New ‘gluten-free’ food label rules from EU

The EU has issued new food labeling and composition rules for products that claim to be ‘gluten-free’.

 Only foods that contain less than 20
parts of gluten in a million will be allowed to use the term
‘gluten-free’ on their packaging. Previously, a food labeled
‘gluten free’ could have contained up to ten times more than
this. Also, some foods made using cereals that have been specially
processed to remove most of the gluten, but which contain less than
100 parts of gluten in a million, will be able to make the claim
‘very low gluten’ on the package.  

Manufacturers can use the new labeling system immediately, but products do not have to comply with the new rules until January 2012.