Ardent Mills said Monday it plans to buy the assets of Firebird Artisan Mills, which processes pulses and specialty grains at Harvey, N.D., about 240 km south of Brandon, Man.

Ardent and Firebird — the latter today owned by Kansas City-based holding company Agspring — are “continuing with due diligence” and expect to close a deal by the end of this year. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in Monday’s release.

Firebird bills itself as producing more than 30 ICS (International Certification Services)-certified gluten-free flours at a dedicated gluten-free, organic and kosher facility.

Denver-based Ardent has already made moves into the gluten-free, specialty flour and plant-based ingredient spaces. It made a deal earlier this year to buy Washington chickpea processor Hinrichs Trading Co., and last year bought California quinoa processor Andean Naturals.

A deal for Firebird, Ardent said, will “enhance customers’ access to gluten-free flours, mixes, blends and specialty grain products; provide additional supply chain assurance; and add additional capabilities to (its) leading R+D, technical, food safety and quality assurance teams.”

Firebird has already been “a collaborative and well-established partner of ours in the gluten-free and specialty ingredients space since the formation of Ardent Mills,” Ardent CEO Dan Dye said in Monday’s release.

“Ardent Mills has the right expertise in bringing together strong network supply chains and operating as a nimble and flexible company. Moreover, they share the same strong food safety and quality assurance values as us,” Agspring CEO Mark Beemer said in the same release. “These are just a few reasons why we believe that Ardent Mills is the right fit to take Firebird to the next level of growth.”

Agspring’s other holdings include Mississippi Delta-based grain handler Big River Rice and Grain; Idaho grain handler Thresher Artisan Wheat; and Kansas City logistics firm AgForce Transport Services.

Ardent has mills in 20 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, plus three Canadian sites, at Saskatoon, Montreal and Mississauga. The company has previously said its growth plan involves further investment in specialty ingredients and diversifying its portfolio beyond wheat flour.

Ardent itself was set up in 2014 as a joint-venture company merging the milling operations of ConAgra Foods and Horizon Milling — the latter already a joint venture between Cargill and U.S. ag co-operative CHS.

It also set up The Annex by Ardent Mills in 2018 to offer plant-based proteins and other specialty ingredients made from pulses as well as barley, rye, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum, spelt, triticale and teff, an edible grass seed. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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As I opened a package of bacon to cook while camping on the holiday weekend, I learned from the label that it was “gluten-free.”

Gluten-free bacon? I was confused. Since when does bacon, which comes from animals, contain gluten, which is one of the components of the proteins in cereal grains?

It reminded me of a recent Twitter feed where the writer posted a photo of a service truck that offered “gluten-free tree trimming” and asked where he could find a gluten-free oil change.

When we were back on the grid, I Googled “does bacon contain gluten?” It seemed confused too. I waited several minutes and received no answer.

So I asked Siri, who referred me to Celiac.com where someone commented: “I have never encountered bacon that was not gluten-free.”

The next website on Siri’s list was a little less reassuring for those who are concerned about such things.

“Not all bacon is truly gluten-free,” the website verywellfit.com says. “The vast majority of bacon products don’t include any gluten ingredients. However that doesn’t mean that your bacon is truly gluten free, you need to check it for potential gluten cross contamination… (products) may contain trace amounts of gluten because they’re processed in a shared facility or on shared equipment.”

As bacon typically comes from facilities that process other meat products, I suspect the prospects for such contamination would be exceedingly low.

But with many consumers avoiding gluten, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and various artificial additives for a whole host of reasons, we’re seeing a lot of food products bearing labels that tell us what is not in our food, rather than what is.

Looking through my cupboards I find crackers that boast prominently on the label that they are “non-GMO verified,” which actually tells me very little about their nutritional quality or how they were produced.

It tells me a lot about what food manufacturers think will convince me to choose their products over their competitors’.

University of Dalhousie researchers led by Sylvain Charlebois, dean of the Faculty of Management, recently delved into the consumer psyche around GMOs and labelling. Survey results published recently are a stunning rebuke of how commercialization of the technology was handled in the late 1990s.

The industry took the position that it would be too expensive to label foods made with genetically modified ingredients, and it would lead some consumers to believe that they were different or unsafe, even though the nutritional quality was unchanged. However, refusing to tell consumers up front that the technology was in play allowed critics to claim the industry had something to hide.

It opened the door to reverse marketing, in which manufacturers can imply their products are better because they don’t contain something — even if that food never contained it in the first place.

The survey shows that consumers remain confused and uncertain about the merits of GMOs in the food system. “While 37.7 per cent of Canadians believe GM foods to be safe, 34.7 per cent do not.”

Just over half of consumers reported being unsure of whether they are even eating them, even though an estimated 75 per cent of food products contain at least one ingredient produced using the technology.

On one point the results were unequivocal. More than 85 per cent of Canadians think GMO foods or ingredients should be identified on the packaging label.

While the survey showed that price remains the most important determinant in a consumer’s food-purchasing decision (55.5 per cent), second on the list at 41.3 per cent was the category “no hormones or antibiotics.”

The labels promoting meat from animals raised without hormones and antibiotics are tough for producers to accept because even meat from animals raised with those production aids should contain neither. However, those labels do tell consumers something about the production system used to raise those animals.

Nutritional content, which arguably should be first in the Dalhousie survey, came third at 39.6 per cent. Non-GMO was sixth at 21.7 per cent.

Reverse labelling is clearly an effective marketing strategy. Some labels help consumers choose food according to their dietary needs or ethics; others are simply mischievous.

With a population that is increasingly unknowledgeable about where food comes from and how it is made, the onus is on the food industry to ensure labelling contributes to clarity rather than confusion.

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Portage la Prairie-based Best Cooking Pulses and Regina-based Avena Foods on Monday announced a new partnership agreement they say will boost cross-selling and market penetration.

Financial terms of the partnership, which takes effect this month, weren’t disclosed in Monday’s announcement, though the two companies said via email their management “continue to have ownership and will be part of the business for the long term.”

“The structure of this partnership will allow us to take advantage of synergies and to build on the existing strengths of both companies,” Best Cooking Pulses president Trudy Heal said in Monday’s release.

The synergies from the partnership deal, the companies said, will be on the customer side, “where we can leverage each brand’s customer base, increasing product offerings to existing customers, and both Avena Foods’ and Best Cooking Pulses’ overall market penetration.”

The two companies also said their operations and brands will continue as is, with new product offerings in the “not too distant future” resulting from “shared proprietary technology and expansion of the ‘Purity Protocol’ program into pulses.”

The “Purity Protocol” refers to Avena Foods’ regime of food safety and traceability protocols, which it said is meant to provide customers with “superior-quality certified gluten-free oats” consistently below the five-parts-per-million level.

The protocol, as applied at Avena, is meant to guarantee oats free from wheat, barley and rye, processed at a gluten-free and allergen-free facility, supplied by a network of over 90 gluten-free growers across Western Canada and moved through a “controlled distribution” system.

Avena and BCP emphasized they both have “strong” food safety programs but are “exploring opportunities” for farmers to supply pulses that can meet “Purity Protocol” benchmarks.

Most conventional and certified organic producers supplying BCP, though, can expect “business as usual” with the Manitoba company, the two firms said.

Formed by pedigreed seed growers in 2008, Avena has been majority-owned since June last year by Toronto-based private equity firm Ironbridge Equity Partners, which focuses on “traditional industry businesses in the manufacturing, distribution, consumer products and services with distinct competitive advantages.”

BCP, which has been in the pulse trade since 1936, produces pulse flours, pea hull fibres and related ingredients at its milling plant in Portage la Prairie, and operates a pulse plant at Rowatt, Sask., just south of Regina, where it cleans and bags whole peas, lentils and chickpeas, and de-hulls, splits and polishes peas.

The company’s customers have included Toronto organic and “natural” processor SunOpta, with which it signed a distribution deal in 2009 to produce pea fibre under the SunOpta brand. — AGCanada.com Network

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General Mills announced last week it will remove the “gluten-free” claim from Cheerios sold in Canada starting in January, though it said its products still comply with gluten-free standards in both Canada and the U.S.

“Each serving of Cheerios products in Canada are gluten free, as defined by the current regulatory standard of containing less than 20 (parts per million) of gluten,” the company said on its website.

The company said it will “voluntarily remove the gluten-free label from our Cheerios products in Canada until Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) publish a consistent testing protocol for products containing oats.”

The company emphasized its product is not changing, “just the label on the box,” and that it plans to again label Cheerios products in Canada as gluten-free “once consensus is reached on a consistent testing protocol.”

The Canadian Celiac Association, which represents people with celiac disease — a medical condition in which exposure to gluten can damage the absorptive surface of the small intestine — on Thursday hailed General Mills’ decision.

However, the CCA noted, it has “objected” to General Mills’ gluten-free claim for Cheerios since August last year — and has since “strongly recommended” that people with celiac disease not consume Cheerios products.

“Based on the advice of the members of our professional advisory council (PAC) and other professionals working in the field, we believe that there is not adequate evidence to support the current gluten-free claim,” CCA executive director Melissa Secord said in a release.

The CCA noted it has received a grant from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada to examine the scope of gluten contamination in oats, pulses and other grains grown in Canada.

The association said its study also aims to determine where such contamination occurs as grains are processed, such as in the field, at harvest, in transport or in processing. The CCA said it expects that project to be completed in March.

In regular commercial oats, cross-contamination with gluten-containing grains “can occur at any point in the production chain, as they are typically grown, harvested, transported, stored, milled or packaged in close proximity with other cereal grains, under practices accepted by Canadian regulations,” according to Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

Another concern, AAFC said, has been that the avenin protein in oats is believed to trigger a similar reaction in some people’s small intestines as from wheat, rye and barley.

“Pure” oats, produced from dedicated fields and equipment, have been developed in Canada, under controlled conditions to eliminate cross-contamination with other cereal grains, the department said, but Canadian regulations do not distinguish between regular and “pure” oats.

The department cites the CCA as indicating adults with celiac disease can safely consume half to three-quarters of a cup of pure dry rolled oats per day, and that children can consume one-quarter cup (20 to 25 grams) per day.

However, AAFC said, oats “should only be introduced when celiac disease is well controlled, and with supervision from a health care professional.”

In its document on gluten-free claims, AAFC said Health Canada “recognizes the need to develop clear standards for pure oats and products that contain them, along with clear labelling to signal the presence of oats to protect those who are intolerant to pure oats.”

As an interim measure, AAFC said, products containing “pure” oats can bear the label “wheat, rye and barley free.”

In the U.S., any foods that come in under 20 ppm for gluten are eligible to carry a gluten-free claim, including “inherently gluten-free foods.” U.S. regulations do not define oats as a gluten-containing grain.

In Canada, however, oats are on the list of gluten-containing grains and the term “gluten-free” is not permitted on packaged food products containing oats. — AGCanada.com Network

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They have had to use alternatives to barley such as rice and sorghum to brew gluten-free beer.

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) said April 8 it had sold 70 tonnes of the new Kebari barley to Germany’s largest brewer Radeberger, which has produced a beer to be sold in local supermarkets.

“Gluten-free barley will be highly sought after, with European brewers particularly interested,” said John O’Brien, a brewer of gluten-free beer in Melbourne.

Gluten-free is one of the world’s fastest growing consumer trends with the market expected to grow more than 10 per cent a year until 2020 to be worth C$9.75 billion, a 2015 report by MarketsandMarkets estimated.

European drinkers, already among the world’s largest consumers of beer per capita, have embraced gluten-free more than other regions, brewers said, with several large manufacturers releasing gluten-free brands.

One of the problems brewers have faced in making gluten-free beer without barley, or barley with the gluten stripped out, is that beer drinkers often complain it doesn’t taste like traditionally brewed beer.

“A true gluten-free barley variety is a true game changer, there is going to be a massive market for the product,” said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.

While the new “gluten-free” Kebari barley actually contains minute amounts of gluten, the CSIRO said it had 10,000 times less gluten than traditional strains, or about five parts of gluten per million, well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 20 ppm for classification as a gluten-free grain.

Barley is primarily used for animal feed and alcohol production and the development of a “gluten-free” barley is expected to boost Australia’s ability to capitalize on the growing global gluten-free market.

“As it expands, certainly some growers will benefit, this will be a premium grain,” said Phil Larkin, research manager for healthy cereals at CSIRO.

The new “gluten-free” barley is part of Australia’s push to become Asia’s delicatessen, supplying premium agricultural products like finger limes, olive oil, honey, wagyu beef and organic baby food to the region’s growing middle class.

While the diagnosis of gluten-related disorders such as celiac disease has increased, the majority of consumer growth in the sector has come from non suffers.

However, gluten-free beer has seen only small gains, curbed by differing global standards of what is considered gluten-free. The U.S. plans to tighten requirements on manufacturers of gluten-free beer to prove their claims.

Kebari barley is not a product of genetically modified farming, but a decades-long program of breeding out the gluten by cross-breeding low gluten barley varieties, said the CSIRO.

Production of the new strain of barley, which has been patented by CSIRO, will be strictly controlled within Australia, limiting farmer access to seeds, in order to prevent cross contamination, said the government-funded scientific body.

— Colin Packham is a commodities correspondent for Reuters in Sydney, Australia.

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Canary seed, until now used almost exclusively as birdseed, has received novel food approval from Health Canada and GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan said Jan. 11.

However, producers shouldn’t yet look at the food approval as a short-term market signal.

“It’s going to take some time to get canary seed in the human food market in a significant way,” CDCS executive director Kevin Hursh said. “We’re hoping that it’ll gradually ramp up and become significant.”

Small quantities of canary seed have been dehulled for testing purposes, he said, but the industry doesn’t yet have the capacity to dehull on a commercial scale.

“We’re not sure whether the dehulling used for things like dehulling barley will work or not yet.”

There also need to be more cleaning plants able to segregate “itchy” seeds from the hairless (glabrous) type.

Another step is to garner interest from food manufacturers and ingredient suppliers. How quickly canary seed becomes readily available in stores depends on food processors — and how quickly the product is adopted will depend on end-use consumers.

Canary seed flour can be used to make bread, cookies, cereals and pastas, the commission said. Whole seeds can be used in nutrition bars, or in place of sesame seeds on hamburger buns.

The seed, while in the same subfamily as wheat, rye, barley and oats, can also be marketed as gluten-free, which could be a boon for consumers with celiac disease.

But it’s still uncertain whether canary seed poses an allergenic risk for wheat-allergic individuals. A protein found in canary seed is similar to another type of protein found in wheat — though it’s not similar to wheat gluten.

Thus, until the seed is proven safe for people with wheat allergies, Health Canada’s approval will require canary seed, and foods containing it as an ingredient, to have a label statement such as “May not be suitable for people with wheat allergy.”

“We hope that further work will lead to the removal of this labelling requirement at some future date,” Dr. Carol Ann Patterson, the food scientist who piloted the compositional, nutritional and toxicological work needed for canary seed food approval, said in last week’s CDCS release.

Canary seed’s approval still makes it the first novel cereal crop to be approved in Canada, she noted.

With respect to consumer and processor response, “we’re in uncharted territory here,” Hursh said. “We’re hoping that there becomes commercial interest, and we’re talking with a number of players. Certainly with the announcement of the approval we’ve had requests from different companies.”

However, the CDCS doesn’t get involved in commercial ventures, Hursh said; its position is to lay the groundwork for others to become involved in those roles.

Another area of ongoing CDCS activity involves the approval of crop protection products, the commission said in a release, as the herbicides and other crop protection products registered for use on canary seed for birdseed don’t immediately have their registrations extended to canary seed for food use.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink, so how long all of this takes depends on some of those players.”

Delivered canary seed is currently trading at 24 to 28 cents per pound, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire.

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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The company said Monday it was recalling the original and honey nut-flavoured varieties of Cheerios produced on certain days at its Lodi, California facility, saying wheat flour may have been accidentally added to its gluten-free oat flour system at the facility.

The incident occurred when the facility lost rail service and the company’s gluten-free oat flour was being offloaded from rail cars to trucks for delivery, said Jim Murphy, president of the company’s cereal business, in a blog post on General Mills’ website. He said it was an isolated event and a result of human error.

“We sincerely apologize to the gluten-free community and to anyone who may have been impacted,” Murphy said.

Ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, by individuals with celiac disease causes an autoimmune response that attacks the small intestine, damaging the body’s ability to properly absorb nutrients.

General Mills, like others in the industry, has been changing its brands to appeal to consumers who are increasingly seeking less-processed, healthier food. In particular, the cereal business has proven problematic as some U.S. consumers have shifted to other breakfast alternatives.

Gluten-free cereal is one way General Mills is trying to bring people back to the category and take market share from competitors. The company is transitioning five varieties of Cheerios to gluten-free and investing significantly in promoting the new products.

On its last earnings call in September, the company said that gluten-free Cheerios would be “one of the largest merchandising events in our cereal business’s history.”

In a research note, JP Morgan analyst Ken Goldman estimated that the recall accounted for one per cent of annual Cheerios production, an amount he called “not insignificant.”

“We are not sure how costly the recall will be,” he said. “Our biggest concern is over reputational risk, because the new gluten-free Cheerios just launched.”

A company spokeswoman said General Mills did not yet have a cost estimate for the recall.

— Reporting for Reuters by Anjali Athavaley in New York and Ramkumar Iyer in Bangalore.

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Almost a third of Canadians, 10 million people, are seeking out gluten-free products, according to a report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. More than seven million consumers perceive gluten-free foods to be a healthier choice.

The wheat industry experienced a slight drop in demand due to the popularity of gluten-free food, according to Blair Rutter, executive director for the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association in Winnipeg.

But Rutter said the craze is starting to reverse.

“Obviously there’s people with celiac disease that have to avoid gluten, and others with some sensitivities to gluten, but it has been overplayed. What we’re seeing is a rebound in demand as more people realize that the concerns were largely unfounded,” Rutter said.

In Canada, one per cent of Canadians have celiac disease, a digestive reaction to gluten, and six per cent have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Heather Maskus is the project manager for pulse flour milling and applications at the Canadian International Grains Institute. She uses pulses to create gluten-free foods in a organization that is 90 per cent focused on wheat.

Maskus isn’t sure if the trend will continue to grow. “Some large companies that really focus on wheat flour milling say it seems to be tapering off a bit,” she said.

“Companies that were really immersed in gluten-free products, their perception is that it’s growing.”

Despite the impact gluten-free had, or could continue to have on demand, Canadian pulse growers can capitalize on the trend, she said.

“Pulses are very high in protein and fibre. Gluten-free foods are typically lacking in it,” she said.

“With the growing market in gluten-free we saw a really good opportunity to combine the two together to understand more about pulse ingredients.”

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose on Friday announced the allowed claim for oat products that are produced and processed to avoid cross-contamination by gluten from other cereals’ grains and products.

Celiac disease, a hereditary condition, causes the immune system to react negatively to dietary gluten, damaging the inner lining of the small intestine, thus hindering nutrient absorption.

“Normal agricultural practices” and food processing can lead to unintended presence of small amounts of gluten from other grains in oat products, Health Canada said.

However, the department on Friday cited “current scientific evidence” showing the majority of people with celiac disease may safely eat specially produced oats that contain no more than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten from wheat, rye, barley or hybridized strains of those grains.

“By allowing a gluten-free claim on specially produced oats and foods that contain them, consumers with gluten sensitivities will be better able to identify products they can safely eat,” Ambrose said.

The allowed claim requires that “gluten-free oats” be clearly identified as such in all cases where ‘oats’ are referenced, including in the list of ingredients.

Identifying the specially produced oats as “gluten-free oats” is expected to help make sure people with celiac disease don’t think all oats are safe for them to consume, thus helping to prevent “accidental consumption” of regular oats.

“Variety”

For oat growers and processors, the allowed labelling change is expected to open a new segment of the market to Canadian oat growers and food processors.

“Oats are a nutritious grain and can add variety for those who must follow a strict gluten-free diet for life,” Canadian Celiac Association president Anne Wraggett said in Health Canada’s release.

“The term ‘gluten-free oats’ on labels will make it much easier for the gluten-free consumer to identify products that they can safely eat.”

Health Canada had accepted since 2007 that most people with celiac disease could handle “limited amounts” of oats uncontaminated with wheat, barley or rye, and such oats could be “nutritionally beneficial” to celiac sufferers able to tolerate them.

The department had recommended “limited amounts” of 50 to 75 grams of oats per day for adults with celiac disease, and 20-25 grams for children.

However, a literature review last year led the department to conclude there’s no basis to recommend that people with celiac disease limit their consumption of specially produced oats.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed “gluten-free” claims on oats at less than 20 ppm of gluten since 2013. — AGCanada.com Network

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