I noticed something new in the refrigerated milk section recently… a blue RICE DREAM carton. Curious, I picked it up and scoured the label. Right there on the front is an upside down triangle proclaiming “Gluten Free”. I was thrilled at this find as my daughter loves Rice Dream and doesn’t care for the other “milks” and the shelf stable kind is NOT GLUTEN FREE. We took home a carton of the vanilla Rice Dream and sure enough, K3 loves it! No more battles over “yucky milk”. Thanks to Rice Dream for finally hearing our requests for a GLUTEN FREE product. From label reading, it also appears that the Rice Dream Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert is Gluten Free… however they do not proclaim it on the packaging (at least not the carton I have!). Further research is required. Happy Cereal Mornings Again!

UPDATE**********

Thanks to Tori’s comment, I did a little reearch on Rice Dream and Gluten. The website has some conflicting information.

From the Rice Dream website

Click YOUR HEALTH, then SPECIAL DIETARY RESTRICTIONS, then GLUTEN-FREE PRODUCTS

Here is the list as of 23 May 2008

Gluten Free Products

The following products do not contain gluten:

Soy Dream Non-Dairy Beverages

* All varieties

Rice Dream Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts and Novelties

The following varieties only (pints/quarts):

* Vanilla
* Strawberry
* Cocoa Marble Fudge
* Orange Vanilla Swirl
* Carob Almond
* Neapolitan

Soy Dream Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts and Novelties

The following varieties only (pints/quarts):

* French Vanilla
* Mint Chocolate Chip
* Green Tea
* Butter Pecan
* Strawberry Swirl
* Mocha Fudge Swirl
* Vanilla Fudge Swirl
* Vanilla
* Chocolate

Rice Dream Non-Dairy Beverages

* All varieties

NOW CHECK PRODUCT FAQS UNDER RICE DREAM NON-DAIRY BEVERAGE AND YOU’LL FIND:

“Is Rice Dream Beverage a gluten free product?

No. Rice Dream Beverage is processed using a barley enzyme. Even though the barley enzyme is discarded after use, the final beverage might contain a minute residual amount (less than .002%) of barley protein.”

I wrote to the company asking for clarification on the conflicting information contained within the website. I haven’t heard back yet. Further inspection revealed that I haven’t missed any bad ingredients on the labels… they no longer list the barley enzyme that was used to make RICE DREAM Beverages. There is no warning about the possibility of any gluten and the Organic Rice Dream containers we have purchased all have the stamp “GLUTEN FREE” on them. It’s looking like nothing changed except the labeling. The company decided that they qualify legally to use that label since there is less than 20ppm of gluten in the product.

I call that misrepresentation. We have a right to know if the foods we are feeding our children may make them sick. For more information, read my updated post - Rice Dream and Gluten.