Bread Vendor Charged with Fraud

I don't usually do news posts, but I've been keeping an eye on this story lately.  Yesterday Paul Seelig, owner of Great specialty Products, was arrested after a court hearing concerning his sale of bread that he claimed was gluten-free when in fact it was not.

What concerns me the most about this incident is that while people with celiac disease became extremely ill after eating this man's bread, if he had sold it to someone with a wheat allergy the customer could have actually died.  This vendor seems a pretty blasé about his crime.


Here is a link for an AP article on this story from the Sun News:


http://www.thesunnews.com/564/story/1295320.html

A fellow blogger also did a lot of leg work on this story and has a more detailed report at Gluten Free Raleigh:

http://glutenfreeraleigh.blogspot.com/2010/02/nc-vs-great-specialty-products-update.html

Comments

Concerned Commune Member said…
This is something that I've been working on for over a month, along with other folks from the celiac and gluten-free community. My three year old boy was one of the injured parties named in the lawsuit filed by the state of North Carolina.

I was at the hearing along with Zach from GF Raleigh, and I was so grateful that he took thorough notes. My head was spinning by the end of the 2+ hours!
February 3, 2010 at 4:07 PM
Rachel said…
Horrible. I have to say that Celiacs can die from this as well only more sinister is that they would die from complications... later down the road... untraceable to this guy.
February 3, 2010 at 5:34 PM
Jenn/CinnamonQuill said…
Yikes! I hadn't heard this.
February 10, 2010 at 2:43 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gluten-free Sourdough Discard Bread

Image
You’ve made your gluten free sourdough starter . What now?   The discard, or unused portion of the starter can be repurposed in a number of ways.  It’s the part of the starter that you don’t need to refresh or to use to leaven bread. You can throw it out, or you can use it to replace some of the flour and water in other recipes.  It adds a great texture and flavor to recipes, and it’s particularly useful for gluten free recipes. There’s something about gf grains that benefits immensely from the fermentation process. They become more flexible, more workable, and much tastier. In this bread recipe the sourdough starter lends the bread strength, flexibility, and flavor. Want a sandwich loaf recipe? Check out my  Yeasted Sourdough Sandwich Bread . Why is it not a regular sourdough bread?  This bread is considered a discard bread, or sometimes called a hybrid loaf, because it contains sourdough but it's leavened with commercial yeast. What does it taste like?   ...
Read more

Quick Yeasted Sourdough Sandwich Loaf Recipe

Image
Readers have been asking if they can bake the Gluten-free Sourdough Discard Bread in a bread tin.  The answer seems to be yes, it usually works.  However, I've created this new recipe that is more of a sandwich style loaf.  This recipe is a single rise recipe, so it's quick and easy. Need to create a sourdough starter? This is the method I use most:  https://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2021/10/sourdough-starter-ready-to-use-in-3-7.html Why yeasted sourdough?  Sometimes it's tricky to get a great rise out of sourdough when you're first starting out.  Also, creating a new sourdough starter creates a bit of discard that can be used up in other recipes to improve the flavor and texture of the product. This recipe adds a little baker's yeast to help the rise and get the loaf in the oven more quickly.  This is a sourdough discard recipe but you can use active starter if that's what you have.  Yeasted Sourdough Sandwich Loaf Recipe Dairy-free, c ont...
Read more

Mild Country White Sourdough Bread

Image
I gave up on producing a showy loaf a long time ago.  I always rolled my eyes a little when I saw photos online of perfect bloom or wide-open crumb.  "The mustard is going to just fall right through," I would think to my self disapprovingly, shaking my head a little. It turns out, I was just jealous. After a decade of gluten-free bread baking and recipe development, and through a collaboration with some other bakers, I've come up with a gf sourdough bread recipe that produces an open crumb, a large bloom, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, an ear.   The bread has a very mild, pleasant sourdough flavor and is very light in color. The crumb is very open but not too delicate.  It has a chewiness to the texture that I associate with a good sourdough bread.  The crust gets a nice browning and it toasts up nicely. And I don't mind the mustard falling through as much as I thought I would. Many thanks to Michael Hollesen who came up with the original version of this reci...
Read more