Oats in the GF diet

Recently, Kinnikinnick Foods published an explanation on their blog as to why they don't plan to use oats in their products...they explain it very well here.

Not long ago, the gluten-free diet consisted of "no wheat, rye, barley or oats". Currently you will usually see recommendations of "no wheat, rye or barley". So does this mean that oats are now considered safe for the gluten-free diet? The answer is: some oats are safe for some people. This is a gray area, and those who are newly-diagnosed need more information to help prevent continued illness.

The first problem with oats is that, in the past, there were no oats available that were free from cross-contamination. Currently, there are a number of companies producing specially-grown gluten-free oats, some of which are listed below. However, a 2008 study showed that even these "uncontaminated" oats usually are contaminated.

Note that the oats currently used to make commercial breakfast cereals, such as Quaker Oats and Cheerios, are not specially grown, and are very definitely not safe for the gluten-free diet.t
uten-free
The second problem with oats is that, although a number of studies have concluded that they are safe in the GF diet, other research has shown that some people with CD do, in fact, react to the oat protein. Interestingly, some varieties of oats have recently been found to be more toxic than others, although all varieties tested (1, 2, 3) caused some type of reaction. This variation in the level of toxicity may account for some of the inconsistency in study results.

So, current recommendations are that no one should try oats unless and until they are doing well on the GF diet and all of their symptoms have disappeared. When consuming oats, if symptoms reappear then the oats should be discontinued. It would be possible to have a reaction to oats with no symptoms, and the blood tests may not be sensitive enough to detect this. For more information, read these statements, which include numerous cautions:

Beth Israel Deaconness Celiac Disease Center Recommendations on Oat Consumption

Consumption of pure oats by individuals with celiac disease: A position statement by the Canadian Celiac Association. There are important warnings in this statement, and there are also limitations in the studies on which it is based (Rashid).

Oats that have been specially-grown and processed to be gluten-free are available from these companies:

Cream Hill Estates
Cream Hill submitted a description of their methods for producing GF oats to the FDA.
This is a well-regarded manufacturer that has been very "transparent" about their manufacturing and testing. Here are some test results.

Gifts of Nature
Certified by GFCO to contain less than 10 ppm gluten

GlutenFreeOats
An informative website; well worth reading
Certified by GFCO to contain less than 10 ppm gluten

Only Oats

More references on the possible problems with consuming oats as part of the Gluten-Free diet:

Jane DeMarchi from the North American Miller's Association spoke at an FDA meeting on Gluten-Free food labelling in August, 2005, explaining the milling process and why oats obtained from these large mills are expected to be contaminated. You can read the transcript and see the slides of her excellent talk, "Feasibility of Milling Gluten-Free Flours" on the FDA website.

Four different lots of McCann's oats, a brand which was at one time thought to be gluten-free, were tested in 2004 (Thompson). One sample had no detectable gluten (less than 3 ppm), but the remaining three samples showed levels of 12, 23, and 725 ppm gluten. In this same study, Quaker Oats Old-Fashioned samples had levels of 338, 364, 971, and 1807 ppm gluten; Country Choice Old-Fashioned had one sample with no detectable gluten, and three other samples with 131, 210, and 120 ppm gluten.

The people who participate in this study,"The Molecular Basis for Oat Intolerance in Patients with Celiac Disease", were selected specifically because they believed they had reacted to oats in the past. Some of them were shown to be truly having damage from oats, while others in the study were not. (You can also read a news article about this study).

Six potentially reactive portions of the oat gluten protein were found in "Identification and Analysis of Multivalent, Proteolytically Resistant Peptides from Gluten". T cells reacted to oat gluten in a study by Kilmartin.

CSA has a web page devoted to research on oats.