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I have notice how the celiac community has grown and evolved since 1995.
 Major research centers have started, distribution centers have emerged,
tour  groups have begun and the number of restaurants that are aware of the
need for gluten free dishes is emerging. Incidence studies have been
published and have received media attention.

My concern is that there is no third party certification agency which will
certify a product as gluten free. Recently I saw a product described as
gluten free buy a grocery when the package stated that it was made in a
plant with wheat products.
Perhaps this is acceptable to some people but it was not for us.

I see organic food with the description of "certified organic by a third a
third party". I also  note different levels of understanding of what
constitutes gluten free from

1. No added gluten ingredients

2. No undefined natural flavors or unidentified ingredients such as the
sources of citric acid or mono and diglycerides etc.

4. No use of any gluten containing manufacturing aids or packaging.

5. Cleaning of equipment specified to certain standards.

6. No manufacturing of gluten containing products in the same facility.

7. Tracing  of all the ingredients to their source and defining milling and
shipping procedures.

8. Testing for gluten.

Perhaps there could by a non-gluten rating from A to G with A meaning all
the 8 had been cleared and G meaning only that
there was no added gluten. So a product would be NG A to indicate the
highest level or all standards had been met and
 NG G to mean that only 1, had been met  People could then choose which
level standard they want to follow. However the raters would not be the
manufacturers.

The same idea of rating level could be applied to restaurants.

Does any one want to be entrepreneurial and start a certification agency.
It could work with current groups, physicians  the dietitians, the FDA for
advice and food technologists etc. In some cases the codes may already
exist but are not being monitored. Foreign imports of additives have
reached massive proportions and I am not sure we now know what is in some
of the products.

Just a thought. Models of how to do this already exist which I can describe
and give links to if any one is interested. Perhaps we could explore what
this would require. I do not have any interest in forming such an agency
 as I am still busy with my profession.

Irma

Irma

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