In 2007, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) tasked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finalize standards for gluten-free labeling. Four years later, the FDA has failed to fulfill that mandate. To the millions of Americans who eat gluten-free food, this inaction is a big deal.
Stephanie O’Dea, New York Times best-selling author and award-winning food blogger, has a great blog post today about why it’s important to have proper labeling on gluten-free foods.
If you want to go straight to signing the petition to get the FDA to finish the gluten-free labeling rules, go to http://1in133.org/you/.
Did you know that May is now National Celiac Awareness Month? Tomorrow, May 4, leading members of the gluten-free community are hosting the first Gluten Free Food Labeling Summit in Washington, D.C. As part of that event, they’ll be building the world’s largest gluten-free cake. Cool!
Nothing But Dirt 
The issue here is two fold, and will esliay derail our wish to see a gluten-free standard become law. The first is big business. Anything that slows food manufacturing [i.e. verifying ingredients–especially those purchased from different third-party suppliers based solely on cost] is going to be seen as a negative, not to mention the legal liability of getting it right every time. The second is deciding on a standard protocol for what is GF. That should be a no brainer; with several countries having done the work already, you’d THINK that the simplest solution would be to reach out to them and use the same standards without the foot-dragging that goes with endless “studies”. Nope–I think that all we’re going to get out of this is a lot of head-patting and more delays.