Legal Recourse For People Falsely Proclaiming Items To Be Gluten Free

[UnhappyCoeliac]

Throwing this question out there to people alot smarter than me...

I am pretty sure there is not

Just wondering if anyone can share some experiences!

[Gemini]

Throwing this question out there to people alot smarter than me...

I am pretty sure there is not

Just wondering if anyone can share some experiences!

I am not sure what kinds of experiences you are looking for but I would venture to guess that there are very few food items

that are knowingly advertised as gluten-free, which turn out to be non-gluten-free. I guess it also depends on where you live and how progressive liability laws are.

I have had nothing but good experiences with restaurants and food bought in grocery stores. I think any slight errors that may have occurred were

from the non-gluten-free population, in their efforts to help and provide me with information, got something wrong but that is understandable. It bothers me that

some people might resort to a lawsuit because all that will do is make others far less likely to market a good gluten-free product, because of fear of being sued.

Besides, a person would have to be harmed with lasting effects to win a case like that in court or be rendered unable to work and function as normal and that rarely

happens from a occasional gluten hit. Unless there is a product that can be proven to be non-gluten-free, and the purpose is to stop the marketing or get the company to fix the problem, I don't see the point, other than to not eat the product.

[debmidge]

Throwing this question out there to people alot smarter than me...

I am pretty sure there is not

Just wondering if anyone can share some experiences!

Hi, do you mean like a legal penalty not a lawsuit?

I am not certain if even something like "non fat" labeling would be in

violation of a fine or lawsuit worthy. I guess it'd be considered

fraud, but one would have to prove it was intentional & that would

be difficult.

Here in US there are groups which only eat certified food which

must be marked as so on the food (NOT due to a medically necessary

condition). If govt. finds that the manufacturer

is mismarking the labels of the food, the manufacturer will get fined.

The irony of this situation is that nothing physical (no food reactions)

will happen to anyone who eats this food even if it's mislabeled, yet

the govt. feels it must be regulated. The govt. will regulate businesses on a subjective basis which is only benefiting a very small group of people. If a manufacturer in this situation gets fined, they will pay the fine, and reorganize to continue to making the product the

correctway in order to stay in this market.

The fine doesn't make them stop producing their "certified" product.

If anything, after the fine, the manufacturer will take better steps to

insure that the certification is proper so that they don't get fined

again. I somewhat agree with the govt. getting involved because mislabeling in any way is consumer fraud.

However,

Contrary to the above, I agree with Gemini, that the more you paint

manufacturers in a corner about gluten free the more the

manufacturers will not want to be bothered even

trying to produce and label a product gluten free. "Celiacs "as whole are

too small a group and do not have enough clout......yet. The

operating word here is "clout." It's more important for celiacs to

have a good relationship with manufacturers than to look for legal

ways to force them to do something which the manufacturers

could "option out " of doing.

[psawyer]

Well said, Deb.

[Lisa]

Well said, Deb.

ditto

[Mother of Jibril]

Here in US there are groups which only eat certified food which must be marked as so on the food (NOT due to a medically necessary condition). If govt. finds that the manufacturer is mismarking the labels of the food, the manufacturer will get fined.

I assume you were thinking of kosher food?

This is actually a very interesting comparison!

My understanding is that the kosher symbols are regulated by Jewish organizations which actually send representatives to factories to check out their manufacturing processes. I know someone who works as an engineer for Nestle and he said that a rabbi comes to the plant periodically to "bless the machinery" (and I assume, check the pork/meat/dairy status). The symbols are trademarks, so if someone uses them without permission that's what they get fined for... trademark infringement.

Wouldn't it be great if celiacs could send representatives to factories like this? We should come up with a special gluten-free symbol that manufacturers would WANT to have. In the beginning celiac organizations would probably have to hire the inspectors... in the future, manufacturers could pay. Just the cost of doing business with a very loyal group of customers who have specific needs

[GFinDC]

I assume you were thinking of kosher food?

This is actually a very interesting comparison!

My understanding is that the kosher symbols are regulated by Jewish organizations which actually send representatives to factories to check out their manufacturing processes. I know someone who works as an engineer for Nestle and he said that a rabbi comes to the plant periodically to "bless the machinery" (and I assume, check the pork/meat/dairy status). The symbols are trademarks, so if someone uses them without permission that's what they get fined for... trademark infringement.

Wouldn't it be great if celiacs could send representatives to factories like this? We should come up with a special gluten-free symbol that manufacturers would WANT to have. In the beginning celiac organizations would probably have to hire the inspectors... in the future, manufacturers could pay. Just the cost of doing business with a very loyal group of customers who have specific needs

Hmmm, maybe the Rabbis could do the gluten-free inspections also eh? That would be cool. I sometimes look for Kosher foods since some of them are made wheat free for Passover. Like potato pancake mix, or coconut macaroons. Manachevitza makes some awesome coconut macaroons!

I don't think there is an actual regulation in the USA for gluten free labeling. The FDA held hearings on it but I don't know that they finalized them yet.