Celiac.com 06/25/2000 - The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created by the World Health Organization and the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It currently provides the only international gluten-free food standard for manufacturers. Its members include the Unites States and Canada in North America, and most European, Latin American, African and Asian countries. It is worth noting that European countries which currently conduct the most cutting-edge research on celiac disease in the world, namely Finland, Norway, Italy, Sweden and the UK, are also members of the Codex, and they currently accept the Codex standard for gluten-free foods that specifies a limit of 500 parts per million (ppm) of gluten in foods. This incredibly low level of gluten is considered safe by the Codex for people with celiac disease, as our products that contain specially made wheat starch with levels of gluten under this amount. Most manufacturers of gluten-free food use wheat starch that falls below 200 ppm, rather than the higher accepted limit of 500 ppm, and the current Codex gluten-free standard is in the process of being revised to the 200 ppm level.

The acceptance of the Codex wheat starch by most European countries is based on years of research and the follow up care of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people with celiac disease, whose doctors found that they recovered fine while eating it. There is currently much clinical research being done in Europe on the safety of Codex wheat starch, the results of which have further reinforced the concept that Codex wheat starch is safe for people with celiac disease. Most people with celiac disease (excluding extremely sensitive individuals and people with wheat allergy) should be able to eat Codex wheat starch without any damage or problems associated with the disease.

Get FREE Celiac.com email alerts (1-3 email per month with the latest celiac disease research and information, gluten-free recipes, etc.).