Wheat Gluten Labeling

To most people wheat gluten is something that they are completely unaware of. They ingest it all of the time without any consequence and so they have no need to be concerned or alerted to its presence. There are, however, many people who have severe intolerance to wheat gluten or celiac disease. To them, wheat gluten labeling can be a subject of grave concern.

One of the biggest issues with wheat gluten labeling is that there are no clear guidelines. Whether it is or is not on the label is not definitive indication that you are safe. With the current state of regulatory oversight on wheat gluten labeling, the user must contact the manufacturer to have certainty. Furthermore, the FDA allows wheat gluten to be used as a mixing agent in their drugs. It is officially listed on the list of permitted excipients and that causes a lot of grief for celiac suffers everywhere. A citizen's petition was submitted in February of 2009 to the FDA asking it to remove gluten from its list of permitted excipients. As you know, citizen's petitions don't carry much weight, so if this is a subject that is dear to you, you should express your concerns to the FDA or National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

Things are improving. Back in August of 2008 the international body responsible for establishing food safety standards (known as Codex Alimentarius Commission), finally issued a set of clear standards regarding gluten-free labeling. This is an international body and therefore the intent is that North America and Europe will be able to share and adopt the same basic definitions of gluten free labeling and be able to freely and confidently exchange products based on that uniform labeling standard. This will be a huge benefit for celiac suffers worldwide as well as others who choose to restrict or monitor their gluten intake.

Codex Alimentarius Commission has been working with gluten labeling issues for many years. Their very first definition of gluten-free came back in 1981, so they are not a new comer nor have they been ignoring the issues. The fact is that when they established the standards back in 1981 there was no meaningful test that existed that measured for the presence of gluten. So while their efforts were done with good intent, they were practically useless to the celiac community. The standards have been revised several times since then, each becoming more and more stringent as has been necessary. In 1998 the first standard that required gluten level testing was introduced and it was later further refined in 2006.

All of these efforts have been helpful, but to this day, nothing has been completely definitive. This is largely because we continue to learn about gluten and its cross-contamination issues in the processing of it. Some of the most recent gluten-free labeling efforts from the EU are already in place but only as a voluntary option. Mandatory compliance will not begin until 2012. Furthermore, the US will take time to adapt and respond to the EU labeling recommendations as well. Hopefully that process will take place in parallel with the EUs efforts. For today, the concerned celiac must still take this responsibility upon his or herself.