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

This is quite a controversy.  Basically you need to make your own choice.
Malt extract is one of those grey areas.  There is a chance of there being a
few molecules of gluten (and we are talking on an atomic level) in malt
extract.  If you are very sensitive to gluten then you will react to this.
But if you crave a bowl of rice crispees, I would say give it a try, guage
the reaction and decide for yourself.  If you are of average sensitivity you
will be fine.  I have never had a problem and will continue to eat rice
crispees and corn flakes.

Responses below:

"I think our support group medical advisor would suggest that anything made
from barley not be eaten."

"The UK Coeliac Society considers it gluten-free too.  A lot of celiacs
there eat it without problems."

"I do not believe that malt extract is totally gluten free. I have tested
myself on cornflakes and rice crispies.

It takes 3 days of eating cornflakes or rice crispies for me to get a
reaction. I then feel really sick. Remember that it can be a BUILD-UP of
gluten that eventually leads to symptoms in a lot of people.  It may not
damage any villi, but it would set off the auto-immune reaction where
the lymphocytes can attack the body's own tissue.

There is a lot of controversy about the malt extract issue amongst many
Coeliac Societies. The UK Coeliac Society says it is OK. So do the
Canadians. But GIGNA (Gluten Intolerance Group of North America)
say to avoid it. The Australian Societies say it should be avoided.

Maybe it's a case of testing it out for yourself!"

"Someone made a post in the last year about ingesting minute amounts of
gluten in cereals and like you said and ate Corn Flakes I think it was till
he got colon cancer."

"go to http://www.celiac.com/corn.html#barley_malt on the Celiac.com web
site run by Don Wiss.  The information is provided by Dr.  Don Kasarda a
grain chemist and Celiac and grains expert.  I think you can find your
answer there."

"I am a DH and a celiac and I eat rice crispees and corn flakes.  Some
of the people that are misleading others about some food products are
not even a celiac or a DH.  They seem to enjoy trying to misleaded those
of us that have either Ceilac or DH."

"After being totally gf for a year following biopsy diagnosis, I tried
Kelloggs cereals where the only questionable ingredient was malt extract.

After a month, all the old symptoms were back.  The gastroenterologist's
opinion was that the residual gluten amounts could be tiny, but long-term
the damage ended up being the same (he did suggest experimenting with the
cereal in the first place, to see if it could be tolerated)."

"I have tried eating Corn Flakes and still had a
reaction to it as I would have with gluten proteins,
but Rice Krispies, the name brand from Kelloggs,
causes me no problems. I was told that it was because
it contains malt 'flavoring', NOT malt. I can also buy
Rice Krispie treats and eat them without any side
effects! The only thing that I need to watch, is that
they are ONLY the name brand from Kelloggs.

There are also SOME 'generic' brands of cereals, that
have the artificial flavoring in place of malt. They
never cause me ANY problems either! When I was first
diagnosed, I read labels VERY carefully. If I saw the
word, 'malt', I would put it back on the shelf and
move on to the next item that I need to read about.

Now, I find out that there is a BIG difference between
a gluten protein and an artificial flavoring!"

" The active parts
of gluten are called gliadins.  These are amino acid chains
and ARE soluble in water.  The procedure for producing malt
naturally reduces the glutens and gliadins greatly (though
not completely) and some of the purification processes do
seem to reduce it still further.  We have had problems from
time to time with malt extract and regard it as a
questionable GF material.  "Malt flavouring" may have
nothing to do with malt whatsoever and is then GF.  Great
caution is needed in this mine-field."

"Although gluten is normally insoluble in water, the proteins that
make up gluten may be partially broken down during the malting process
(malting is basically steeping, germination then roasting of barley-during
the germination stage the barley kernel starts to break down storage
proteins to use the parts as building blocks for the growing plant). The
result may be soluble portions of gluten protein that could cause a
reaction. It is known that relatively small pieces of the offending protein
can be enough to cause the reaction. A good reference for this is an article
by Dr. Don Kasarda from the US Dept. of Agriculture.

Note that Dr. Kasarda suspects that the malt extract might be okay, in the
concentrations used for the cereal. You might want to check the source of
the malt extract to see if they have indeed researched for gluten in their
product."

"I used to eat Rice Crispies and Corn Flakes with no problem with that in
mind, but i can't tolerate them anymore-"

From
Sherain