CELIAC DISEASE SYMPOSIUM: TEFF TALK

You might be hearing more about the African grain teff in times ahead. You might even be eating it, too.

Over the years, I've tended to think of teff as less of a food than as an almost abstract word referring to an alternative to wheat that just wasn't very available at the local grocery or health food store. (It's common in the Ethiopian bread injera, but never assume that Ethiopian restaurants in the USA serve gluten-free bread.)

However, at last week's symposium, Gluten Intolerance Group Executive Director Cynthia Kupper mentioned that the Gluten-Free Certification Organization had given its approval to teff tortillas made by La Tortilla Factory. She gave the impression that they're top-notch. I haven't seen much more about the product at the GFCO and La Tortilla Factory websites, but I figure it'll show up sometime soon.

Teff also came up during a talk by Frits Koning, Professor of Immunology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Koning was almost casual when alluding to Dutch celiacs who already include teff in their diets. From what he had to say, it seems that teff was an excellent alternative to wheat that just hadn't gained much traction in North America.

But that situation might be changing.

QUESTION Have you or have you not tried teff? If you have tried it, what was it like?