"gluten Free" Definition In Europe

[CMCM]

In the book "Living Well with Celiac Disease...Abundance Beyond Wheat & Gluten" by Claudine Crangle, she makes this comment:

"In Europe the celiac diet is considered "gluten restricted" rather than gluten free. Trace amounts of gluten in a product are permissible...food products can still contain a minute amount of gluten and and be marketed to those on a celiac diet.

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This Canadian author also says: Some foods including quinoa, millet, buckwheat and amaranth are permitted by the Canadian Celiac Association." She says she has never suffered from eating them in her own diet. She also said that those grains/grasses are not related to wheat, but they are simply considered questionable by the CSA/USA because of the molecular similarities between them and gluten-containing grains.

Another point she makes: The process of distillation leaves the end product free of any traces of gluten even if the grains from which the product was made contained gluten. This makes vinegar and vanilla extract gluten free as well.

[jerseyangel]

Wow--since I've become even more sensitive to increasingly smaller amounts (traces) of gluten, I wouldn't last long over there! I wonder if the sensitive ones just never buy processed foods?

[nikki-uk]

In the UK we have a thing called Codex Alimentarius,(Codex A)Wheat Starch

Alot of 'replacement' foods(breads,biscuits etc) contain Codex A,but not all.

These foods are still labelled gluten-free as definition of Codex A means ''Less than 200 parts per million''

Coeliac UK deem Codex A as safe for 'most' coeliacs(whatever 'most' means)

They advise that if you can eat Codex A with no ill effects then you're ok.

This is a huge bone of contention in the UK at the moment.

There are alot of coeliacs who are also 'Wheaties'(people who cannot tolerate Codex A)and feel that 'gluten free' should mean 'gluten free' (however minute the amount).

For the 'wheaties' their food has to be labelled gluten-free and wheat free.

There's also the issue that if you eat alot of products with Codex A in any one day,at some point you will exeed your limit and damage will start to occur.

Coeliac UK recommend you do not eat more than 5 slices of CodexA bread in one day.

Not sure how you measure the limit in a tube of Pringles(crisps) for example which are labelled as containing the offending codex.

My husband avoids Codex A simply because he doesn't seem to have stomach pain when 'glutened'-so how can he tell if he tolerates it?

Another slightly worrying aspect of Codex A is that there have been no long term studies into the effect of eating it everyday for many years

-But wouldn't you know it,bread with Codex A tastes infinitely better than without!

Wow,I hope all that made sense!!

[jerseyangel]

Wow Nikki--that's a lot to keep straight! Thanks for explaining that Hope your husband is doing well.

[nikki-uk]

Thanks Patti,he's doing okay!

I tend to treat the whole Codex issue much like the Oats issue-some seem to get away with it-some don't,

but hubbie prefers to err on the side of caution and not chance it

It's enough to make your head ache!

[mmaccartney]

A simliar situation occurs in Australia. I was using a boullion "ultracube" from Massel, Open Original Shared Link as the cubes are 100% vegan (even the beef and chicken!) and indicated Gluten Free right on the package!

My family checks everything due to over food allergies, and when we queried Massel, we got this response:

=============

Thank you so much for your message.

Our products do not contain any ingredient of animal nature whatsoever.

We do not use any ingredient involving nuts of any type.

Gluten content is nil however; we do use a small amount of vegetable protein extract which is wheat derived.

We take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and happy 2006

Mark Caine Sales Manager

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I thought that was interesting, the package labeled gluten free, no indication of wheat derived products on the label, so I check Australian food labeling laws. Apparently if a manufactorer uses a wheat derived substance in their food product, they can label it as gluten free as long as they test the products to ensure that gluten content is less then 200 parts per billion.

So, gluten free...depends on how you define the term. I define it as not having anything derived from wheat rye or barley, others believe it means that " well we tested it, and we don't find any gluten! ". It seems that the world is favoring the second half.

[Jess]

Mmmh...I have to admit that I am obviously not as sensitive to gluten as some people but I have spent 21 years (my whole life) in Germany and I have to say that the situation is improving especially since they introduced the new laws for listing allergens. When I came over here I found it really sad when I found out that in the States you only list wheat but not gluten as an allergen.

The public awareness and availability of gluten-free products vary from country to country but if anyone is interested in going to Europe, especially Germany, you can turn to me for further info.

[aikiducky]

I just wanted to add that I really don't think it's as bad as the author makes it seem! It's just like anywhere - you need to know the labeling laws and you need to do your research. When a manufacturer uses wheat derived ingredients that are "gluten free", yes they can call the product gluten free but they ALSO have to say on the label it contains wheat (or rye or barley! which is a big plus!). The annoying exception to this are glucose syrup, maltodextrin and dextrose from wheat, those don't need to be listed as containing wheat. But watching out for three ingredients isn't such a hassle really. And things like wheat in natural flavorings have to be listed!

So basically it's just that it's still necessary to read the label, just seeing "gluten free" on a package isn't enough.

Now the real probem, and I'm sure that's a problem everywhere in the world, is: labeling laws or no labeling laws, do I actually trust the manufacturers to obey the law, and to not make any mistakes? Here in Holland, and elsewhere in northern Europe, I haven't had a problem, but I remember someone posting here from somehwre in southern Europe saying that they had gotten glutened by a product that was supposed to not contain any gluten ingredients. But I have also read posts from US members who had the same happen to them.

Bottom line is I think for a celiac it's better not to eat too much processed food period. Whereever you live.

Pauliina

[Guest TerpyTaylor]

Oh dear, all of this has me a little worried!

I'm going to Europe for a month after my college graduation (YAY!) with some close friends. We'll be in Ireland, Austria and parts of Italy. I was particularly excited about Ireland because I understood that there are fantastic options there for celiacs. But after reading all of this, should I not trust a "gluten-free" label? I'm pretty sensitive, but I've also understood that Europeans adopted the less than 200 ppm standard because trace amounts like that shouldn't affect a celiac. I tend to stick to whole foods as much as possible anyway, but what about restaurants? If I go to a restaurant that has "gluten-free" food, can I trust it? Should I even be concerned?

I'm not too concerned about Austria because we'll be staying with a friend and I can cook my own food there. Italy...we'll see. I might be going hungry a lot, but I don't mind! That's the second half of the trip, I can live on nuts and fruit for a couple of weeks if I need to. I'm going to bring packets of tuna fish in my backpack!

[aikiducky]

Taylor, I really think you're going to be ok. You know, if i was traveling to the US I would be worried as well! It's just always a hassle to travel to a place where you don't have your usual comforting routine...

What you should do with "gluten free" labels is READ THEM. If there are no obvious gluten sources listed, and the label says "gluten free", then most likely it's ok. The allowable limit for cross contamination is much lower than the allowable limit for gluten in Codex norm wheat starch, as crazy as it seems. So don't buy products that have wheat starch even if they are labeled gluten free, and you should be ok.

Restaurants... it's common sense really. You can't expect wait personnel to necessarily know what you are talking about. Call ahead if you can, and explain in detail what you want to eat and how it has to be prepared, again when you arrive at the restaurant.

There was a good informative thread about eating in Italy here not so long ago, I hope you have found that.

I hope you have a really nice trip and no accidents!

Pauliina