Allergen program
Food safety is a top priority.
At King Arthur, food safety is a top priority. Along with our production partners, we always follow best-in-class food safety practices when preparing King Arthur Flour brand foods, employing methods designed to prevent unintended contact between major allergens and our ingredients, flours, blends, and baking mixes.
The U.S. top 8 allergens
- Wheat
- Soy
- Milk
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts (including coconut)
- Shellfish
- Fish
- Eggs
Steps to prevent cross-contact
- Production equipment cleanouts occur between runs of products which contain allergens and those which don’t
- Shared equipment is tested to ensure no (or a negligible amount of) organic material remains on it after every cleanout
- Allergen testing is performed quarterly to ensure continual success of equipment cleanout procedures
If either test fails to meet requirements, the equipment undergoes another cleanout and the process repeats until results meet cleanliness specifications.
Because of measures taken, our team is confident that unintended cross-contact doesn’t occur during production or packaging.*
Even so, transparency is a key principle in our Food Philosophy, and we’ve designed our packaging to clearly provide allergen-related information.
Transparency in packaging
For King Arthur Flour brand products, the ingredient list will clearly name allergen ingredients OR provide a “Contains” note just below the ingredients list in cases where an allergen’s name may not be otherwise recognized. When relevant, we’ll also include a “Produced on equipment” note which outlines allergens that aren’t included as ingredients, but can use the same production equipment.**
King Arthur Flour’s products number in the hundreds — a wide selection that can require different production methods and facilities. We enlist the help of trusted partners to manufacture some of these goods, according to exacting product specifications and processes that we’ve outlined, which we monitor closely.
- Signature Flours
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- Our Signature Flours are All-Purpose Flour, Bread Flour, Self-Rising Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, White Whole Wheat Flour, Sprouted Wheat Flour, and their organic versions.
- Apart from wheat, no U.S. top 8 allergens are added to our Signature Flours.
- Our Signature Flours are produced in a facility where wheat is the only allergen in production. Unlike other sizes of our All-Purpose Flour, 3lb AP is an exception which shares production equipment with eggs, milk, soy, almonds, and coconut.
- All our flours are sourced non-GMO, are never bleached or bromated, don’t have vitamin and mineral enrichments added to them, and have no artificial preservatives added.
- Certified Gluten-Free
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- Our certified gluten-free products always display a certification badge on the front packaging. These products are certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), which currently offers the most stringent threshold for testing certification available to us. To meet GFCO’s requirements, products must be tested as gluten-free down to 10 parts per million. By using GFCO certification, we exceed the FDA’s standard for gluten-free, which is set at 20 parts per million.
- Most certified gluten-free products don’t contain any allergen ingredients. An example of limited exceptions include our Gluten-Free Single Serve mixes, some of which contain either soy or milk. Customers will find this ingredient information on individual product labels. In addition to labels on each physical product, customers can find digital versions of packaging available online on our individual product web pages.
- Many certified gluten-free products share production equipment with some allergens, including eggs, milk, soy, and coconut. Almond Flour, Coconut Flour, and Paleo Flour are produced separately and share production equipment with almonds, coconut, and pecans. Gluten-Free Single Serve Mixes are produced separately and either contain soy or milk as ingredients and share production equipment with eggs, milk, soy, cashew, hazelnut, coconut, almond, and walnut. We employ robust cross-contact prevention measures during production to inhibit unintended contact with allergens. Please see note at bottom of page about our packaging transition to include “Produced on equipment” statements on gluten-free products.**
- Our certified gluten-free products always display a certification badge on the front packaging. These products are certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), which currently offers the most stringent threshold for testing certification available to us. To meet GFCO’s requirements, products must be tested as gluten-free down to 10 parts per million. By using GFCO certification, we exceed the FDA’s standard for gluten-free, which is set at 20 parts per million.
- Other Specialty Ingredients
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- These flours, blends, baking mixes, and other ingredients make up the most diverse selection of our offerings. Production occurs both in-house and with the help of trusted partners.
- Some allergens can be used as ingredients in certain products or may instead share production equipment. Because different conditions can apply, your best resource is individual product packaging. In addition to labels on each physical product, customers can find digital versions of packaging available online on our individual product web pages (see example in the Certified Gluten-Free list).
- We employ robust cross-contact prevention measures during production to inhibit unintended contact with allergens.
Our cross-contact prevention measures focus on the U.S. top 8 allergens, but we understand that some customers may wish to avoid other unmentioned ingredients. While we’re currently unable to answer broad questions regarding other ingredients (i.e.- ‘Do any of your products share equipment with mustard?’) or identify other ingredients which could share production equipment with our certified gluten-free products, we do our best to answer ingredient questions about individual products when asked. Please feel encouraged to Contact Us with questions.
*Because we don’t currently test the products themselves for the presence of allergens (excepting gluten in our certified gluten-free line), we’re simply unable to offer a 100% guarantee against the possibility of contact outside of production. The safety of our customers is a top priority for our team, and we always recommend speaking to a doctor or dietician whenever a customer has concerns about a product being right for them.
**Please note that we’re currently transitioning our gluten-free line to this packaging standard, and consumers may temporarily find some differences with what’s on the shelf-at their local store. During this transition period, consumers can find the most up-to-date “Produced on equipment” statements on our website via digital versions of a product’s packaging (See Nutrition + Ingredients image in the Certified-Gluten Free list.)
Our temporary offering of a new 3lb size of All-Purpose Flour doesn’t contain this voluntary statement on package. This product is only available for sale through our website and a special shared equipment statement has been included in the product description to denote this difference from all other sizes of our All-Purpose Flour.
