The Food and Drug Administration is years overdue in getting the voluntary gluten-free labeling going in the US. It was required to be enacted in 2008 according to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004. It would be nice for this to get finalized soon.
It looks like (at least in my view) that it could take a bit longer. I made that assessment after reading a much more detailed response (than I ever got from the FDA) on Tricia Thompson’s website, Gluten Free Dietitian:
“FDA has revised its safety assessment report, as appropriate, to address the expert comments, and efforts are now underway to publish a Federal Register (FR) notice to reopen the comment period on the proposed rule in order to share the safety assessment and solicit public comments on it and its potential use in defining the term “gluten-free” in the final rule.” Rhonda Kane, MS, RD, Consumer Safety Officer- Food and Drug Administration
The FDA will then consider the comments when making it’s final rule which will be published on the FDA’s website.
Since I have been following this issue on The Savvy Celiac, I wanted to make sure you all knew where things stood on the US gluten free labeling issue. You can read the full response on Ms. Thompson’s website.
Tags: celiac, FDA, food, gluten-free, label
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