In many foods gluten is a necessary functional ingredient, in others the gluten containing cereals (wheat, spelt, kamut, rye and barley) are key ingredients.
Some consumers, however, seek gluten-free products driven by dietary needs or preferences.
As is often the case when a market grows in response to demand it becomes more tightly regulated to ensure a high level of consumer protection and a harmonised approach across the European internal market. The European Commission has thus recently published a draft Directive on gluten-free claims to set the EU in line with evolving international standards.
Industry has been developing an increasing range of products carrying gluten-free claims, working to the Codex Alimentarius standard, which sets a maximum of 100 parts per million (ppm) gluten. The draft Directive recognises that the production of totally gluten-free food is difficult, but it tightens the controls to restrict gluten-free claims to products containing no more than 20ppm gluten. The proposed legislation also introduces a new category of 'very low gluten' to be allowed on foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses, specially processed to reduce their gluten content to a level higher than 20ppm and not higher than 100ppm.
Interestingly, the draft Directive also introduces a definition of pure oats, meaning oats with a gluten content not greater than 20 ppm in total, based on the food as sold to the final consumer, driven by concerns about contamination of oats with other cereals.
One final comment on the subject of gluten: Please remember that allergen labelling controls do not actually require gluten to be declared but reference to a cereal. If you do highlight gluten please remember to list the cereal as well. If in doubt you know who to ask!
Kath Veal is business manager, Regulatory and Technical Consultancy Services at Leatherhead Food International