The Bar Towel

I love this line: "This is about, 'How do I feed my children at dinner safely?'"

She's right though, how are you supposed to know which beer to give your small child with celiac disease if there aren't proper warning labels on the beer? New Grist should put a label on their beer saying, "Safe for children with celiac disease."

Brewers should just label the 'alternative' beers which are wheat/barley/oat/gluten FREE just as bakeries do with bread, cookies, etc. They already label Messegere and similar beers that way.

This ruling is just keeping good beer out of Ontario as more non-Ontario brewers give up on sending us their products due to excessive labeling hassles.

In the most extreme cases, people who consume food to which they are allergic can go into shock or even die.

The beer-label warnings are aimed at people with celiac disease, which is characterized by an intolerance to gluten...

So -- who with Celiacs or a severe allergy is gonna drink just any beer? NOBODY I know with ANY such allergy or Celiacs drinks beer at all! It's just not a commonly accepted product in those groups.

If someone's doctor doesn't tell them to read ingredient labels or 'avoid beer', something is very wrong.

I'm surprised the major breweries would care. It's not like they would have to change their labels. Perhaps having nothing to say would shame them into tossing a little bit of barley into their beers! Or perhaps they are afraid of all those people allergic to corn.

I agree that this is probably a good idea for food, but I haven't met a single person with celiac who didn't know that beer was a bad idea for them.

This is a pretty stupid rule. If you are over 19 and have a food related allergy of any kind, the onus should be on you to have some common sense. A celiac drinking beer is roughly the same as someone with a citrus allergy thinking that drinking orange juice will be fine.

Belgian wrote: This ruling is just keeping good beer out of Ontario as more non-Ontario brewers give up on sending us their products due to excessive labeling hassles.

I agree this is a silly regulation, however it's not Ontario only, it's a Health Canada regulation so it would be Non-Canadian, Non-EU brewers who may not want to change. Still, I see A LOT of foreign-made beer with "Quebec 20c consignee/refund" on the label.

Coincidentally I had a Nickelbrook gluten free last night and was plesantly surprised - closer to beer than any others I've tried. My wife is gluten sensitive (not full blown celiac) and knows to avoid beer (Bud Light doesn't seem to bother her - maybe rice and corn syrups??). Thankfully there is Potatoe Vodka available to cure her of sobriety (distilled gluten?!?!) If someone is diagnosed with celiac they'd know to avoid beer, I can't see labelling affecting their choice any more than a warning in braille advising against the operation of heavy machinery...
I did work with a U-Brew outfit in London ONT a couple of years ago on a gluten free recipe using my own malted organic buckwheat. It was OK, kind of iodine/medicine on the finish though, that and white protein floaties quickly developed. It wasn't a disaster but it was labour intensive and a bit expensive.

Yeah, a serious waste of time & money... especially for the small breweries that use printed bottles.

On the other hand, could this be a sign that people are starting to recognize beer as a food product? Why don't they go all the way and enforce a full ingredient listing? Personally, I'd love to see that... but oh... wait... that could hurt the big corporations!

So essentially this will be a multimillion dollar solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Perhaps it's a better idea for the government to require all lobbyists to wear labels that say 'Warning - This product may waste alot of your time, and alot of your money'.

Anecdotal yes, but for what it's worth, I told two celiacs about this and they both thought I was pulling their leg.

cannondale wrote: Anecdotal yes, but for what it's worth, I told two celiacs about this and they both thought I was pulling their leg.

I asked a friend today if she thought most celiacs of drinking age would know that beer has gluten in it. Response "Unless you're an idiot, yeah."

Derek wrote:Yeah, a serious waste of time & money... especially for the small breweries that use printed bottles.

On the other hand, could this be a sign that people are starting to recognize beer as a food product? Why don't they go all the way and enforce a full ingredient listing? Personally, I'd love to see that... but oh... wait... that could hurt the big corporations!

Beer as a food product? Don't be crazy, that could lead to beer being in a grocery store. We know all the issues the rest of the civilized world has with that...

http://www.celiac.ca/press/AllergenLabelling_240111.pdf

"Canadians should be plenty worried when the deep pockets of the brewing industry put the lives of 2.8 million at risk according to the Canadian Celiac Association."

JerCraigs wrote:

cannondale wrote: Anecdotal yes, but for what it's worth, I told two celiacs about this and they both thought I was pulling their leg.

I asked a friend today if she thought most celiacs of drinking age would know that beer has gluten in it. Response "Unless you're an idiot, yeah."

Well we have to PROTECT these kinds of idiots so they will survive to produce kids that are even dumber than they are. [/sarcasm]

All in all, I hope this does not substantially damage the industry.

cannondale wrote:http://www.celiac.ca/press/AllergenLabelling_240111.pdf

"Canadians should be plenty worried when the deep pockets of the brewing industry put the lives of 2.8 million at risk according to the Canadian Celiac Association."

I'm writing them a letter to the effect that 'on the other hand, encouraging them all to drink beer may vastly improve the gene pool.'

Even these folks appreciate a little humor!

I really wish Jif and Kraft would put labels on their peanut butter to protect the kids with peanut allergies