One of my favorite sources for flours, both gluten-free and regular, good organic flour, is Bob's Red Mill. Their products are available in health food stores and in the baking aisle in fancier mainstream grocery stores (Harris Teeter and Kroger, for sure) -- they make specialty flours, gluten free bread and cake mixes, baking additives, cereals, and more.
After a lot of discussion here about whether the many gluten-y additives imported from China might be getting into the human food supply, I decided to ask them about their ingredients.
Hi folks,
I participate in discussions at a very high-traffic political website (blog) where there is a great deal of discussion going on right now about whether tainted gluten may have gotten into the human food supply. As the recall expands to more and more pet foods and now to livestock that have been fed the tainted, recalled food, people are scared. They are asking for recommendations on what's safe to eat.
I love your products (I have to eat gluten-free so I use them all the time) and I would love to be able to say to people in that discussion "yeah, I know Bob's Red Mill has absolutely safe products".
Where do your raw ingredients come from? And in items like the bread mixes that contain multiple ingredients including some additives like xanthan gum for texture, where do those additives come from? Do they also meet organic standards?
I got the following non-evasive and reassuring reply a day later:
Thanks for your kinds words about our products. We're truly committed
to providing only safe and natural ingredients in all of our products. For
those ingredients that we do not manufacture, baking powder for
example, we source ingredients from reputable manufacturers that meet
our specifications unwaveringly. Nearly all of our ingredients come
from North America, with few exceptions. Our Potato Starch for example, is
manufactured in Germany. We get it from Germany only because they make
the very best Potato Starch. Xanthan Gum, which you asked about
specifically, is manufactured here in the United States. Not all of our
ingredients are organic, but they are all safe. I assure you that none
of our ingredients come from China, the source of the recent scare
regarding wheat gluten.
If you have more questions about this, I would be happy to help. Write
back or give me a call...
(phone # removed; if you had more questions about Bob's they do respond to the contact form on their website)
So, if you're out shopping and you need some baking supplies, Bob's seems to be a reasonable choice for now. They even sell vital wheat gluten, for those who were wondering where to get gluten for use in bread-making.
Action Item: If you've contacted or plan to contact any human food manufacturers about their ingredients, tell us about it and post or describe their reply. I know someone out there contacted Hodgson's Mill, anyone have any other experiences to report?