Buckwheat belongs to a group of foods commonly called pseudocereals, that are consumed as cereal grains but don’t grow on grasses. Other common pseudocereals include quinoa and amaranth. Despite its name, buckwheat is not related to wheat and is thus gluten-free.

In fact, buckwheat is not a grain at all but a seed.

No, our buckwheat products are not technically certified gluten-free, but we do label our products gluten-free. Here’s why we feel comfortable doing that:

On August 2, 2013, the FDA issued a final rule defining “gluten-free” for food labeling, which is helping consumers, especially those living with celiac disease, be confident that items labeled “gluten-free” meet a defined standard for gluten content. “Gluten-free” is a voluntary claim that can be used by food manufacturers on food labels if they meet all the requirements of the regulations. Since buckwheat inherently does not contain gluten, we label our buckwheat products gluten-free.

Before unloading the grain, our buckwheat receiving house operator probes the truck or rail car in multiple locations to get a sample. Along with performing organoleptic tests, he or she also takes a sample to inspect for any glutinous grains or soy. If these are present over a certain threshold, the load is rejected as to not contaminate our bins.

Once the grain is unloaded, it goes through a variety of cleaning equipment & systems. In addition to table separators, disc cleaners, and gravity tables, we also have a color sorter that serves as the final defense line for non-buckwheat grains. Because of the size, density and color of buckwheat compared to other glutinous grains, we’re able to separate buckwheat effectively. Although the FDA industry standard is 20ppm, we test a commingled sample of the end product to ensure it is under 10ppm gluten.

After working with food safety experts, we’ve recently changed the labels on all of our products to include the following statements:

Buckwheat products: Buckwheat is a raw agricultural ingredient and must be fully cooked before enjoying.

Wheat flour products: Wheat is a raw agricultural product that is not subjected to a microbiological kill step. This product is not ready to eat and is intended for further processing.

Our products, whether buckwheat or wheat, do not go through a five-log reduction kill step during the milling process that most “ready to eat foods” go through. This means we don’t test for typical pathogens like E. coli or Salmonella.

After a series of flour recalls over the past few years, and ever-changing FSMA regulations, we decided to add this language to make sure we’re exceeding the highest food safety standards.

We do recommend you cook the product before consuming it. We often think of it like baking cookies – they say you should never eat raw cookie dough because of the raw flour that is in there.

There are a few reasons you might see information displayed differently on our nutritional labels.

First, we send our products into an accredited nutrition lab for testing and that lab provides us the nutritional analysis that is displayed on all of our packaging.

Second, the regulations around labeling food are constantly changing. If numbers have changed, it’s likely that we had to change them to be compliant with the latest laws and regulations. Again, we are provided the nutritional information via an accredited nutrition lab.

If you need assistance understanding nutrition labels in general, use this helpful guide from the Food & Drug Administration.

Short answer: Yes, all of our buckwheat products are milled from GMO-free buckwheat.

People are seeking foods that have not been genetically modified, and it’s one of our biggest beliefs that what grows in the ground should not be altered in any way. We often say our products are ‘naturally non-GMO’ because there is no such thing as genetically modified buckwheat, such a product doesn’t exist.

We understand how important it is to ensure our products are manufactured safely and allergen-free. Below is a little information about our approach to mitigating allergens throughout the supply chain.

Our buckwheat products are prepared on a dedicated line in our Penn Yan, NY mill. The equipment is only used to mill buckwheat, as we don’t want to take the chance of cross-contamination with wheat products or any other potential allergens. We do not manufacture any products that include eggs, peanuts, tree-nuts or seeds.

As you know, cross contamination can occur at many points in the food chain, from shared equipment on the farm to the transportation of the commodities to the mill. We work with farmers to educate them on the importance of controlling allergens in their supply chain, but take extra care to ensure cleaning steps are in place in our production line to eliminate other grains or foreign material.

Before unloading the grain, our buckwheat receiving house operator probes the truck or rail car in multiple locations to get a sample. Along with performing organoleptic tests, he or she also takes a sample to inspect for any glutinous grains or soy. If these are present over a certain threshold, the load is rejected as to not contaminate our bins.