About Gluten-Free Food

Gluten is a protein found in cereals such as wheat, rye and barley and a similar protein to gluten is also present in oats.When mixed with water, gluten forms stretchy, sticky strands that bind mixtures together and trap bubbles to form the light and airy structure of bread and cakes.Cooking without gluten requires different ingredients and methods.

Many foods are naturally gluten free, as they do not contain any wheat, rye, barley or oats. Other foods usually containing these cereals can be made without them for a gluten-free version.

The Free From sections of supermarkets are where most of these products can be found, including Genius gluten-free bread in Tesco stores.

The term 'gluten free' implies no gluten, but in reality, tests are not sensitive enough to detect a zero level of gluten. The standard for gluten-free products used to be set at a level of 200mg gluten/kg or 200 parts per million ppm), but labelling legislation has recently changed, which means that in future, only foods that contain less than 20ppm can be labelled as 'gluten-free'. Products containing gluten above 20ppm and up to 100ppm will be labelled as 'very low gluten'.

The new legislation was published in January 2009, and there will be a 3-year transitional period to enable manufacturers to make all necessary changes to product ranges and labels before the legislation becomes mandatory in January 2012. Genius bread already meets the new guidelines and so will continue to be labelled "gluten-free".