Four days ago I wrote a post titled Celiac Alert: Sprouted Wheat in Athena Gluten Free Greek Yogurt Bars. Since then it has gotten many hits and shown up on reddit. This post got many people talking about these bars and their ingredients. Many said they were going to or had emailed the company for more information on the gluten free labeling.

Yesterday while I was checking the comments on reddit I saw that someone had called Athena and gotten a response. In these days where everything can be handled over the internet I never thought to call the company. I am really glad someone else had that great idea. They mentioned that Athena would be pulling the words gluten free from their label. You can read the reddit coments here http://www.reddit.com/r/glutenfree/comments/1fxfix/celiac_alert_sprouted_wheat_in_athena_gluten_free/.

I called Bob Ripple over at Athena this morning to confirm that they are indeed pulling the gluten free off of the label. From what I gathered from our conversation the fda does consider the ingredients gluten free if the company properly test the products for gluten. The confusion surrounding the ingredients and something about suppliers questioning the gluten free label may be part of the reason the labeling is being changed. Bob did say that the newly labeled products should be ready in about 4 weeks.

I am really proud of us as a community for working towards truth in labeling. I also thank Athena Bars for realizing the need to pull the gluten free label off of their bars.

Please feel free to leave comments below.

Submitted to: Waste Not Want Not Wednesday