Yesterday I began reporting the results of our survey. Here are the answers to the last two questions as well as ideas from the wonderfully-useful comments that you submitted. If you want to read the information about the first two questions before continuing, please click here.

Question 3. What do you do when you see the word “oats” in an ingredients label? 6% of you would ignore this “warning”. 49% might purchase the product if they could verify that the oats in question were “certified”. 46% would not purchase the product. Perhaps my article on “gluten free oats” will help you make a decision here.

Question 4. What do you do when you see the words “no gluten ingredients” on an ingredients label. 20% of you say that this means the same thing as “gluten free” and that the food is safe. 69% of you prefer the term “gluten free” but would consider buying this item. 11% would not consider this item acceptable.

Your comments fell into three categories:

→ questions about “gluten free” jargon. For example, “malt flavoring” is code for “contains barley”.

→ concerns about phrases that mean little or nothing such as “may contain wheat”.

→ issues about well-designed packages whose ingredients lists written in ways that require a bright light and a magnifying glass to read. There are many other examples of thing that suggest deliberate deception.

I will write articles on these three subjects beginning in two or three weeks. For now, I think it best temporarily move on to other subject.