No Wheat Starch Allowed In Us?

[Misa]

Hiya

Did a print out of the food list on this site and noticed that wheat starch is not accepted as safe in the US and Canada! Over here in Scandinavia the health food stores and many supermarkeds stock products labelled glutenfree (rolls, bread, vaffles, pizza crusts, pancakes) which all are made of wheat starch. And it is totally accepted for celiac disease. Says on ingredients list that they contain 0.3 or 0.4% gluten per bread.

Any opinions would be much appreciated.

Misa

[Jnkmnky]

I do not allow my child to eat wheat starch. I've heard both sides of this. I think it's a good idea.

[flagbabyds]

Different countries have different regulations on how much gluten can go into a product with it still saying that it is gluten free. I don't eat anything with the name wheat in it except buchwheat.

[Guest nini]

I wouldn't trust it... JMHO

[tarnalberry]

There are a couple reasons for this, the primary one being that European nations have a standard to go by - the CODEX standard - that puts a quantifiable number on what amount of gluten is allowed to be in "gluten-free" foods. The US has no rule regulating this. In part, due to this, European food manufacturers have produced a wheat starch that is so highly processed to remove the proteins, that it can meet the definition for a "gluten-free" food. Because the US has no such standards, wheat starch here is not processed as rigorously, and has more gluten than the CODEX standard would allow.

Doctors in Europe, it seems, for the most part feel that a diet including foods made of CODEX standard wheat starch are safe for their patients. I do not know what testing (e.g. follow up blood testing, follow up biopsy, symptomatic results) they do to determine this, nor do I know how many servings of CODEX standard wheat starch per day were used in those tests.

Due to the lack of availability of more refined wheat starch in the US, and what is often seen as a stricter restriction on gluten-levels (by us on the board, anyway), it's not generally accepted as safe by a lot of US celiacs.

[KaitiUSA]

No wheat starch for me

[Misa]

So you wouldn't touch wheat starch even if the strict guidelines applied to the US....Hmm, this has got me thinking that I should perhaps stick with the rice crackers and buckwheat.....Best to be safe than sorry....Thanks for responding

Misa

[gf4life]

I have to agree with Tiffany. The wheat starch here isn't a high enough quality to be gluten free. I have a wheat starch story...

I licked the knife after frosting some gluten free cupcakes for my daughers birthday party. It was a different brand than I usually use and it was really tasty. So as I take a spoonful and pop it into my mouth, I casually look on the label and out popped the words WHEAT STARCH. I apparently grabbed the wrong flavor after reading all the labels at the store and ended up getting quite sick after just one spoonful of the frosting. Thank God I had my normal gluten-free frosting and extra cupcakes, so my daughter could still have a cupcake. But I was not very happy for the next week or so. I felt awful.

BTW, I found it very ironic that all her friends were eating gluten free cupcakes with gluten frosting! LOL