Linseed gold

In the case of organic cereal products, despite intensive labour input during cultivation and intensive cleaning measures, the presence of foreign seeds cannot be completely ruled out, nor can products with optical deviations. The colour of a grain or seed in cereals, legumes and oilseeds varies from harvest to harvest due to many factors such as soil conditions, climate and weather. Since we work with many small farmers from different growing areas, the products are exposed to different influences that lead to natural colour variations. Extreme weather conditions can cause such severe optical changes that it is no longer possible to sort out grains and seeds at a reasonable economic cost. However, as we value long-term economic cooperation with the small farmers, we also buy the harvest in difficult years and try to use it in the best possible way. No herbicides are used in the organic sector. Thus, in some cases, even weed seeds of the same weight or size are very difficult to remove from the product. Of course, these products are subject to particularly intensive controls by us and are only traded if it is a purely visual problem, without any effects in terms of taste and nutritional quality. We are trying to further improve our possibilities for mechanical cleaning, but this is sometimes very difficult due to physical limits (e.g., 0.5 mm amaranth).

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Since 01.01.2023, new legislation applies to linseed. The background to this is that, in addition to many valuable ingredients, the seeds also naturally contain so-called cyanogenic glycosides. For these, limit values have now been set for the first time and a consumption notice defined for the front of the packaging. Cyanogenic glycosides occur naturally in varying concentrations in many food plants (e.g., also in bitter almonds, apricot kernels, garden beans, etc.). They protect the plant from pests. Under certain circumstances, prussic acid (more precisely cyanide, the salt of prussic acid) can be formed from these, which leads to adverse health effects if consumed in large quantities. The content of cyanogenic glycosides varies due to many factors, such as different climatic conditions, growing periods, soil conditions, etc. A linseed that is completely free of cyanogenic glycosides does not occur in nature. Of course, at Rapunzel we also subjected the seeds to strict self-monitoring before the new legislation. With the new consumption advice “Use only for cooking and baking. Do not eat raw!” we comply with the new declaration obligation. The prussic acid evaporates during cooking and baking. It should be emphasised that nothing has changed in linseed itself since the law was changed. We recommend not to exceed 30 g of linseed per day. Linseed is not suitable for children under 13 years of age. Other products containing linseed, such as mueslis, porridges, seed mix and linseed oil are not affected by the new labelling. Of course, these articles are also subject to strict controls at Rapunzel. The limit values are always complied with for all linseed items. Linseed oil is free of cyanogenic glycosides due to the production process.

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