Gluten Free Certification

Specialist substitute gluten free products like breads, flours and crackers as well as processed foods that are naturally gluten free can display the term “gluten free” on their packaging. It may also be used for oat products, which are often packaged in same areas as gluten containing products and must therefore be uncontaminated in order to display the symbol. The oats must not contain more than 20ppm gluten content to be labelled “gluten free”.

AOECS has developed a “gluten free” standard which serves as a guideline for producers and food safety auditing companies in the production of gluten free food products, see the AOECS Standard.

Exceptions

In collaboration with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission has developed a list of ingredients that do not have to be labelled as being from a gluten containing grain. In this case, the grain has been processed to remove gluten.

The following ingredients are gluten free:

• glucose syrups derived from wheat or barley including dextrose
• wheat based maltodextrins
• distilled ingredients made from cereals that contain gluten e.g. alcoholic spirits.

How we can help you

Making sure you can comply with the law is important for both your business and your coeliac customers, and we can help you do this. Our Member societies are able to license the internationally recognised Crossed Grain symbol for packaged products to help your gluten free products stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

Find out how to obtain a license to use the Crossed Grain symbol on your gluten free products.