The power of reading food labels

THE POWER OF READING

FOOD LABELS

FOOD LABELS can be a bit overwhelming – there’s plenty of FINE PRINT, unfamiliar WORDS, and CONFUSING NUMBERS.

THE CROSSED GRAIN LOGO

With the support from our Medical Advisory Panel we’ve gathered some helpful advice to empower you to select a broad – and the most affordable – range of foods to maintain a strict gluten-free diet. Whether you are new to the diet and reading food labels or need a refresh, we encourage you to check out the new webinar series in the members only area of the website. How does a product get a gluten-free label? For a product to be labelled glutenfree in New Zealand, it must adhere to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) standards. This means it can’t include oats or cereals containing malt from a gluten grain, and it has less than 3ppm (basically meaning no detectable gluten).

Our gluten standards are a bit stricter than other international standards. Codex (the system established by the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation) has a threshold of 20ppm, meaning food products overseas can contain more gluten than our food does but still be considered gluten-free. Where to look on the label In New Zealand all packaged food is legally required to include a printed Our gluten standards are a bit stricter than other international standards label that confirms all ingredients and allergen information. For coeliacs, you need to watch out for the inclusion of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt on the Nutrition Information Panel.

don’t contain gluten – but raising agents and some thickeners might.

Raising agents are a combination of three ingredients. If wheat scratch is used as one of the ingredients instead of cornstarch, then the raising agent is not gluten free.

Thickeners can be made from wheat, maize, tapioca or potato starch. If wheat is used, then the product isn’t safe to eat – but it must be declared on the label.

There are some additives that are so processed that although they might have started off as wheat, there’s no gluten present in the final product. These additives are: • Caramel colour – 150 • Dextrose • Glucose syrup • Maltodextrin. Even if you’re gluten free, these are considered safe to eat. This is why you might sometimes see a product with a gluten-free label but contains an ingredient that started off being wheat based.

Finding gluten-free products can be tough, but it’s made easier by the guidelines we have in New Zealand. When looking at labels and searching for coeliac-safe products, remember that it’s always best to ask for advice if you’re ever in doubt. Seek advice from your GP or other health professional, or contact Coeliac New Zealand with any queries via our website. CL EARNING to read food labels effectively is a game changer for many coeliacs. Not only can reading them properly widen the range of gluten-free food you have in your diet, it can also save you money by not being restricted to exclusively gluten-free labelled products (which can often be more expensive!).

It can be confusing though when products have their allergens listed as a separate label. You might find the information you need in the ingredients list (in brackets or in bold print), or it may be an entirely different statement below. It’s best to give the whole label a good scan to ensure you haven’t missed anything.

You might see some labels saying ‘produced in a factory with gluten’ or ‘produced on equipment that also manufactures gluten containing products’. In these cases, there’s normally a low risk of contamination and it’s up to you whether you eat them. On the other hand, labels saying ‘may contain traces of gluten’ or ‘may contain wheat’ should definitely be avoided. Hidden gluten Food additives are added to foods to preserve their quality and flavour. They are normally identified on a label with a class name (e.g. thickener) and either an additive name (e.g. guar gum), or a number (412). Most food additives THE CROSSED GRAIN logo is a handy way to quickly identify if a product is gluten-free. It’s a worldwide standard in which foods are lab tested to ensure they adhere to the Codex gluten standard of less than 20ppm – but it can be a bit confusing for New Zealanders.

As we mentioned earlier, the standard for a product to be considered gluten-free down under is much stricter than in other parts of the world. Because of this, a product that is labelled with the words ‘Gluten Free’ in a New Zealand supermarket and has the Crossed Grain logo (CGL) signifies that the gluten levels are less than 3ppm.

Some imported products that display the CGL without the word’s gluten-free written on the label, meet the Codex standard but not necessarily the FSANZ standard of nil detected.