By Cliff Bellamy

cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

DURHAM -- At Custom Choice Cereal, customers can pick from a variety of cereal mixes with names like Fruitfool, Southern Hospitality and Belizean Bliss. Other customers like to concoct personal mixes from a set of ingredients. They can give their recipes a name, and some customers have created CinnaApriPump, flaked out, HazyCranPear 'Nola, Blue Straw and Mike's revenge.

Some of the monikers may have an intended levity, but the product that Custom Choice Cereal is marketing is serious food for people diagnosed with celiac disease, or customers who have allergies to gluten. People with celiac disease suffer from digestive disorders when they eat foods with gluten, a type of protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

All the cereal grains at Custom Choice are tested and guaranteed to be gluten-free, and free of any cross-contamination with grains containing gluten, said business owner Hajo Engelke. Common substitutes for grains with gluten are corn and rice. Custom Choice offers customers three base grains -- cinnamon granola, cornflakes and Good Morning Flakes (organic cornflakes enriched with flax, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth).

Engelke, 28, who came to the area from his native Germany in 2007, and partner Patrick Williams, 29, started the online business in October. The business idea emerged when both were students in a course in entrepreneurship titled "Launching the Venture," at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. A teacher in the class saw Engelke's business plan, and suggested that he market a gluten-free product. Knowing people who had wheat allergies or issues with gluten also helped spur the business, he said.

Williams offered his help with getting a new company off the ground. (Williams has since taken a job in digital media in Greenville, N.C., but will continue to advise the company.) "To have this chance of going down the path of starting a business with a friend is just very rare," Williams said.

While the product has health benefits for those with celiac disease, the overriding goal is to create cereals that taste good. People kept telling Engelke that "the moment you take gluten out of the food ... it becomes tasteless almost." In addition to base grains, customers can add dried fruit (among the selections are apples, cranberries, strawberries, goji berries), along with nuts and seeds (almonds, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts and others).

Engelke does not have celiac disease, but customers with the ailment have told him they like having someone without the disease -- someone who can compare the taste of the non-gluten product to regular cereal -- making the product. Engelke also is a cereal eater, and has taste preferences. "I really like coconut. I really like pecan pieces," he said. He also recently discovered that pistachios add flavor. "I have to say, try it, you will not want cereal without pistachios again," Engelke said.

"I feel like we've created a very close substitute for regular cereal," Williams said. He attributes the taste to the use of grains and other ingredients that are naturally gluten-free.

The business right now is pretty much a one-person operation, with Engelke acting as CEO, accountant and mixer. On a recent morning, he mixed a customer-created recipe. Wearing gloves, he weighed the ingredients on a scale, filled the bag (each bag is 12 ounces), and heat-sealed the package. "I kind of feel like a cocktail mixer," he joked.

Each package comes with a Nutrition Facts label, and a stock number that can be used in later online purchases. Customers who make up their own product can take advantage of an online Nutrition Facts label: The values for each nutrient change depending on which food is added to or subtracted from the cereal.

A package costs about $6 average, but customers who pick up the product locally do not have to pay shipping charges. The business ships nationally and has about 120 customers currently, Engelke said, but the partners would like the company to have more of a national reach.

While Engelke said he can handle all the various aspects of the business right now, "I hope it won't stay that way," he said. "I see from the feedback that I get from my customers that I help them."

ON THE WEB

www.customchoicecereal.com www.webmd.com