I have heard from a respected Sefardi Rav involved in Kashrus that the reason behind kitniyos are as relevant today as ever. He told me he has inspected a number of factories producing Pesach Soybean oil and found numerous grains of wheat in each facility. In his opinion even Sefardim may not use soy oil on Pesach.
From the back of a recently purchased box of Cheerios, reprinted without permission:
“SAME CHEERIOS, simply, GLUTEN FREE
The taste you love has always come with oats that are naturally gluten free. We’re simply making sure they stay that way.
IT STARTS with FAMILY
When Phil, a member of the Cheerios team for over 50 years, found out that his daughter-in-law couldn’t eat gluten, he knew his team had to find a way to make sure every family, including his, could share breakfast together. Since oats are naturally gluten free, the only problem was finding a way to make sure they didn’t get mixed up with anything else.
THE JOURNEY from FIELD to BOWL
Most of the farmers who grow oats for Cheerios also grow wheat and barley, which aren’t gluten free. Sometimes, those grains get mixed together in the fields or on the farm, so, to make Cheerios gluten free, we had to separate them. It took a lot of late nights and hard work, but we finally discovered a way to sort the other grains out of our oats.”