The consultation is proposing to change secondary legislation only. The options are for gluten free products to be “blacklisted” ie GPs would be banned from prescribing them on the NHS, or to add differing ranges of products to the prescribing list, or to maintain the list.

The consultation does not propose minimum levels of access, and does not propose changes to the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Therefore, it must be assumed that Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) will continue to have the ability to make local policies in this area.

This means that where prescribing has been ended, that this is likely to continue, and that CCGs will continue to make proposals to adjust policies in this area, if they feel it necessary. The framework being proposed facilitates the continuation of local policy making by CCGs. However, if the outcome of the consultation is to allow the continuation of prescribing we will use the Department of Health response to go back to the CCGs and point out that the Government have clearly accepted that it is legitimate to prescribe gluten free products.

There are two Sections because of new legislation which came into effect in January 2012.  Read more about the law here.

Section 1 lists foods that comply with this legislation and Section 2 lists foods that are made without gluten containing ingredients. For more information on how the Sections work, see the introduction pages at the front of each Section of the Directory on pages 10 and 161.

Even when cereal that contains gluten is used as an ingredient, all spirits are distilled during the manufacturing process and this process removes any trace of gluten. Therefore, all spirit drinks ( including malt whisky which is made from barely) are safe for people with coeliac disease.

Some foods are naturally gluten free. Foods like meat, fish, eggs, fruit and vegetables are all naturally gluten free and so listing these in the Guide would mean the Guide would be unnecessarily large. We list foods on page 6 of the Guide which are naturally gluten free and produce a gluten free checklist which you may find useful. You can download this from the Gluten free diet and lifestyle section of the website. www.coeliac.org.uk/gluten-free-checklist.

Most of our research is carried out externally however we do run a number of projects ourselves, some with the help of our members and volunteers.

If there is a planned poster presentation then a call for abstracts associated with the Research Conference will be advertised on our website with instructions on how to make a submission.

It is important to make sure the Food and Drink Guide is kept up to date. Products do change and many new products are added throughout the year. Our Food and Drink Information and mobile app are updated in real time however monthly updates to the Food and Drink Guide hard copy can also be found:

• on our website www.coeliac.org.uk, ‘Food & drink Updates’
• by following the link on our monthly electronic newsletter

Members of Coeliac UK can opt in to be contacted about research and opportunities to get involved in research will be advertised on our website here: www.coeliac.org.uk/research/our-approach/recruiting-for-research

Members and non members are welcome to apply for research, but projects will have different inclusion and exclusion criteria such as: age, gender, location, length of diagnosis, etc., which may mean that some people are not suitable for particular projects. 

Section 2 listed foods made without gluten-containing ingredients and the manufacturers have controls in place to minimise the risk of cross contamination with gluten-containing ingredients.

You will find the following types of foods in Section 2:

• Everyday foods you find on the supermarket shelves such as soups, sauces and ready meals made without gluten containing ingredients
• Supermarket own brand foods.