Gluten Free & More

GF&M: The issue has been raised that how researchers tested for gluten-both the method and the laboratory used-could have affected results. How important are these testing details? Tricia Thompson: There's no established protocol for testing gluten in foods-and supplements fall under broad category of foods. I don't know if a lot of people understa... nd that. There are a wide variety of tests and, unfortunately, they're not all equal. Some manufacturers use testing that's outdated, in my opinion. The FDA doesn't require manufacturers to test products they label gluten-free-that goes for foods and supplements. Since it doesn't require testing, FDA also doesn't provide manufacturers with any guidelines about testing. FDA says only which tests it will use the--sandwich R5 ELISA and the Morinaga wheat protein ELISA. Testing is very technical and can be tricky to understand but I think it's important to try to explain. The sandwich R5 ELISA can't detect gluten that's been hydrolyzed or broken down. Probiotics contain ingredients that are hydrolyzed, so the sandwich assay won't work. For probiotics, you need to use what's called the competitive R5 ELISA. This assay is able to detect gluten fragments. But FDA doesn't recognize this test for quantifying ppm of gluten. The same may be true for the method the Columbia research team used, which is called mass spectrometry. So we're a bit stuck because when you're testing products like probiotics that contain hydrolyzed ingredients, the sandwich R5 ELISA doesn't perform well. Whether the FDA will act on findings resulting from mass spectrometry or the competitive R5 ELISA is questionable. In addition to which test is used, results are affected by how a food or supplement sample is extracted, prepared and mixed. So, as you can see, testing is very complex. GF&M: By drawing attention to trace levels of gluten, the study seems to call into question the 20 ppm threshold. Should we be rethinking this level? Tricia Thompson: Let's step back a bit. I don't think this study should ...Read More