Commission Regulation (EC) No 41/2009 of 20 January 2009 concerning the composition and labelling of foodstuffs suitable for people intolerant to gluten has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 21 January 2009.

The regulation does not apply to infant formulae and follow-on formulae covered by Directive 2006/141/EC of 22 December 2006.

This Regulation will enter into force on the 20^th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, therefore 10 February, and it'll apply as from 1 January 2012.

At the date of 10 February 2009, therefore, foodstuffs which already comply with the requirements of the Regulation itself (gluten < 20 ppm) may be placed on the market as “gluten-free” products.

The main contents of the document can be summarized as follows:

·          definition and limits of gluten-free products;

·         raw materials which can be used for the production of gluten-free foodstuffs;

·          use of oats in the production of gluten-free foodstuffs.

The Regulation admits that the removal of gluten from gluten-containing grains presents considerable technical difficulties and that, therefore, many foodstuffs with this particular nutritional use may contain low residual amounts of gluten.

Even if oats is generally well tolerated by people with intolerance to gluten, however it could be contaminated by cereals which contain gluten such as wheat, rye and barley during grain harvesting, transport, storage and processing.

Therefore oat contained in foodstuffs for people intolerant to gluten must be produced so that to avoid any contamination by wheat, rye or barley, or their crossbred varieties, and the gluten content of such oats must not exceed 20 mg/kg.

Moreover the Regulation states also that some people with intolerance to gluten may tolerate small quantities of gluten, so that to enable the availability on the market of a variety of foodstuffs with different reduced levels of gluten.

The Regulation introduces therefore two very important and innovative issues:

·         “gluten free” definition also for foodstuffs for normal consumption, provided that the 20 ppm limit for gluten is respected.

·          “very low gluten” definition for foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses with a content of gluten between 21 and 100 ppm, which can be considered suitable for people intolerant to gluten. This term, which may be put on the packages of foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses with 21-100 ppm of gluten, cannot be applied on foodstuffs for normal consumption.

In summary:

Eurofins Chemical Control can perform the analysis of gluten in foodstuffs with ELISA technique and it is included in the list of the laboratories recommended by AIC for the quantification analysis of gluten in foodstuffs (http://www.celiachia.it/faq/ElencoLaboratoriRev_03-20_01_09.pdf).

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