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I need to talk about this… because it leaves me very very confused. Two things that I notice in the gluten free community online : firstly, people love gluten free flour blends with wheat starch… secondly, people hate gluten reduced beer.

At first glance and just looking at the words, this makes sense. Gluten free flour is a good thing for a gluten free diet. Gluten reduced means NOT gluten free, so therefore on a gluten free diet you should avoid it… right?

Like most other things in the gluten free universe this doesn’t quite fit the bill. Cuz that would just be too easy right?

The sketchy part? It contains wheat starch as the primary ingredient. This is also common with Schar products and some other gluten free flour blends, like Caputo, a popular Italian flour.

Since it is produced from wheat, there will be trace amounts of gluten in it, not maybe, but definitely, however it has been tested to ensure that there is less than 20ppm gluten in the finished product making it ‘technically’ gluten free by most (but not all) countries standards.

The goal for King Arthur is to reach the threshold of 10ppm (which is the standard that some other countries hold as being truly gluten free)

And maybe this is ok? But it seems strange to me to consume anything that I KNOW has gluten in it… gluten in trace amounts can have a cumulative effect so I’d rather something thats gluten free just not to have gluten in it.

This also makes it really confusing, because as common as a gluten free diet is, wheat allergy is also very real. And this same ‘gluten free flour that contains gluten’ also contains wheat… so the distinction might be very dangerous for someone who has a wheat allergy and not celiac disease.

Though everyone has to determine their own level of comfort, I find it really weird that something can definitely contain gluten, yet be labelled as gluten free since it reaches a certain threshold. Especially since the allowable threshold for something to be considered gluten free changes country to country.

Gluten free flour that definitely contains gluten baffles me… but then it also baffles me that the same governing bodies that have determined that gluten containing flour can be called gluten free will not extend the gluten free claim to ‘gluten reduced’ beers that are made from gluten containing ingredients (generally barley). Since the beer is made with barley it cannot be advertised as gluten free even though it tests below the threshold for being technically gluten free, less than 20ppm.

Am I the only one confused by this? I suspect many would risk the gluten free flours that definitely contain gluten, but would not risk the gluten reduced beer that has a lower gluten content than the gluten free flour.

For me personally? I trust neither. There are enough gluten free options out there that I won’t willingly and knowingly consume gluten… but I still remain confused.

Where the global numbers and restrictions for the definition of gluten free 20ppm, versus 10 ppm, versus non detectable come into play… that’s a whooooole other topic for another day.

Further reading:

King Arthur Flour : https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/gluten-free-bread-flour

Daura Damm : https://www.damm.com/en/beers/daura#:~:text=%3C20PPM,content%20is%20always%20below%2020ppm*.

Understanding Gluten Levels : https://nationalceliac.org/celiac-disease-questions/understanding-gluten-levels/

Gluten in Celiac Disease : More or Less https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6363368/