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Low-gluten foods to be done away with from food labels, recommends HCFI
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Wednesday, 16 January, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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HCFI (Heart Care Foundation of India) has recommended that the term low-gluten foods should be taken out of food labels, and gluten-free should instead be labelled as zero gluten (since the public perception is that gluten-free means some amount of gluten is allowed).
It is imperative to create awareness that beer contains gluten and is harmful for the gluten-sensitive population. The harm reduction alternative is honey water wine, which has <3 per cent alcohol.
There should be options for gluten-free foods in airlines and trains. In all parties, marriages and restaurants, there should be a provision for gluten-free foods. Medical associations should pass a resolution to this effect on priority.
Non-celiac wheat sensitive persons (up to 10 per cent of the population) should be offered wheat-free food options.
Wheat available in the market should also be labelled as high-gluten wheat and low-gluten wheat (both are harmful to celiac disease but low-gluten wheat may have some solution for non-celiac wheat-sensitive persons).
This was stated by Dr K K Aggarwal of HCFI, who added that a gluten-free diet is one that does not contain the protein gluten. Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye (sometimes in oats). Gluten causes inflammation in the small intestines of people with celiac disease.
A gluten-free diet is required by patients with celiac disease (one per cent of the population), as it helps to control signs and symptoms and prevent complications.
Earlier in 2016, FSSAI had notified the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Second Amendment Regulations, 2016, relating to standards for gluten food and low-gluten food.
Correspondingly it made changes in Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 in packaging labels for gluten-free and low-gluten foods (rice, millets, ragi, oats, rye, barley, maize, wheat, pulses and legumes) specially processed to reduce the gluten content to the level of 20-100mg/kg.
Under these new regulations, the country’s apex food regulator defined gluten-free food as food that consists of or is made of one or more ingredients containing rice, millets, ragi, pulses or legumes.
A gluten-free food is one in which gluten levels are below 20mg/kg. It also said that a food which, by its nature, is suitable for use as part of a gluten free diet shall not be named as special dietary, special dietetic or any other equivalent term. However, such food may bear a statement on the label that this food is by its nature gluten-free.
Why didn’t FDA adopt zero ppm gluten rather than less than 20ppm gluten as one of the criteria for a food labelled gluten-free?
FDA used an analytical methods-based approach to define the term gluten-free and adopted <20 ppm gluten as one of the criteria for a food labelled gluten-free because the agency relies upon scientifically-validated methods for enforcing its regulations.
Analytical methods that are scientifically validated to reliably detect gluten at a level lower than 20ppm are not currently available.
In addition, some celiac disease researchers and some epidemiological evidence suggest that most individuals with celiac disease can tolerate variable trace amounts and concentrations of gluten in foods (including levels that are less than 20ppm gluten) without causing adverse health effects.
As per the FSSAI draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018, the term gluten-free shall be printed in the immediate proximity of the name of the product in the case of products described in Regulation 2.14 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, namely gluten-free.
The term low-gluten shall be printed in the immediate proximity of the name of the product in the case of products described in Regulation 2.15 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, namely low-gluten. The label shall carry a warning that the food labelled as low-gluten may pose a risk for those with celiac disease.
But now, the FSSAI has decided to take the low-gluten label out of the regulation, as in celiac disease, no amount of gluten is safe.
The Gluten-Free Food Labelling Final Rule issued by the US FDA in 2015 defined gluten-free as meaning that the food either is inherently gluten free, or does not contain an ingredient that is:
• A gluten-containing grain (for instance, spelt wheat);
• Derived from a gluten-containing grain that has not been processed to remove gluten (for instance, wheat flour); or
• Derived from a gluten-containing grain that has been processed to remove gluten (for instance, wheat starch), if the use of that ingredient results in the presence of 20ppm or more gluten in the food. Also, any unavoidable presence of gluten in the food must be less than 20ppm (parts per million). That is the lowest level that can be consistently detected in foods using valid scientific analytical tools. Also, most people with celiac disease can tolerate foods with trace amounts of gluten without causing adverse health effects
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