Have just carried out test on chocolate brownie muffins to see if they conform to new Codex standard. Food needs to have less than 20ppm of gluten to be labelled gluten free. Laboratory testing is necessary to obtain certificate and use of Coeliac Society's crossed grain logo. Lab testing is expensive so I went for home test first which doesn't give you certificate but at least tells you if you are anywhere near meeting the standard. I was very pleased with the result which indicated that this particular product can be legally labelled GF. Next step is to get a batch made up and tested in a certified lab.
The test was fiddly but the instructions are clear and I feel very relieved that all my precautions for avoiding cross contamination paid off. I feel confident now in carrying on with the launch of my Gluten Free business. A positive result would have been a set back as I would then have had to test the individual ingredients to see which contained traces of gluten. Each test can only be used once and costs about £11. This is a small price to pay for people with Coeliac Disease to be assured of the safety of the products they purchase but still adds to the costs.
My market testing shows that people on GF diets feel that GF foods are too high in price. While the new Codex is an important safeguard it will I think reduce the number of outlets prepared to offer GF food because of the cost of testing. While home testing is relatively cheap, the lab tests cost a lot more and have to be repeated annually to retain use of crossed grain logo.
However I have now got assurance that I can produce GF foods and can press on with launching Glorious Gluten Free Foods.
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