I have been to four grocery stores in search of gluten-free foods. They aren't that hard to find. But finding gluten-free foods made in a plant that doesn't manufacture wheat is a little harder, though.
That's the big difference between "gluten free" and "no gluten ingredients". The cross contamination, or threat of cross contamination, is what celiacs have to avoid.
Whole Foods is light years ahead of everyone else in terms of selection and signing of gluten-free foods. They gave me a little tour and handed me 20 pages of items.
SuperTarget comes in second. You have to really look, but there are Ian's frozen foods in the frozen/children's section. There are gluten free Betty Crocker mixes and Bisquick has jumped on board, too.
Trader Joe's caused me the most confusion. Looking at the five pages of g-free foods listed on their website, I was thinking it was the promised land. But most stuff has the threat of cross contamination -- gluten free, made in plants that manufacture wheat products BUT their vendors sterilize the equipment between processing runs. Well, that was an option I wasn't prepared for.
In the end, I did not buy them because I don't want to end up with more food I can't use. Even their canned black beans had wheat ingredients. That means that the gluten-free meal I served last week really wasn't gluten free.
Byerly's comes in dead last. I sent them an e-mail last Tuesday regarding some salad-bar caesar dressing. The shelf dressing has a different set of ingredients than the salad bar does. But they still haven't gotten around to responding.
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