The 'rise' of bread mixes

Pardon the pun but I just couldn't resist!

As you can imagine as a manufacturer we buy in our flours, nuts, seeds etc. from a couple of wholesalers.  I had to suppress a wry smile the other day when our sales representative from one of these companies was a bit put out that we didn't attend a 'gluten free' day at his premises.  The purpose of the day was to sell gluten free bread mixes to bakeries - the fact that we are specifically a gluten free bakery must have missed him.  He didn't quite get the point that we make everything from scratch and that we don't use mixes, but never mind.

Anyway that got me thinking about what follow-up is there re: these gluten free mixes?  If a wholesaler is marketing these mixes to 'normal' bakeries with a view to producing gluten free products, where's the education in making these products in a gluten free environment?  Do the bakeries concerned even know that they can't call the fruits of their labour gluten free without sending the products off to be tested for levels of gluten; or at least batch testing internally? 

I can only imagine the amount of flour that is flying around in a non-gluten free bakery.  We have traces of gluten free flour that cover every work surface literally minutes after cleaning as the flour is suspended in the air for long periods, especially really light flours like tapioca starch.  What must a 'normal' bakery be like?  And what about the bread tins that despite industrial cleaning still contain crumbs from years of use cooking bread products.

This is where the responsibility side has to kick in.  I hope that the company that produces these mixes provides at least basic gluten free training so that as many measures are in place to limit the contamination risk and that the purchasers of these loaves are made fully aware of the environment that they are produced in.

All in all I'm a little bit anxious about it.  Even if the bakeries used the correct terminology and stated that the bread was made with "no gluten containing ingredients", I personally would steer well clear, but I am extremely sensitive.  I really hope that those bakeries that buy the mixes are doing so with the best intentions and not jumping on the gluten free bandwagon.....