The way that people use the Food and Drink Guide varies between individuals. We list the supermarket own brands separately as many members only go to one or two supermarkets and so we list supermarket own brand products together.

There are companies that produce testing kits to test the level of gluten in ready prepared foods.

These tests are marketed for testing meals in restaurants and can detect a level of gluten of 20 parts per million or less. 

Reliability of these kits should always be considered, not because the kits do not do what they are reported to do, but because the user may not maintain control of the conditions needed for accurate testing. For example, testing a small sample of a certain meal will not necessarily represent the gluten content of the complete meal. It is also important to make sure that all gluten is extracted from a food before testing using the chemicals provided. It is therefore very important to follow the manufacturer's guidance on using the test kits.

More information about testing food and auditing requirements can be found over on our Food Businesses page.

The Vegetarian Chapter contains gluten free foods that are suitable for a vegetarian diet. Some products may also be suitable for a vegan diet, please refer to the manufacturer.

Most people with coeliac disease can eat oats, however many oats are contaminated with wheat, rye or barley during processing. There are also, however, a very small number of people with coeliac disease who may still be sensitive to pure, uncontaminated oat products.

Oats and oat products that are not contaminated are listed in the oats chapter of our current Food and Drink Guide.

Visit our labelling legislation page for information on the labelling of oats.

Section 1 lists foods that are gluten free. They contain gluten at a level of no more than 20 parts per million (ppm). Products listed here comply with the law (European Regulation EU 828/2014). Foods in this section are tested to make sure they are gluten free.

You will find the following types of foods in Section 1:

• specialist, substitute foods:
• foods carrying the Coeliac UK Crossed Grain symbol
• some mainstream foods that are labelled gluten free.

• on prescription
• in the Free From section of the supermarket

Manufacturers sometimes change their ingredients without notifying us. Please contact us on 0333 332 2033 and select option 2 so that we can investigate. To be able to investigate your query we will require the following information: brand and product name, pack size, barcode number and the nature of your query e.g. may contain statement, contains wheat etc.

Cross contamination can occur in storage, preparation and serving. Here are some tips to help prevent the problem occurring:

• gluten free foods must never be prepared on a wheat floured surface or in a floury atmosphere
• wash down surfaces before preparing gluten free food
• wash hands before handling gluten free food (especially after other food preparation)
• use separate utensils, for example, a separate toaster for gluten free bread; separate bread boards; separate containers for butter, margarine, chutney, pickle, jam etc, as knives can transfer crumbs from regular bread
• cook and serve gluten free foods in separate dishes
• do not deep fry gluten free foods in oil which has been used for foods that contain gluten such as batters or breadcrumb coatings.

For more detailed information about preventing cross contamination take our online catering training course.

Fresh yeast is naturally gluten free. We are now aware of some brands of dried yeasts that now contain wheat starch in the ingredients so they are not gluten free. We therefore now list dried yeasts on our Food and Drink Information Service that do not contain gluten.

You can find a full transcript of the debate here.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health committed to completing a review of the issue within six months of the debate, which was held on 1 November 2016. The Department of Health consultation was issued on 31 March 2017. Coeliac UK was not contacted during the intervening period.