i`m thinking of getting a few out of curiosity…. :) hope all is well with you :) xo
alea

I got some advice from the canadian celiac association a while back about issues with cross contamination- i wanted to know how far to go with ensuring product safety. At the time, they advised that the important thing was that the product was packaged on a gluten free production line (not a line that was ‘washed’ after carrying gluten containing products). I think the important part of the response from the vanilla bean company is that they were really great about explaining their process- while the beans are not officially certified, they are indeed produced on a gluten free line which is the most important part. I think legally they need to make sure to say they are not ‘officially’ certified.

That being said, there are some celiacs that are sensitive to gluten in parts even smaller than 5 parts per million (currently i believe certification is for 20 parts per million), so in terms of your personal sensitivity, i don’t entirely know what might be the best choice other than to pass along the info i’d gotten from the CCA here in Canada.

Hope this helps! :)
alea

I was very excited to hear that you can get a pound of vanilla beans for $59 from The Vanilla Food Company! I contacted them to ask about gluten cross contamination and here is the response I got:

“Our vanilla beans are gluten free however we do not have the certification
on the beans. Secondly we cannot guarentee that there would not be any
cross contaimination with any other wheat, rye, etc even though we do not
carry any flour or have production lines.
We do have some products that are gluten free that we carry in it’s
orginial package. These types of items, we would be confident that there
would be no cross contaimination.”

What is your take on this? We are super careful with cross contamination in our house and I just don’t get a warm and fuzzy from this response. I want to buy them so badly!

I find my favorite version for vanilla is to make it from bourbon or from tequila, although making it from rum is also terrific- its a good thing its such a versatile recipe se we can change up the alcohol base to something thats safe depending on our guts :D
so great to hear from you :)
alea

wow, thank you so much for the terrific comment :D you made my day!!

For making home made vodka- i think you can use just about any hard liquor- so, i think tequila could work for you since its made from the agave plant. Deep down i’m convinced there’s sulfites or something in the vanilla products- because my home made vanilla is just fine for me… gotta wonder what they put in there eh?

And you can write long comments any time you’d like :D it puts a big grin on my face :D
alea

One day, I finally decided that it must be the alcohol used in the commercial vanilla extracts. The alcohol is either derived from wheat or corn (or potato, in the case of vodka)- and I’m sensitive to all 3 of those ingredients. My guess is that it is corn-derived, because that’s the ingredient I REALLY seem to react to, no matter how minute, or how processed it might be. But- that’s just a guess. I do not know for sure what’s in those extracts.

Anyway, I don’t know if that is useful to you : ) I am very curious how you do with your homemade extract. I’ve been afraid to try it since I’ve wondered if it was the alcohol that was giving me problems. But if a homemade version works for you, I might try it too. Maybe it IS some strange preservative in the commercial stuff.

Sorry for the long comment :) I just felt like I was reading about my own life in your post!
Tasha

Thanks so muc hfor the great tip on another bean company to order through… I find its a real challenge getting decent prices, and sometimes buying that many beans really isn’t needed, so your tip is super.. and for leaving otu the sugar, I never realized it would work jsut as well without it- good to know for my next batch! :)