FW: wheat starch containers

[Guest guest]

I thought you might be interested in this information on take-home food

containers made from wheat starch. The e-mail exchange I am forwarding is

between Don Kasarda (the USDA's celiac guru) and Ellen Switkes of the

Oakland group. Some of you may have seen the update (see the link below) on

this on Celiac.com. (I suggest you start out by reading the e-mails from

Ellen and Don that follow my comments; things will make more sense that

way.)

In spite of Don Kasarda's sanguine attitude about how unlikely it is for the

protein to contaminate the food in the container, I personally will never

knowingly use or allow the celiacs in my family to eat food from these

containers. The same reasoning goes for the utensils that are being made

from wheat starch. Here are my reasons why:

1. They say the containers are made from the starch and the protein is

removed. As you can see from Don's comment with two out of three wheat

starch batches being low in protein and one " a little high, " the process is

uneven. Some batches are low, some are higher. The process is never going

to be perfect. Contamination, a little or a lot, is always a possibility.

Keep in mind that the makers of wheat starch are not thinking, " oh, I guess

we must be extra careful to avoid contamination of the starch with protein. "

They most likely don't pay any attention to this at all, and if an accident

occurs or something slips by, so what? Perhaps their may be a batch where

the protein is very high. Where there is wheat starch, there will always be

some amount of wheat protein. Which means you CANNOT guarantee that the

container you have your food in is a low one, not a very high one; this is

gluten roulette.

2. As to amounts, the amount of gluten may be small, but no one really

knows how safe it is for celiacs to eat any amount of gluten. It is just

impossible to measure what effect it has. They do know that the more gluten

a celiac consumes the higher their mortality rate is. So knowing this, I

feel that there is no acceptable amout of gluten we should knowingly ingest.

There is gluten out there in the world; we have no control over that and we

are exposed to it no matter how careful we are. All a celiac can do is to

avoid any and all wheat that we know about. To me, these containers and

utensils are wheat we know about.

3. Yes, in Europe they eat products made with wheat starch. I have also

heard that the mortality rate is higher among European celiacs than in

American celiacs who do not eat products made from wheat starch.

4. The theory that the coating will keep the wheat away from the food is

just that, a theory, until it is tested (unlikely that it ever will be)

under a variety of conditions. Suppose the food is high acid and that

dissolves the coating? What happens if the container is heated with the food

in it? Also, what is the coating made of?

I am not suggesting that these containers and utensils should not be made;

however I do think celiacs have a right to avoid them if they so choose.

Avoiding them means being able to know about them and recognize them. I

think ceilacs have a right to ask these manufacturers to label their product

so that we can recognize and avoid them if we so choose.

Pam Newbury

Santa Cruz Celiac Support Group

831-423-6904

pknewbury@...

At 07:14 PM 10/3/2004, you wrote:

>Ellen,

>

>Yes, these are colleagues here at WRRC. The reason they are doing this

>work is because the wheat growers and certain starch manufacturers have

>put pressure on USDA-ARS, and sometimes provided funds for, research into

>alternative uses for wheat starch, i.e., other than food uses.

>

>My feeling is that it is a matter probably not worth worrying about for

>the reasons you mention. Any gluten in the wheat starch would probably

>not leach from the container into the food because of the coating and if

>the starch is as low in gluten as the company people claim, you could eat

>the whole container without it being a significant problem. Now, I have

>no idea how the company mentioned tested the starch and whether the

>results are valid, but I have looked at three US and Canadian produced

>wheat starches. I think of the three starches examined, two were very low

>in gluten and one was a little high. I would not recommend eating the

>container made from the high level starch--or at least not eating more

>than one per day. Please excuse my poor attempt at humor, but that is

>likely to be the case--not enough exposure of a patient from use of the

>cartons.

>

>Of course, I am not pontificating with official blessing. These are my

>opinions only. Can't back them up with detailed scientific studies.

>

>Best wishes,

>

>Don

>

>

>>Don,

>>

>>If you have time, can you review the report found at

>>http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=1032 that

>>included in a recent mailing about celiac issues at www.celiac.com. It

>>looks like these are colleagues of yours in Albany. I'm concerned about

>>the comment about levels of gluten found in wheat starch.

>>

>>However, since these containers seem pretty waterproof, it's unlikely

>>that much if any of the container material will dissolve into the food,

>>at least if you don't leave it in the container in the back of your

>>refrigerator for days before eating.

>>

>>Do you have any comments about the safety of this product for celiacs. I

>>wonder why they don't just plan to use corn starch anyway, since there's

>>tons of it around which is not the case for wheat starch.

>>

>>Ellen

>

>

>--

> D. Kasarda

>U. S. Department of Agriculture

>Agricultural Research Service

>Western Regional Research Center

>800 Buchanan Street

>Albany, CA 94710

>U.S.A.

>

>Tel.: (510) 559-5687

>

>Fax: (510) 559-5777

>

>E-mail: kasarda@...