People with celiac disease, an inflammatory disorder of the small intestine, could get very sick if they eat gluten, a mixture of proteins that occur naturally in grains and are found in many foods, including breads, cakes, cereals and pastas. To give these consumers confidence that foods voluntarily labeled “gluten-free” meet a standard established and enforced by the FDA, the agency issued a rule in 2013 that defines the characteristics a food has to have to bear such a claim.
This was an action long sought by advocates for people with celiac disease, who said that without a standardized definition, these consumers were forced to gamble with their health, never being sure that a food labeled “gluten-free” was really one their body would tolerate. Manufacturers had until August 5, 2014 to bring their labels into compliance with the requirement that a food labeled “gluten-free” must either be inherently gluten-free or does not contain an ingredient that is:
- a gluten-containing grain (e.g., spelt wheat);
- derived from a gluten-containing grain that has not been processed to remove gluten (e.g., wheat flour); or
- derived from a gluten-containing grain that has been processed to remove gluten (e.g., wheat starch), if the use of that ingredient results in the presence of 20 parts per million (ppm) or more gluten in the food.
- Also, any unavoidable presence of gluten in the food must be less than 20 ppm.
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