Label Reading

Reading a food label is the single most useful skill you can pack. The catch: every region writes its labels by a different rulebook, and a habit that keeps you safe at home can quietly fail you abroad. This page walks through the rules that matter — region by region — plus the vocabulary gluten hides behind and what “may contain” warnings really mean.

One number to remember: 20 ppm

Most of the world has settled on the same threshold for a legal “gluten-free” claim: no more than 20 parts per million (20 mg of gluten per kg of food). That figure comes from the international Codex standard and is considered protective for the large majority of people with coeliac disease. Australia and New Zealand go stricter — more on that below.

European Union

Allergens must stand out in the ingredients list

Under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt and khorasan (kamut) — are among the 14 allergens that must be emphasised in the ingredients list, usually in bold. This applies to all prepacked food sold in the EU, in the language of the country you’re in.

That gives you a fast first scan anywhere in the EU: read the bolded words. If you see Weizen, frumento, blé, orzo, Gerste or segale, you have your answer without translating the whole list.

The “gluten-free” claim

The wording is controlled by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014: “gluten-free” may only appear on food containing no more than 20 mg/kg (20 ppm) of gluten as sold. There’s also a “very low gluten” category (up to 100 mg/kg) for specially processed wheat-starch products — that one is not automatically coeliac-safe, so treat it as a separate thing, not a softer version of gluten-free.

One EU quirk worth knowing: gluten-free products may legally contain specially processed wheat starch. You’ll see “wheat starch” bolded in the ingredients of a product that’s genuinely gluten-free. If the pack carries the gluten-free claim, the finished food has been brought under 20 ppm.

United Kingdom

The UK kept the EU rules after Brexit: Regulation 828/2014 applies as assimilated law, so “gluten-free” still means 20 ppm or less, and allergen emphasis in ingredients lists works the same way. Coeliac UK is the best reference for UK-specific labelling questions, including the rules for food sold loose and in restaurants.

United States

“Gluten-free” is defined — but voluntary

The FDA’s gluten-free labeling rule (21 CFR 101.91) sets the same threshold: under 20 ppm. “Free of gluten”, “without gluten” and “no gluten” count as equivalent claims. But making the claim is voluntary — plenty of safe products never carry it, and no product is required to.

The barley and rye gap

Here’s the part that catches travellers from Europe. US allergen law (FALCPA) requires “wheat” to be declared on the label — but barley and rye are not major allergens under US law and don’t have to be named. They can sit inside “malt”, “malt extract”, “malt vinegar”, “brewer’s yeast” or even “natural flavors” with no warning at all.

So in the US, “no wheat on the label” is not the same as gluten-free. Your safest anchors are an explicit gluten-free claim or a certification mark — and a scan for malt in any form.

Canada

Canada requires gluten sources to be declared by name. Under the enhanced allergen labelling regulations, any intentionally added gluten source — wheat, rye, barley, oats or triticale — must appear in the ingredients list or in a “Contains” statement, even in tiny amounts like a seasoning blend. That makes Canadian labels noticeably more readable than US ones.

For the claim itself, Health Canada and the CFIA apply the familiar line: a food labelled gluten-free must not contain added gluten, and up to 20 ppm from cross-contact under good manufacturing practice is accepted as meeting the rule.

Australia and New Zealand

The strictest regime of all. Under the FSANZ Food Standards Code (Standard 1.2.7 with Schedule 4), a “gluten free” claim requires no detectable gluten — not 20 ppm, none that current tests can find. There’s a separate “low gluten” category, which is not coeliac-safe by default.

For coeliac travellers this is good news: a “gluten free” label in Australia or New Zealand is held to the toughest standard anywhere. Just don’t carry the logic home in reverse — a 20 ppm product from Europe wouldn’t necessarily qualify there.

The hidden gluten vocabulary

Wherever you are, these are the words that hide gluten without saying “wheat”:

• Malt in any form — malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavouring, malt vinegar. Almost always barley.
• Brewer’s yeast — often a beer by-product carrying barley gluten.
• Hydrolyzed wheat protein — common in seasonings and processed foods.
• Spelt / Dinkel, farro, emmer, einkorn, khorasan / kamut — all wheat, whatever the health-food shelf implies.
• Triticale — a wheat–rye cross.
• Semolina, durum, bulgur, couscous, seitan, graham flour — wheat under other names.
• Soy sauce — usually brewed with wheat unless labelled tamari gluten-free.
• Oats — naturally gluten-free but routinely cross-contaminated; only trust oats sold as gluten-free.
• “Natural flavors” (US) — can lawfully contain barley; if the product isn’t labelled gluten-free, treat it as unknown.

“May contain” — what it legally means

Precautionary statements — “may contain wheat”, “made in a facility that also processes gluten”, “made on shared equipment” — are voluntary in every region covered on this page. No law requires them, no law standardises the wording, and no law defines how much risk triggers one.

That cuts both ways, and it’s worth being honest about it:

• A product without a “may contain” warning has not been declared free of cross-contact. Silence is not a safety statement.
• A product with the warning is telling you the manufacturer sees a real possibility of contamination — or applies the label across its whole range. You can’t tell which from the pack.
• A product with a regulated gluten-free claim alongside a “may contain” warning has still been brought under the legal threshold. The gluten-free claim is the regulated, tested statement; the warning is the manufacturer covering its process.

Our honest reading for coeliacs: ‘may contain’ lines are voluntary, unstandardised and say nothing about actual gluten content — in the EU they sit outside the legal gluten-free framework, and on their own they don’t make a product unsuitable. Judge the ingredients list: if nothing gluten-containing is in the recipe, a precautionary line alone is not a reason to leave it on the shelf. And if it carries a proper gluten-free claim or a certification mark (see our certified vs naturally gluten-free guide), the claim is what counts.

The short version

• “Gluten-free” means ≤20 ppm in the EU, UK, US and Canada — and no detectable gluten in Australia and New Zealand.
• In the EU and UK, gluten grains are bolded in every ingredients list — scan for the bold words first.
• In the US, only wheat must be named; barley and rye hide in “malt”, “brewer’s yeast” and “natural flavors”.
• Canada names all gluten sources, including oats and triticale.
• Learn the hidden vocabulary: malt, hydrolyzed wheat protein, spelt, farro, seitan, soy sauce.
• “May contain” labels are voluntary everywhere — no warning is not a promise, and a warning without a gluten-free claim means walk away.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Coeliac disease is individual — work with your medical team, and when in doubt, don’t eat it.