I just received an email from Dannon regarding the gluten-free status of their yogurts, including Activia:
March 04, 2010
Dear Heidi Kelly,
Thank you for contacting The Dannon Company, Inc. We sincerely appreciate your interest in Dannon yogurt products and gluten.
We do not use the term gluten free with respect to our yogurts. We separate our products into gluten safe or not gluten safe categories, depending on the specific brand of Dannon yogurt.
Dannon Plain yogurts (Lowfat, Nonfat and Natural) and Dannon Plain Activia (in the 24 ounce container) are all gluten safe. However, all other Dannon yogurts cannot be designated as gluten safe because we do not specifically test every ingredient or the overall finished product for gluten.
We hope this information is helpful to you. As an additional resource, you may wish to visit the website: www.celiac.com. Once again, thank you for contacting Dannon.
Sincerely,
Lisa Moore
Consumer Service Representative
Ref#:1201199N
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Thanks for sharing! Good news to have!
I believe Yoplait Yogurt are all labeled Gluten Free! Yeah Yoplait!
I am a bit irked at this Activia e-mail response to your inquiry about Activia being Gluten Free. I had been going on multiple statements that it IS gluten free except for the ones that have cereal grains added. I am pretty sure that is what the company told me as well, as I usually do call the manufacturers as well.
What the heck is "gluten safe" supposed to mean?
It seems for some reason they have no idea of what they are adding INTO their
"gluten safe" plain yogurts. Why don't they pay more attention to the purity of the fruit and then they would KNOW if the end result is gluten free without having to test it- which they admittedly do not do.
I will be sending this to Dannon.
It really ticks me off to find that perhaps I have been misled all of this time.
P.S. Nicole Re the Yoplait you have to check the lablels – don't get the ones with grain in them! Thanks for the reminder that the rest are G.F.
Hi Nancy!
I think most companies are using the more ambiguous statements/terms in regards to their product's gluten-free status for liability reasons. Without an official ruling from the FDA on the definition of "gluten-free," companies really don't know how to offer the information and still protect themselves against potential lawsuits. It is also important for us to remember that "gluten-free" is NOT synonymous with "free-of-gluten."
I used to buy a lot of mainstream products simply by going off the ingredient label (no gluten ingredients added), and not necessarily by the product carrying a "gluten-free" label. The problem with that is there is no way of knowing about cross contamination with gluten ingredients, especially if the companies do not test the individual ingredients they purchase from their suppliers and if they don't test for the presence of gluten in the final product.
For example, I used to buy Quaker corn meal because the ingredient label just says "corn meal," so I presumed that was safe. Then, Tricia Thompson, MS, RD, released a report back in June, 2010 about the cross contamination of naturally gluten-free grains (http://new.diet.com/blogs/read/contamination-of-naturally-glutenfree-grains/19524) and that changed everything for me. Especially after my last celiac follow-up blood test showed the presence of gluten antibodies in my blood.
I now pretty much only buy products that are either certified gluten-free or have undergone some kind of testing for the presence of gluten. It can definitely be frustrating and will further limit packaged food products, but at the end of the day, my health is my personal responsibility and the only way I can make sure I stay as healthy as possible is to ingest as little gluten as humanly possible.
Have you tried Chobani Greek Yogurt? Before going dairy-free, I ate this like crazy, it is delicious and Certified Gluten-Free! http://www.chobani.com/about/faqs
I disagree. I have read labels and made calls to companies many times and have found most to be totally informed as to whether or not their product had gluten in it. In fact, they appear to have lists because they ask the product name and almost always come back with a clear answer.
For example, the representative at Campbell's told me that NONE of their soups were gluten free. I had pretty much suspected as much but I appreciated knowing for sure just the same.
Walmart has many of their products that are labeled gluten free and that's always nice.
Activia has fiber in it. I have no idea what the fiber but "gluten safe" is different from gluten free so I won't use it.
Hi Nikolina,
Thank you for your input (and please forgive me in advance for this not being clear), but what is it in particular that you disagree with?
Thank you so much for this blog!!! Before I was diagnosed with Celiac disease I would get even more sick when I ate Activia. (it was really bad) After I was properly diagnosed I read the label where it says right on it; “Made in a wheat factory”. I’ve found that things that are “Made in a wheat factory” are much worse for me then a little flour here and there (which I still avoid like the plague.) This just helps confirm my suspicion. 😉
I’ve been checking labels like crazy for the past month, but failed to see “made in a plant that processes wheat” on the Activia label. My 8 year old daughter said, “Mommy, you’ve been eating Activia every day, right? Look at this.” Out of the mouths of babes!