Gluten Contamination in Naturally or Labeled Gluten-Free Products Marketed in Italy
Open accessAbstract
Background: A strict and lifelong gluten-free diet is the only treatment of celiac disease. Gluten contamination has been frequently reported in nominally gluten-free products. The aim of this study was to test the level of gluten contamination in gluten-free products currently available in the Italian market. Method: A total of 200 commercially available gluten-free products (including both naturally and certified gluten-free products) were randomly collected from different Italian supermarkets. The gluten content was determined by the R5 ELISA Kit approved by EU regulations. Results: Gluten level was lower than 10 part per million (ppm) in 173 products (86.5%), between 10 and 20 ppm in 9 (4.5%), and higher than 20 ppm in 18 (9%), respectively. In contaminated foodstuff (gluten > 20 ppm) the amount of gluten was almost exclusively in the range of a very low gluten content. Contaminated products most commonly belonged to oats-, buckwheat-, and lentils-based items. Certified and higher cost gluten-free products were less commonly contaminated by gluten. Conclusion: Gluten contamination in either naturally or labeled gluten-free products marketed in Italy is nowadays uncommon and usually mild on a quantitative basis. A program of systematic sampling of gluten-free food is needed to promptly disclose at-risk products.
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In a study by Verma et al., 6% of food products without precautionary allergen labelling and 2% of products with precautionary allergen labelling had a gluten content >20 mg/kg, with no statistically significant difference between groups.
“In a study by Verma et al., 6% of food products without PAL and 2% of products with PAL, had a gluten content >20 mg/kg (no statistically significant difference between groups) (58).”
From Gluten-free diet for pediatric patients with coeliac disease: A position paper from the ESPGHAN gastroenterology committee, special interest group in coeliac disease. (2024) · cites this paper as [58]
Methods §2.1 defines group 1a as products with no gluten-content information and group 1b as products labeled “may contain traces of gluten.” Results §3 reports 12 (6%) and four (2%) products above 20 ppm, respectively, with no significant difference between those groups. The 6% and 2% figures use all 200 sampled products as the denominator, however; they are not the percentages within the groups without and with precautionary labeling. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Luque, V., Crespo‐Escobar, P., Hård af Segerstad, E. M., Koltai, T., Norsa, L., Roman, E., Vreugdenhil, A., Fueyo‐Díaz, R., & Ribes‐Koninckx, C. (2024) · Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition · doi:10.1002/jpn3.12079 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
- Authors
- Verma, A., Gatti, S., Galeazzi, T., Monachesi, C., Padella, L., Baldo, G., Annibali, R., Lionetti, E., & Catassi, C.
- Affiliations
- Marche Polytechnic University (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Verma, Anil
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nutrients
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2017-02-07
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 115
- ISSN
- 2072-6643 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5331546
- OpenAlex
- W2587024334
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 7.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nutrients (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Università Politecnica delle Marche (Università Politecnica delle Marche) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften (ZB MED) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- None (None)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Celiac Disease Research and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Immunology and Allergy › Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Research
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Food composition and properties
- Keywords
- gluten contamination, gluten-free foods, celiac disease, food safety, oat, buckwheat, lentil, gluten-free diet
- MeSH terms
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Food Analysis, Food Contamination, Glutens, Italy, Quality Control
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