Views on the clarity of the labelling for 'free-from' or 'gluten free' products for people with coeliac disease

[katievovnik]

I am curious to know whether anyone else struggles with the clarity of labelling for gluten-free products, especially for someone with coeliac disease. 

I have recently found out that 'free-from' doesn't necessarily mean the product is free from gluten cross-contaminants and therefore, may still be unsafe for someone with the auto-immune disease.

I would love to know if anyone else has struggled with this and any other opinions or advice!

[trents]

"Free from" is not one I have seen but judging from your spelling of "coeliac" it must be a UK thing.

[cristiana]

Hi Katie

Welcome to the forum!

The following may be helpful if you are posting from the UK where I live (I notice your spelling of "coeliac", my American friends here drop the "o" which to me makes much more sense!)

If you are based in the UK, have you tried joining Coeliac UK?  They  produce a Food and Drink Guide which lists safe products that are suitable for coeliacs.  I find this very helpful.   They also have an app you can take shopping with you which I am told is very good.

As I understand it, Coeliac UK checks that the food and drink which appears in this directory is safe for coeliacs to consume.  To qualify products must contain less than 20 parts per millon (20 ppm) of gluten.  This is deemed safe for most people with coeliac disease as in a day if you total what you eat from this list, it should still be under the accepted 10 mg daily limit, a level deemed safe for coeliac consumption.  But is thought that some coeliacs are super-sensitive and this may be too much for them.

Natascha's Law which is being introduced this month should put far more importance on correct labeling - I'm hoping for great things.

But of course ... this isn't much help if you aren't posting from the UK! Apologies if you are not.

Cristiana

 

 

 

 

[cristiana]

12 minutes ago, trents said:

"Free from" is not one I have seen but judging from your spelling of "coeliac" it must be a UK thing.

Hi Trents!  Yes, Free From is used a lot in our main supermarket chains.  Usually one finds the gluten free products there but one has to be a bit wary and read the labeling.  I found some organic Dove flour (a brand which also makes excellent gluten free flour) in the Free From area in Sainsbury's.   To this day I'm not sure if it is Sainsbury's policy to put organic flour with the gluten free - I think it was an error - but I took it upon myself to move it to where the other organic products were.   Last time I checked the organic flour was still where it should be!  

Dairy Free products are also sold from this area in big supermarkets, as well as nut free, I think.  Often supermarkets try to create things like cakes, cereals, cookies etc that are dairy free, nut free, gluten free - kill several birds with one stone, as it were.

Edited October 5, 2021 by cristiana

[trents]

35 minutes ago, cristiana said:

As I understand it, Coeliac UK checks that the food and drink which appears in this directory is safe for coeliacs to consume.  To qualify products must contain less than 20 parts per millon (20 ppm) of gluten.  This is deemed safe for most people with coeliac disease as in a day if you total what you eat from this list, it should still be under the accepted 10 mg daily limit, a level deemed safe for coeliac consumption.

Cristiana, I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. You seem to be contradicting yourself by saying in one place that 20ppm is deemed safe but then immediately lower it to 10ppm in order to be safe. Could you clarify your intent here?

Edited October 5, 2021 by trents

[cristiana]

Thanks Trents.

Sorry for any confusion. I wrote 10 mg, not 10 ppm, but that is probably a rather confusing way of putting it.  I've found this which might be a bit clearer.

"Consuming a diet at 20 parts per million (ppm) is considered safe for those with celiac disease because it should put most people below the 10 mg threshold when you add up all the foods eaten in a day."

https://nationalceliac.org/celiac-disease-questions/understanding-gluten-levels/

[trents]

That does help me understand what you were trying to say, cristiana. The article in the link (and reflected in your post) is distinguishing between concentration of gluten in food item and total gluten consumption over a day's time. That is a concept I don't think I have ever seen discussed anywhere else and certainly not on this forum. I think it is an important distinction but I'm not sure I agree entirely with the conclusion. The reason I say that is because it implies you can have two totally gluten free meals on a given day and then consume one that significantly exceeds 20 ppm and not have (for most celiacs) a reaction as long as the total amount of gluten in that meal did not exceed 50mg. I'm not sure that would bear out in the actual experience of most celiacs. But I could be wrong. The article in the link sites a study but I think more research probably needs to be done in this area. At this point, I tend to think you must pay attention to both the concentration and the total amount.

[RMJ]

6 hours ago, trents said:

That does help me understand what you were trying to say, cristiana. The article in the link (and reflected in your post) is distinguishing between concentration of gluten in food item and total gluten consumption over a day's time. That is a concept I don't think I have ever seen discussed anywhere else and certainly not on this forum. I think it is an important distinction but I'm not sure I agree entirely with the conclusion. The reason I say that is because it implies you can have two totally gluten free meals on a given day and then consume one that significantly exceeds 20 ppm and not have (for most celiacs) a reaction as long as the total amount of gluten in that meal did not exceed 50mg. I'm not sure that would bear out in the actual experience of most celiacs. But I could be wrong. The article in the link sites a study but I think more research probably needs to be done in this area. At this point, I tend to think you must pay attention to both the concentration and the total amount.

In all papers I’ve seen where researchers study how much gluten someone with celiac disease can ingest they feed absolute amounts, mg or g, not ppm.  To get to recommendations an assumption is made of how many kg of food a person eats in a day and a calculation performed to convert acceptable total mg to ppm based on that many kg of food. When FDA came up with 20 ppm they also considered the level that analytical tests available at the time could detect.

[katievovnik]

23 hours ago, trents said:

"Free from" is not one I have seen but judging from your spelling of "coeliac" it must be a UK thing.

Yes this is a UK thing! Free-from refers to products which don't contain certain allergens such as dairy or gluten.

[LJ-Azura]

On 10/6/2021 at 1:16 AM, katievovnik said:

I am curious to know whether anyone else struggles with the clarity of labelling for gluten-free products, especially for someone with coeliac disease. 

I have recently found out that 'free-from' doesn't necessarily mean the product is free from gluten cross-contaminants and therefore, may still be unsafe for someone with the auto-immune disease.

I would love to know if anyone else has struggled with this and any other opinions or advice!

In Australia we have "Free From.." as a category also. They seem to use this for many allergies etc. For example "Free From Gluten", "Free From Nuts", "Free From Sugar" etc etc.