<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Hi all,
 
This is the third posting in a series about GF food. I hope you got some
useful information.
 
-     Foods officially labeled as "gluten free"
-     Foods from a gluten free shopping list
-     Foods which do not fall within the above categories
 
With respect to the third category, the foods not falling in the two
categories dealt with above:
 
   In the European Union it is mandatory to list all ingredients on the label
of a pre-packaged food product.  However, if a composite ingredient (e.g.
mustard) is present in the end product at a level below 25% then the
ingredients (mustardseed, vinegar, salt) of this ingredient (mustard) need
not to be mentioned (with the exception of additives with an assigned E
number).  This is of course a major flaw in the labeling legislation and it
corrupts its value for celiacs to a great extent.  Another flaw is that it is
not mandatory to mention the botanical origin of any starch, in contrary to
flour!
 
   There are rumors (Codex, EU?)  that in the future this level of 25% will
be reduced to 5%, with even a compulsory splitting up in the ingredient
labeling below that level if there is an ingredient which might be regarded
as potentially hazardous (e.g.  as an allergen).  Peanut was mentioned as
such an ingredient (there has been recently a number of fatal cases with
anaphylactic shock caused by exposure to low amounts of peanuts).  It is
expected that gluten will be regarded as potentially hazardous too.  Though
the change from 25% to 5% will benefit celiacs in the EU, as more hidden
gluten will show up in the ingredient list, it is by no means a panacea.
Even the 5% may still contain ingredients with a considerable amount of wheat
gluten.  The proposed compulsory labeling of allergens is meeting opposition
from the food producers as they fear product liability.  It could in fact be
also a threat to the business of producers of GF food, because with a
mandatory labeling of the slightest amount of wheat there would be no reason
for celiacs to buy special Gf food.
 
   Of course, neither labeling nor shopping list, nor more sophisticated
labeling is a remedy against contamination.  Contamination poses a major
problem in The Netherlands, and presumably not only there.  In the last
couple of years we analyzed about 500 foods labeled as "glutenfree" and we
found that about 20% of the buckwheat based, and 12 % of the corn based
flours were contaminated with wheat at levels exceeding the Codex Standard of
200 ppm gluten (= 100 ppm gliadin = 10 mg gliadin/100 g on dry matter).  In
fact these levels were much higher than the level of residual gluten which is
genreally found in wheat starch.
 
   By consequence celiacs in Europe have the choice between ingestion of
chronically low amounts of gluten when using wheat starch and adventitious
high amounts of gluten when consuming buckwheat or corn flour.  Unfortunately
there are no scientific data pertaining to which of these alternatives is
best.
 
Frederik Willem Janssen,  Zutphen, The Netherlands.