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An online site www.insidehealthpolicy.com has a newsletter called "FDA
Week". It is by subcription but you can do a trial for free.

The article is titled : GLUTEN FOOD STANDARDS DRAW CRITICISM BY CONSUMER
GROUP, INDUSTRY date 1/26/07.
Some interesting portions -
"FDA proposes defining "gluten-free" as food that does not contain any
wheat, rye, barley, or a crossbred hybrid of these grains or food that
contains less than 20 parts per million of gluten. FDA is taking
comments as to whether oats should be included in the definition.
Then --
"However, it is impossible to detect gluten at 20 ppm, says the
International Wheat Gluten Association. In comments filed to FDA, the
group requests that the threshold for wheat starch-based gluten-free
foods be set at 200 ppm, as is already commonly used by manufacturers
and is the standard in Europe. The group stresses setting standards
below 100 ppm is unreasonable."
And then (errors in spelling are theirs..) -
"Mary Schluckebier, executive director of the Celiac Sprue Association,
agrees that the 20 ppm is nearly impossible to detect, yet even that
level is too high for sensitive celiacs.
"We need to find testing that is meaningful, verifiable and consistent
no matter what the product is and something that is durable during the
entire manufacturing process," she said.
"I haven't seen any proposals [by FDA] on good ways to absolutely ensure
there is no cross-contamination."
"Schluckebier doubts "gluten-free" claims should be allowed because
celiacs know to look at the ingredient list to determine if gluten is
present."
------
There are currently two gf certifying organizations in the U. S. as far
as I know. These program If the testing used to detect gluten at 20pm is
not reliable that is of considerable concern to the community. The CSA
program notes that it measure down to 3ppm (
http://www.csaceliacs.org/CSASealofRecognition.php#Patrons ).
The GFCO program from GIG says that they measure "10ppm gluten (5ppm
gliadin)".

It's certainly confusing with two current standards, a new one proposed
by the FDA and the head of the largest celiac disease group in the U.S.
doubting that any claims should be made.

-Michael Thorn, RN









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