Multinational Labeling Question

[Lisa16]

The recent thread on Cadbury's got me to thinking about how different countries seem to have different standards for whether or not something can be considered gluten free.

Here is what I have noticed so far-- please correct me if this seems wrong or out of date:

Australia seems to have the strictest (most conservative) rules about labeling. For example, I contacted ECO Nvey, which makes a beautiful cosmetics line you can get here on sephora. I askedif they were gluten free, and they said that even if their products had no gluten ingredients, they couldn't guarantee a gluten-free status because of the fields the soy beans were grown in. Wow! Many people on this forum could use them.

But then again, French companies like Caudalie, seem to be pretty lax. They let certain wheat starches, germ oil and hydrolyzed wheat protein be marked gluten-free in cosmetics at least. I also found the same for the German company Weleda. So is this so for the rest of the EU as well?

The Greek company Korres also seemed to be very conservative in what it considered gluten-free and sent a whole spreadsheet when I asked about their products. So maybe is varies by company?

I have also written to Japanese companies (for both food and cosmetics) and they are very conservative as well. However, other asian countries don't seem to be quite as careful (I am thinking of Sri Lanka.)

So why is there so much disparity? I know each country sets their own standards, but is there a single international standard code like the less than 20 ppm in the US? And if not, can't we try to get one?

And what about Canada and UK and the rest of Europe? It would be nice to know a little more about this in case I am brave enough to ever travel again.

Lisa

[mushroom]

This is a big question mark for me, one I have to deal with every day. Here in NZ we have a standardized agreement with OZ, so if anything is marked gluten free, it has to test No Gluten if it comes from Oz or NZ. Low gluten according to the website can have up to 20 ppm. Then we have a lot of British products on the shelves because to use the typical Kiwi quote, which I get tired of hearing, "We are such a small country" so many of the products are imported, often from the UK (mostly Orgran) so then we are dealing with the Codex Alimentarius. Then we also have things on our shelves (some of them) like Lara Bars and some other American products and these can be real question marks and I can't call the company from the market 'cos it's an international long distance call. And then I come back to Nevada in the summer for two or three months and I have to throw most things I know out the window and start again. When there I quit eating beef except for organic, would never consider even traces of corn, I have a totally different shopping list and shopping habits, cook differently, live differently. Keeps me on my toes! Right now I am building a summer shopping list of stuff to bring back (sorghum, Enjoy Life choc. chips, e.g.), but don't know what I am going to do about the new baggage charges.

I was happily consuming Lindt 70% chocolate because no gluten (and most importantly no soy lecithin) was listed on the label, only to be informed on here that it does contain gluten even though not listed. So the Swiss can't be trusted.

Life's a crapshoot! (no pun intended)

[Lisa16]

Right-- almost all Lindt has malt in it from barley-- at least the standard bars you get here, as well as the little balls.

I have a friend who was on the commission that drew up the EU standards for boilermakers/ furnaces, so I know that they made serious efforts with the formation of the EU to set "universal standards." I imagine they did this with food labels too. And if they could do this for one large market, why can't they do a universal gluten-free standard?

How would we go about getting this? The fact is that celiacs ring in at .70% (approx) of the world population and gluten sensitive individuals bring the number much higher than that. Let's say more than 1% of the world market. That is a lot of people. Millions.

[Lisa]

Any imported product into the US must comply with the FDA Labeling Laws. I'm not certain what you get when traveling. But Europe and other countries are far more advanced regarding Celiac or Coeliac awareness than the US>

[Lisa16]

Thanks MG-- that is good to know. I suspect it applies to food mostly.