Reading labels

All pre-packaged foods in the UK are covered by current EU-wide food allergen labelling legislation, which means that you can tell from an ingredients' list whether a product contains gluten.

• If a gluten-containing cereal (wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut or their hybridised strains) is used as a deliberate ingredient, it MUST appear on the ingredients' list, regardless of the amount used.
• Manufacturers must name the specific cereal grain e.g. 'wheat', 'rye', 'barley'; or some may choose to use the word gluten as well e.g. 'wheat gluten'.
• For a list of grains that do and don't contain gluten, download our A-Z list!
• This information must be declared in the ingredients list, whereas the 'allergy advice' box e.g. 'contains gluten' is only a recommendation, and is not compulsory.
  
  Therefore it is important that anyone following a gluten-free diet check both the ingredients' list and 'allergy advice' box (if used).
  
• Products that do not comply with allergen labelling legislation cannot be sold.
• Use our ingredients' checklist for further information.
• For more information on allergen labelling contact the Food Standards Agency.

The European Commission has worked with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to develop a list of ingredients that are exempt from this allergen labelling legislation.

The following ingredients are safe for people with coeliac disease, as the level of processing has removed any gluten:

• glucose syrups derived from wheat or barley including dextrose
• wheat-based maltodextrins
• distilled ingredients made from gluten-containing cereals, for example alcoholic spirits

Although these ingredients can be made from cereals containing gluten, manufacturers do not have to label them as such. They are gluten-free and suitable for people with coeliac disease.