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

The new study claiming 100ppm gluten is safe for celiacs resulted in
many folks asking what that meant 'in real life'. So I decided to put
PPM in perspective:

- Simply put 100ppm means if you have one million of something, 100 out
  of that million makes 100ppm. It can be a million of anything -
  oranges, cars, grams of fat or ounces of gluten.

So let's stick to our favorite topic: gluten. To make the math easier I
will first calculate what 150ppm amounts to in real life.

- Total protein ( not all of it is gluten ) composition of wheat
    ranges from 8% to 15%. In ppm that translates to 80,000ppm to
    150,000ppm protein ( mostly gluten )

- So, a product with 150ppm gluten has 1/1000 ( 150/150,000 ) the
    gluten of wheat. In human terms, take a slice of wheat bread and
    cut it into 1000 pieces - crumbs.
    150ppm is the gluten you would get in one of those crumbs.
    How much gluten is that in weight: Take a 16-slice loaf of bread
    baked with 500g ( a bit more than 1lb) of wheat flour:

              500grams * 15%
    ------------------------------- = 0.005 grams, about 0.0002 oz.
    16 slices * 1000 'crumbs/slice'

So, the new study that claims 100ppm of gluten is safe for celiacs
translates to 100ppm/150ppm or 2/3 of the number calculated above:

     100ppm is equivalent to about 0.003 grams or 0.0001 oz. of gluten


Regards,
Dimitrios Douros





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