The Gluten Project: A Search Engine for 35K Certified Gluten-Free Products
glutenproject.com
glutenproject.com
Seriously though this looks good. Every week I end up searching for either, "Is X gluten free" or "gluten free Y", followed by looking at nutrition labels on google images, hoping a company website actually lists something, or looking at 4 year old forum posts.
Few suggestions: - Can you do away with the load more button? just autoload on scroll. - Also maybe alphabetize the list, I clicked on cereal and it's just random. - The search seems strange, I put in Chex but it seems to match anything with 'Che*' - Also maybe have separate pages. Like, I want to click on cereal and then drill into the cereal products with search. It seems like there is just a master list and search works over that.
That would be way too cheesy.
"The largest list of gluten-free foods is hot off the presses" ;)
(and most cheeses are gluten-free)
Your suggestions are great, and I totally agree with them. We just launched 3 weeks ago, so those items haven't been top priority. But they are on my list.
It's built with React, Next.js, and hosted on Zeit.co
All the code is open-source: https://github.com/BeeDesignLLC/GlutenProject.com
However, I'm now negotiating with GFCO to get continually up-to-date information. I'm also working with another major GF certification and will soon be adding their products too.
Edit:
e.g. in the UK, sui generis rights apply to a database [2], such that if creation of a database required
"substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents of the database"
then someone else cannot copy it and re-publish in another form. This is very different from US law, which requires some "creative originality" to be involved.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications,_Inc.,_v._R....
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_generis_database_right
GFCO seem to require less than 10 PPM, and no barley. Is that consistent with other orgs?
GFCO certifies individual products with testing.
GFCP certifies facilities with required systems and processes. These folks basically do the certification at a higher place in the chain and is where the industry is headed.
Barley, rye, wheat and other grains each have their own protein. For those they are hordein, secalin, and gliadin, and they are all considered gluten.
Is the information regarding where to purchase the products added manually?
Purchase links are added a few different ways. We're an affiliate for Nuts.com, so we have access to their entire product list. It takes a bit of manual work to match up the data, but I'll be able to automate it as soon as it makes sense to do so.
What would their motivation be to work with you rather than just enhance their own website?
We are going to be adding country support so folks can easily find products available to them no matter what country they are from.
As far as I can tell, buckwheat is a fairly exotic ingredient even in specialist wheat-free foods. We once bought some buckwheat pasta: never finished the packet. Typical wheat-free pasta is made from rice and maize. I can't think what the justification would be for adding buckwheat as a minor ingredient to something.
My guess: cry wolf syndrome.
Waiters, chefs, etc. only have so much energy and attention they can dedicate to minding food allergies. If people with fake gluten intolerance constantly barrage food workers with (usually clearly nonsense) requests to modify food items or dumb questions that anyone with a real food allergy would already know the answer to, it’s going to sap the ability of food workers to help real allergy patients.
After I was diagnosed I tried eating at restaurants and believing they could be careful enough, and it did not work out. The problem is often contamination of their ingredients - even if something has no gluten ingredients on the label, and even claims to be gluten free, it doesn't mean it's safe for celiacs. Even dried herbs and spices are commonly tainted. So you'd have to find a restaurant that has certified gluten free whole food ingredients for everything, and a complete duplicate kitchen where nothing has ever touched gluten.
You could take a gluten testing kit with you, but that's expensive, inconvenient, impractical, and you still might end up sitting at the table with nothing to eat.
We use rice flour for cakes. Works fine. Most people don't notice anything out of of the ordinary.
We have a genuine wheat-sensitivity in the family, but it's not an allergy and the consequences of accidentally consuming even a large quantity of wheat, though painful and unpleasant, are neither permanent nor life-threatening, as far as we know. We have an accidental-wheat-consumption-event a couple of times a year. Professional medical advice, and it took a long time to get this far, was: here's a brochure on how to run your own experimental exclusion diet; find out what makes you ill then avoid it; goodbye.
You’re correct that rice is a more common substitute than buckwheat in processed foods. However, many gluten free items such as pancake mix contain a blend of different grain and non-grain flours.
As for the exclusion diet, yes, that’s what I used to believe. It is sort of true for non-celiac sensitivities. Celiac is not as simple as that, and neither are non-traditional allergies like eosinophilic esophagitis. I tried for -years- to identify the source of my malaise, and cut out several things that I have an issue with but never found gluten. The reason is that it is almost impossible to cut gluten out to the level a celiac needs to start healing without a very dedicated effort, and even then it takes weeks to respond if you have a bad case and have been eating gluten steadily. Various times I went gluten free, mostly, for 2-3 weeks and didn’t notice anything. I know now I would have had to be strictly gluten free for 2 months.
I strongly recommend medical testing for celiac. Elimination diet will not necessarily detect celiac and then screws up testing.
For eosinophilic esophagitis, there is no choice but to run an elimination diet where you stop eating everything and slowly add foods one by one, because normal allergy testing fails for that condition.
For normal food allergies, of course you should just take an allergy test.
The main symptom was "bloating", and it went away after two weeks of a very exclusive diet: just rice and fried vegetables. Then we reintroduced each ingredient by eating loads of it for 2 days, except that for wheat they recommended eating loads of it for 7 days because the reaction to wheat can be delayed, as you mentioned. However, within 48 hours of reintroducing wheat the symptoms had returned, strongly, so it was fairly clear.
We continued with the rest of diet plan anyway, and a second sensitivity was detected: lactose. Apparently it's not unusual for people to be sensitive to wheat and lactose.
It was quite a fun couple of months, really. We ate loads of things that we'd never tried before. I'd recommend it to anyone who suspects that something in their diet might be making them ill. It broadens one's culinary horizons if nothing else.
For me, the attempts at self diagnosis were long ago, about 10 years back. I tried a wide variety of diets over the years and developed very wide culinary horizons - mainly organic whole foods, and I was a vegetarian for 7 years (I don’t think one would fare well on just rice and vegetables since that lacks much protein...).
My mother had long said the recommended test was to avoid wheat for 3 weeks, then eat some and see what happens. As noted I was not able to find that gluten was the culprit, though I identified various other intolerances. Part of my issue was that I have two separate issues, and esophagus disorders and also celiac, and was trying to find one cause or solution that fit both.
Why undiagnosed? My brother has actual celiac, there were actual tests and biopsies that could be done.
Since even a tiny speck of gluten gives her insane pain, she'll probably never be able to get properly tested.
That said, several doctors think she does have Celiac.
Now I'm in the position of being very clearly sensitive to gluten, having a first degree family member with celiac, and a 2 positive blood tests. That is enough for most European doctors and some American doctors to firmly diagnose, but most American doctors insist on a biopsy that shows intestinal damage. They gave me a biopsy when I had been on an almost gluten free diet for months, and it didn't show anything. I'll probably never get tested because there is no way I want to go through great suffering and risk permanent damage by eating gluten for weeks or months just to prove it to health insurance.
I've not been diagnosed, and I doubt I will ever be. I was contaminated over Xmas, and the past two months have been hell on earth. I managed to drag myself into work but the joint+muscular pain, not to mention the brain fog made me regret that decision - every. single. day.
But you have to put food on the table and pay your rent. I would never consider eating gluten for a week let alone three months. I'd be extremely ill.
Hopefully celiac testing will advance in coming years.
It doesn't really matter (unless you want to be able to deduct the cost of GF food on your taxes or try to get insurance to pay for them), but I could see why someone might just preemptively get that question out of the way first.
But talk about omitting gluten from one’s diet, and suddenly one’s personal health information is fair game for any stranger to inquire about.
Just an observation from this wheat- and gluten-loving individual.
When I'm trying allergy elimination diets, I really, really care about whether something has the allergen in it, even though I've yet to be diagnosed or proved harm from it. I still treat it like I am avoiding it 100%, since you have to for the trial, and expect other people to.
On the other hand, when people without true severe gluten sensitivity claim they have celiac, it muddies the waters for those who do in terms of public perception.
On the other hand, it kind of doesn't matter if people see one of those people eat gluten and not react, though. I wouldn't react instantly so they'd never see me suffering either.
I don't have Celiac, but I have been gluten-free for almost 9 years. I can tell when I have gluten exposure due to some inflammation that isn't mistakable.
My bloodwork has been really good, so I opt to continue eating the way I do because it works well for me, even though I don't have an autoimmune response to gluten.
If your brother has it, there's a 1 in 10 chance you do too.
Our long-term goal is to be the best global resource for finding certified gluten-free products. We want to have products from as many GF certifications as possible.
Another huge thing is adding ingredient lists and filters for other food allergies since many GF folks have other allergies.
I've been working full-time on this for about 7 weeks, but I'm expecting to do more consulting work before it provides a full-time income.
All revenue will come from affiliate links on each product.
The gluten free fad is barely 5 years old.
(The small bit at the end where he tries to guess a reason can be ignored, since he's basing it on nothing.)
Maybe I misunderstood you and you were bringing that article to confirm what I said?
https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/are-18-millions-p...
I ate wheat with no issues for the first twenty odd years of my life. Then I developed psoriasis, an autoimmune disease. The psoriasis was probably unrelated, but I discovered that gluten was a trigger.
Whenever I fail to resist wheat (cake, pizza, etc), I end up with rashes all over my body and horrible bloating/gas. This subsides after a week or so of abstaining from gluten.
It's terribly inconvenient, and breakfast has gotten more expensive.
On one hand, there are a lot more gluten-free products on supermarket shelves, all of which are legally required to be certified gluten-free. So big win there.
On the other hand, restaurants and chefs aren't taking requests for gluten-free food seriously, because there's a good chance it's just a fad dieter.
For lot of allergics out there you can't even entertain the thought of eating out in a restaurant because of cross contamination (peanuts etc).
Being food allergic myself it has forced me to eat healthy and avoid crap food. Having a muscular ripped body is just one of the benefits.
I've found packaged salad that contains gluten because the vegetables were on a conveyor belt dusted with wheat to keep the salad from sticking.
Flour is used to thicken. If it has a sauce or gravy, it was probably thickened with flour. If it's a soup, it was probably thickened with flour.
Flour is used to make things stick when cooking. If it's breaded, it probably has flour. If it has added spices, the spices were probably mixed with flour. If it has ground meat, the meat was probably mixed with breadcrumbs to make it stay together.
Wheat is used as a filler in fake foods. If the food is made with tofu or fake meat, it probably has gluten. If it has bacon bits, its chock full of gluten.
If one of the ingredients is soy sauce, it probably has gluten. If one of the ingredients is malt, or malt syrup, or malt extract, or malt anything, it has gluten.
Sometimes restaurants will put pancake batter in scrambled eggs to make them fluffier.
Almost everything in grocery stores and restaurants has gluten in it.
My experience has been the opposite. My wife is gluten-intolerant, and we find that most restaurants are knowledgeable and follow best practices. They have separate prep stations when feasible. They change gloves. Some even have separate menus. I don't know if ignoring a food allergy request is illegal in some jurisdictions, but doing so certainly leaves restaurants open to lawsuits.
On the contrary, it's an extremely convenient way for fad-dieters to get the attention they crave.
Excluding gluten lets you know if gluten is making you sick.
Even better idea, just get tested. You can't do the test when you're gluten free, and if gluten makes you sick, going gluten free and then eating it for 1-3 months for the test will be miserable and perhaps dangerous.