FDA Defines ‘Gluten-Free’

Celiacs, rejoice! On Friday, the FDA officially set a standard for gluten-free labeling on food products, responding to a law passed by Congress in 2004. The law called for the FDA to declare how much trace gluten could be found in a product for it to merit the label “gluten-free.” That limit is now set at 20 parts per million. The move is mainly intended to help the three million Americans with celiac disease, a condition in which antibodies act on gluten in the digestive system, damaging the small intestine. But with a $4.2 billion market for gluten-free foods—a number that has tripled since 2008—we’re guessing it’s not just the celiac-afflicted who are relieved.