§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to encourage food producers to include gluten content on their products' labels. [87871]
§ Mr. RookerIn the last year, we have amended the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 to require "starch" and "modified starch" used as ingredients of foods to declare their specific vegetable origin where they may contain gluten. These changes will become compulsory with effect from 14 February 2000.
We are taking every opportunity to press the European Commission to bring forward more general proposals for identifying ingredients which could cause allergic or intolerance reactions and develop rules for gluten-free claims.