About Avena Foods

Avena Foods Ltd. is a farmer-owned company that takes pride in growing and producing pure whole grain oat products for the celiac market. Based in Saskatchewan, in the heart of the Canadian prairies, Avena Foods offers a wide range of pure whole grain oat products ranging from rolled oats to baking mixes. From the field, to our oat dedicated facility, into your home, we take care to provide you with quality products safe. In fact, our pure whole grain oat products are guaranteed to be wheat, barley and rye free.

Quality Assurance
The quality of our pure whole grain oat products begins on the farm where our growers follow stringent guidelines and protocols to ensure cross-contact does not occur with gluten containing crops. Our dedicated farmers only use approved pedigreed seed to grow their crops on fields that have not grown gluten-containing crops (wheat, barley, rye, triticale, spelt, kamut) for at least 3 years.  Throughout the growing season they continue to follow strict procedures for harvesting, cleaning, storage and handling.
To further ensure purity the crops in the field are routinely inspected and our oat dedicated facility is inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Prior to delivery, our oats are tested by our in-house lab and by independent third party labs to ensure no cross-contact has occurred. Our pure whole grain oat products must test to less than 10 ppm of gluten to be accepted. Using the R5-ELISA gluten test (the most sensitive gluten test available) we verify that our pure whole grain oats products meet this standard.  Oats that do not pass the test are not delivered to the facility.

To learn more about our process and our dedication to providing you with pure whole grain oat products suitable for the celiac diet click here.

Wheat-free. Gluten-free.
Avena Foods complies with labeling regulations as set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Canada and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US.
In Canada: Currently, Health Canada's definition of gluten-free does not include pure oats.  It is our hope that this will soon be amended to permit us to label our products as gluten-free, as our products consistently test to less than 10 ppm of gluten which is the standard set out by the US based Gluten-free Certification Organization. We are allowed to label our products wheat-free in Canada.
In US: The Food and Drug Administration allows products which contain pure oats as an ingredient to be labeled gluten-free providing they test to less than 20 ppm. As our pure whole grain oat products test to less than 10 ppm they are considered gluten-free in the US and we are certified as gluten-free oats with the Gluten-free Certification Organization.
 
Commercial Sales and our Only Oats™ Brand
Avena Foods sells our pure whole grain oat products in bulk to food manufacturers specializing in the gluten-free and celiac market.  We also have a full line of retail ready products under the brand name - Only Oats™ - that can be found in the gluten-free section of health food and specialty food stores across Canada. If you can't find Only Oats™ at your favourite health store click here to download an information page that will explain how the store can access the products.
To learn more about our commercial products click here.
To learn more about our Only Oats™ line of rolled oats, steel cut oats, quick cooking oats, oat flour, oat bran and our line of wheat-free baking mixes click here.  Or check out our store locator to find a store in your area that carries our products.