This is also raising questions of foreign interference/influence in democratic process.

In Canada, the federal Elections Commissioner has been called on to investigate the source of bot campaigns for the leading opposition party: Online bot campaign backing Pierre Pollievre prompts call for probe.

Looks interesting, and an interesting way to work with nuts. Always looking for other GF options and I do use almond flour in a lot of recipes.

That said, while can understand not tolerating gluten free grains such as millet, teff, sorghum, rice or corn, I’m not sure why there aren’t other flours and starches you can work with.

I’m having a hard time understanding why an intolerance would also extend to tubers (potato flour & starch; manioc - cassava flour & tapioca flour; sweet potato flour; arrowroot starch); flower seeds (buckwheat/sarrasin flour) or legumes (Romano, fava or chickpea flour) but not nuts.

From the webpage for King Arthur’s GF Bread Flour:

Description

Use our Gluten-free Bread Flour for your best breads and baked treats – completely gluten-free.

As if by magic, all your favorite breads can become gluten-free with this versatile gluten-free bread flour. Made with gluten-free wheat starch to give baked goods incredible taste and texture, it’s ideal for classic yeasted recipes like artisan boules, bagels, cinnamon rolls, and burger buns.

I’m not in the US, and hadn’t been aware of the distinction between their bread flour (which does have wheat starch) and their 1:1.

So agree on that, and appreciate the clarification.

I keep on getting social media recommendations for recipes made with King Arthur and for an EU analogue that uses ‘cleaned’ wheat starch. It makes me concerned that these are so heavily promoted without any cautions.

But the King Arthur 1:1 is a rice and starch mix, not ideal given the risks of a high rice diet (arsenic & aflatoxins) which we can’t mitigate as consumers when we have no idea where the rice is grown or how harvested, dried or processed. And rice heavy mixes produce dry baked goods as a rule, that go stale quickly. Can’t recommend it.

I’m going to respectfully argue back that it’s not helpful for the community when name brands with market power like King Arthur’s take up so much of the supermarket GF shelf space with problematic mixes. In doing so, they crowd out space that might let be given to newer GF producers with better products that eliminate gluten and other allergens for a larger group of consumers. I’ve been baking GF for about 25 years and have seen availability actually go down as some of the major brands have rolled into the segment. So, can’t really send kudos for that.

I feel strongly about Bob’s Red Mill in this regard as well by the way. We don’t know what the second generation management will do, but up to now Bob’s has dominated shelf space while refusing to separate its lines to eliminate other major allergens like milk, soy or tree nuts.

Prior to the FDA requirements on top allergen labeling going up in the US, we regularly saw our Canadian Food Inspection Agency pulling Bob’s products from shelves here based on lab findings of undeclared allergens. So, stores were wary to rely on Bob’s, but more recently Bob’s has displaced a number of better smaller mills on supermarket shelves.

As it happens, King Arthur’s flour isn’t available for sale in Canada while most other GF brands from the US are. King Arthur wheat flour was my favourite brand in the US when I was a student there many years ago, so I’ve been curious to see what they did for GF. Was pretty shocked when I looked it up to see a wheat-derived bread flour hitting the mass market under a GF label.

That’s a mostly rice and starch blend. Can work for pastry and cakes etc.

Rice flour negatives:

1. Tends to make things that go stale super quickly

2. Depending on where grown, rice takes up arsenic from the soil which is a seriously toxic metal

3. Depending where grown, under what conditions and how it’s stored and processed, rice can have a microorganism that produces a serious toxic chemical called aflatoxin which cannot be mitigated by cooking.

The EU is studying these risks in populations that eat diets high in rice. In the US, there have been academic studies. You can get a good lay summary of the issues on the Lundberg Farms website. They do their best to minimize these toxins in the rice products they sell but when you buy rice flour you have no idea of where or how that rice was grown or processed.

For bread you will need different recipes. Suggest looking for ones that don’t call for a commercial flour mix and that include psyllium.

King Arthur’s uses ‘cleaned’ wheat starch, supposed to be <20 ppm gluten.

This isn’t ok for many with wheat allergy or gluten intolerance that is not celiac.

Stay away from rice flour and starch heavy GF breads, as they will be drier and go stale quickly.

GF alternative flours tend to have higher hydration requirements than wheat and it seems few GF bread manufacturers have a clue about this. PhD inorganic chemist and cookbook author Katerina Cermelj has a lot to say about that in her book ‘Baked to Perfection.’

There are decent recipes out there, especially ones that include psyllium, which makes it possible to make a gel that can give better texture and hold moisture.