy chocolate formulations are produced.

nSpired adds no dairy ingredients of any kind to their formulas for any

non-dairy chocolate or carob product that they make for us, or sell themselves.

Each batch of nSpired chocolate or carob is lab tested to detect the presence

of trace amounts of dairy. If any trace amount is detected, the chocolate is

rejected. nSpired can only " guarantee " the products to be dairy free down to a

level of 0.5%.

Because their carob and chocolate is only one ingredient in our frozen

desserts, if there were to be any trace of dairy in their product below 0.5%,

it would be in Rice Dream Frozen Desserts at a parts per million level.

Cloud Nine, an East Coast based chocolate company making Tropical Source bars,

obtains guaranteed 100% dairy free chocolate from Israel, where no milk

chocolate is run on the same manufacturing line as the nondairy chocolate. As

far as we are aware, this Israeli source is the only plant in the world that

does this.

Because of our manufacturing needs for different ingredients, and the timing

for obtaining these products, purchasing from the Israeli company is not a

practical solution that could work for us.

We remain very confident in the integrity and quality of the chocolate and

carob products we purchase from Sunspire. However if an individual is extremely

allergic to the presence of even trace amounts of dairy (parts per million), it

is our advice that s/he avoid the use of any of our Rice Dream products which

contain chocolate or carob coatings or chips. These include the items and

flavors listed below. The rest of our line of Frozen Dessert products are 100%

dairy free and can be safely consumed even by highly allergic individuals.

(Note: We are currently in the process of printing a warning on the appropriate

packages to indicate the possible presence of dairy at a parts per million

level.)

The following flavors of Rice Dream Frozen Novelties and flavors in pints and

quarts may contain trace (parts per million) amounts of dairy:

All flavors of Rice Dream Frozen Pies and Bars

Chocolate Chip

Mint Carob Chip

Vanilla Swiss Almond

Mint Chocolate Chip

Cherry Chocolate Chunk

Chocolate Almond Chunk

Double Espresso Bean

Peanut Butter Cup

Please don’t hesitate to contact me again, or visit our website at

www.imaginefoods.com for detailed product information and store locations.

Sincerely,

Howe

Consumer Relations