<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Rosalie Jalbert sent me the following message, and then asked me to
post it to the list:

> Regarding the word starch (in the U.S. starch has to be corn
> starch.)  This is not necessarily true.  Calling the FDA for
> this information has resulted in many different answers.
> According to several sources at the FDA, there is no RULE
> about starch.

I am also posting a response to this message:  I spoke with Dorothy
Vaughan, a registered dietitian who also has celiac disease.  She
has researched this question before and verified what I had previously
said:  For FOOD products only, the FDA requires that when "starch" is
listed by itself as an ingredient, it can only be corn starch.  This
is NOT true for "food starch", "food starch--modified", "modified
food starch", etc.  I intend to contact the FDA and request a copy of
this regulation, but in the meantime I am taking Dorothy's word on
this to be true.  (Dorothy Vaughan is the dietitian advisor for our
support group.)

If calls to the FDA have gotten inconsistent answers on this question,
I suspect it is due to confusion over whether the question refers to
food products only.  The other possibility is that the person answering
the phone for the FDA might be in error.  Even the IRS won't guarantee
that advice you get from calling them is correct.

                   --- Jim Lyles ([log in to unmask]) ---