Re: SV: hidden sources of gluten

November 5, 2001

At 03:39 PM 11/5/2001 +0100, you wrote:

>The most important hidden source for us was ordinary " gluten free " flour

>based on wheat starch.

>

>The gluten content in " gluten free " products is known to vary. The latest

>test that I've seen, involved 101 product specimens collected here in

>Norway. Roughly half of these turned out to have gluten in quantities

>that were deemed to be significant (>20 ppm). The exact figures were:

Just to add a bit to what n has said. Standards for gluten free

throughout the world vary quite dramatically. In many European countries

they follow the Codex Alimentarius rules for defining gluten free. In some

cases this allows up to 500ppm gluten protein in products and it can still

be called gluten free.

Here in Canada, the allowable content (ie. the point at where a product

will be recalled) is now less than 25ppm. In the US, there are no

regulations regarding the term gluten free, only non-binding guidelines set

out by various non-governmental organizations (mostly celiac support groups).

There is great debate in the celiac community whether or not the codex

standards are acceptable. Generally, here in North America, it is thought

that they are not. None of the major celiac groups allow codex standards

and the Government of Canada has laws which prohibit the sale of products

labelled gluten free which contain codex wheat starch.

There are some European studies (as yet unverified) which seem to

indicate that low levels of gluten may be tolerated by some Celiacs. It's

important to remember that this debate is among the celiac community and

not the autistic community. Even if it turns out that some low level of

gluten is ok for celiacs (I don't believe this will be true), the

mechanisms of celiac may not be the same as those with autism. As n's

post points out, for many the allowable limit is none at all.

----------------------------------------------

Jay Bigam

Marketing and Information Technology Manager

Kinnikinnick Foods Inc.

Toll Free: 1-

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