FDA Struggles To Define 'Gluten-Free' After Seven Years

In 2004, Congress gave the FDA until 2008 to create a definition for what a gluten-free product actually means. Seven years later, we're still waiting.

The Washington Post reports that as celiac disease rates are rising, there is still no set definition on what defines a gluten-free product.

The $2.6 billion (compared to $100 million in 2003) U.S. gluten-free product industry currently has quite a bit of wiggle room. The Washington Post explains that some companies "might fail to test their products or might allow small amounts of gluten but still label their foods as gluten-free."

Other countries including Canada, Brazil and Australia have defined gluten-free foods as 0.0007 of an ounce of gluten for every 2.2 pounds of food. Though the FDA has no set definition, it does offer a FAQ page about gluten-free labeling.

On May 4, the world's largest gluten-free cake will be brought to Capitol Hill to call attention to the issue. Currently, at least three million Americans have celiac disease, and 18 million have gluten sensitivity.

Comments

[AnastasiaBeaverhausen]

07:26 PM on 05/04/2011

Maybe they should replace app references to gluten with something easier to conceptualize, like anthrax, then ask how much of they would allow in salad dressing while still labeling it "anthrax free" . Or maybe they should just stop giving Kraft the reacharound and do their freakin jobs.

[kandoux]

02:01 PM on 05/03/2011

I believe that wheat is industrialized beyond it's natural benefits as a fiber and grain. I also was born with a dairy allergy, I found out that cows are induced to produce milk with hormones that are ingested by the consumer and shouldn't there be a point that you stop nursing, especially cross species? I only feel safe eating at home, so I developed recipes using classic flours and alternative milks. As a professional chef I am always asked for recipes so I continue to build:
good2eat4U.com
Delicious gluten, dairy and sugar free recipes and videos made by teen chefs for the first time on camera.
Shhhh, if you don't tell, no one will know that they really are gluten, dairy and sugar free.

[HappyRhino]

10:16 AM on 05/03/2011

Having celiac is really rough! I have been on the gluten free diet for a year now, and my food costs have doubled! Everything that says gluten free is so much more expensive!

[seehowtheyrun]

01:15 PM on 05/03/2011

It is expensive, but you can save a lot by staying away from processed foods. Many of the ones claiming to be gluten free, aren't anyway: they are often cross contaminated. Read the label and the whole package. Look for certified gluten free. Stay away from things that say, no gluten ingredients, or made on shared equipment with wheat: these usually are cross contaminated, and sometimes the disclaimer is in very small print. Making your own baked goods is more expensive than if you were making them with gluten, but less expensive, by far, than buying them. You can get a lot of information here:

http://www.celiac.org/

Good luck.
I've been celiac for 12 years and am doing well.

[dougaus1]

11:14 PM on 05/03/2011

I am gluten-intolerant and on a gf diet. It may be expensive, but if it improves your health and leads to fewer doctors' visits, you may find some savings there.

[Ayngel Overson]

08:37 AM on 05/03/2011

I am still adjusting to the gluten free diet as I've only been diagnosed for a few months. It would be nice if it was easier to find gluten before I've already ingested it.

[Fi]

05:56 PM on 05/04/2011

You have to learn to read food labels.

[Ayngel Overson]

09:02 PM on 05/04/2011

I am learning, but it sneaks up on you sometimes. Like anything with soy sauce in it is off limits - but wheat isn't always on the label. I'm still struggling with those hidden sources. I'm still very new to the whole thing so I'm sure I will get more comfortable with it in time

[tonyjim]

04:30 AM on 05/03/2011

However the FDA defined Free Gluten as gluten you don't have to pay for.

[UnRed]

03:33 AM on 05/03/2011

To borrow a phrase from that great American philosopher Joe Wilson*, with respect to gluten-free products (sometimes) "you lie"! And, yup, Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free products, I'm talkin' 'bout YOU (in my opinion). The definition may be flexible but the effects are not and the term "gluten-free" is more than a cool marketing label to some of us. Abuse it and I can guarendamtee that I won't forget the agony of that abuse...or fail to pass on my opinions to others. Like now, for instance.

*well, American, anyway. Presumably because he still hasn't produced a birth certificate to prove it.

[stape45]

01:21 AM on 05/03/2011

Which part confuses them - "gluten" or "free"?

[Beth Alexander]

08:34 PM on 05/02/2011

Gosh I wish they would get on the ball on this. Would make my life so much easier and probably healthier.Without a gluten-free label I cant buy anything with "food starch", "natural flavoring", "vanilla extract", "spices", omg I could go on, because any of these things are allowed to have gluten and not be labeled. Since it is a disease that can cause everything from tummy trouble to cancer to DEATH, I think it is very important that it become labeled. I can't help but think the wheat industry has something to do with it taking so long, ugh...

[RMankovitz]

07:10 PM on 05/02/2011

Gluten is one of many natural toxins, also known as anti-nutrients or secondary metabolites, that nature has placed in plants, including seeds, nuts, and beans, to protect them from being eaten by certain animals, including humans. The idea is to make the eater sick as an incentive to stop. There is an entire area of study (unfortunately rather obscure) devoted to naturally toxic constituents of plant foodstuffs.

In our infinite lack of wisdom, we appear inclined to fool with nature, a losing proposition. She always wins. So, the big question is: who is sensitive to gluten? Since we have yet to fully understand the mechanisms evolved by nature to make us sick, there is at present no definitive answer on this subject. Therefore, I will speculate, just like the medical community.

Some of us with clinical experience in the world of nutrition have noticed a high correlation between people who are blood type O, and a sensitivity to gluten. That is, when gluten is removed from their diet, a variety of annoying symptoms resolve. There is much speculation as to the reason, but for now, who cares - the “treatment plan” is trivial. However, if in the future a definitive link is established, we are talking about 40% of the population.

Others speculate that perhaps the majority of the population may react adversely to gluten in some fashion. See:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1954879/?tool=pmcentrez

Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
A research organization

[mzrecycle]

08:00 AM on 05/03/2011

I'm B positive and gluten sensitive.
I'm trying to wrap my brain around your comments. Wheat has been a part of humans' diets for thousands of years. And you say that gluten containing products ( and thus wheat) is natural toxin to humans????
I was under the impression that the number of gluten sensitive people rose due to the reduction of the numbers of varieties of wheat down to about 3 or 4. For thousands of years, humans ate a wide variety of grains, legumes, etc. We've come to depend on a few varieties of wheat. We've also started eating a lot of processed foods, most of which can have additives that containing gluten. I still can't figure out why chicken broth needs gluten, as one supermarket brand does.

[RMankovitz]

10:26 AM on 05/03/2011

You raise a good question.

Could it be that the introduction of wheat into our diet about 10,000 years ago has contributed to a decline in our health? Could it be that for the 2.5 million years before that, we were actually healthier? Some, including me, believe that is the case. Others can’t believe it because we now live longer, but longevity is a poor correlate for health. We now live long, sickly lives.

Studies in paleoanthropology suggest that the major causes of death pre-civilization were predators, accidents, and starvation, not illness. Skeletal remains suggest that our pre-agriculture ancestors were on average taller than we are, had higher bone density, and perfect dentition, all indicators of robust health.

Here is an article on the subject by Pulitzer prize winning author and anthropologist Jared Diamond. He called the advent of agriculture the worst mistake in the history of the human race. In other words, the food industry has gotten it mostly wrong for the last 10,000 years. See:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2100251/Jared-Diamond-The-Worst-Mistake-in-the-History-of-the-Human-Race

A description of what nature, not nutritionists, evolved humans to eat can be found in “The Original Diet.”

[purenergy]

03:46 AM on 05/06/2011

In industrially made chicken broth, they often use flour or wheat byproducts as a thickener and sometimes preservatives are made out of gluten containing products. The type and amount of gluten we eat now, is nothing compared to the ancient varieties. That may have a contributory effect to the toxic effects of gluten.

[Topaz4608]

06:36 PM on 05/03/2011

I thought gluten was a protein in wheat. It causes bread and baked products to become light and fluffy. Wheat has been hybridized to contain MORE gluten in the past few decades. There fore the rise in Celiac and Gluten Intolerant as wheat and gluten become more prevalent as a food source.

I've been led to understand that the wheat of the past did not have the high content of gluten that it does today. Also, wheat was not added to every food imaginable, so people systems were not consantantly flooded with gluten.

[RMankovitz]

07:35 PM on 05/03/2011

Gluten (gliadin), courtesy Wikipedia:

“The fruiting bodies of plants contain genes as well as reserves of nutrients that allow seedlings to grow. The enrichment of nutrients is an attractant to herbivores and omnivores. For annual grasses that release seeds during a brief period each year there is a need to protect seeds during maturation from insects or animals, which might stock seeds for year round usage. For wheat, alpha-gliadins are seed-storage proteins, but also an inhibitor of the alpha-amylase activities of other animals, particularly insects. It is also known that wheat gliadins create intestinal disease when fed to very young rodents. One recent publication even raises the question 'is wheat safe for anyone to eat?’

Critically, pathology in insects or artificially fed rodents does not reflect what causes disease in humans, but it is interesting that toxicological effects of wheat are being uncovered that do have the potential to cause pathology in humans. One interesting consequence of these studies is that there may be a general gluten sensitivity that underlies various pathological manifestations, such as coeliac disease, urticaria and idiopathic sensitivity.

The rise of gluten sensitivity (particularly in adults) may reflect the convergence of many phenomena. An aging population, genetic risks associated with westernization, excesses in the diet, sensitizing chemicals (e.g. NSAIDS), and allergy-enhancing chemical treatment of foods (e.g. enzymatic deamidation of gluten) may act together with natural defensive agents in foods to cross the threshold between normality and pathology.”

[robinhood1]

06:31 PM on 05/02/2011

If you were diagnosed with celiac disease decades ago and then pronounced cured after going on a special diet, you weren't really cured. The disease never goes away but doctors did not know this in the late 1940's. The disease could be doing damage even though there are no obvious symptoms. You need to go on a gluten free diet.

[robinhood1]

06:20 PM on 05/02/2011

Most people who have celiac disease have not been diagnosed. The University of Chicago estimates that only 3% of the celiac population know they have it. Celiacs can go for decades with no obvious signs that something is wrong.

[GF PATISSERIE]

05:27 PM on 05/02/2011

Here is how we define it: 100% Gluten free.

http://www.gfpatisserie.com/

[purenergy]

05:01 PM on 05/02/2011

How difficult can this be...gluten free=no gluten..at all...free of gluten...jesus.

[Beth Alexander]

08:24 PM on 05/02/2011

It only takes a small amount to make some people ill. It is surprising how much cross contamination can occur from equipment in the production of food. Just because it isn't on the label doesn't mean there isn't any there. Trust me, it's more difficult than you could possibly imagine...

[purenergy]

06:24 AM on 05/03/2011

No, its really not difficult. If a product want to be able to call itself "gluten-free" it should be FREE OF ALL GLUTEN. There is nothing difficult in defining WHAT gluten free should "be". The problem of keeping items from being cross-contaminated is the manufacturers problem. If they want to use they label, they will find a way to make it happen...they are just whining b/c they don't want to see their profit margins decrease by having to put in safety measures or testing regularly, ect. You have taken offense to the wrong person.

[seehowtheyrun]

01:27 PM on 05/03/2011

That's why food that has no gluten ingredients should not be processed on the same equipment that does. Gluten free needs to be defined as having no cross contamination. These foods need to come from dedicated gluten free facilities. Many already do, and they are labeled as such. As a celiac I do not eat anything prepared unless it comes from a dedicated gluten free facility. The problem, is, the FDA is hesitant to require GF labeling as stringent as it needs to be. As a result, a lot of people are are still suffering.

[DoragonMama]

04:42 PM on 05/02/2011

It's no wonder I am constantly getting sick despite my extreme caution with all things food, the FDA needs to step up to the plate and establish a zero tolerance for gluten in gluten-free foods.

Anything less is a sellout and half-measure that won't help consumers at all.

[robinhood1]

06:25 PM on 05/02/2011

You should definitely stay away from all fast food restaurants where the chances of cross contamination are very high (even with a plain salad) and the knowledge of the help is about zero. Same with ethnic restaurants where the help speaks little English. I have gotten an upset stomach only twice since going on a gluten free diet. In both cases, the culprit was a Chinese restaurant that catered to the Chinese community.

[seehowtheyrun]

01:28 PM on 05/03/2011

Soy sauce contains gluten. Salad dressing often contain gluten.

[Dinah Campbell]

04:02 PM on 05/02/2011

The FDA needs to get their act together as a whole. There should be a zero tolerance level when it comes to gluten free products. Not everyone reacts to the same amount. No wheat, rye, and barley, and clean facilities.