Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about a matter raised with me by the Coeliac Society, which is an organisation based in my electorate of Bradfield. I had the opportunity to meet recently with Mr Graham Price, the Technical Officer of the Coeliac Society. He explained to me that coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease and the only treatment for it is to have a gluten-free diet. This raises the question of what is gluten free.

The Food Standards Code says that gluten free means ‘no detectable gluten’. But the position is a little more complicated than that. Historically that has been regarded as meaning 20 parts per million of gluten in any piece of food. Indeed, food that meets the 20 parts per million standard, I am advised, is labelled as gluten free in Europe and in the United States. The complexity is this. The testing standards have improved in recent years and it is now possible to detect gluten down to a level as low as five parts per million. This has led to the problem that food, which is in all practical senses gluten free and does not trigger the adverse response from sufferers of coeliac disease, nevertheless, is now being found to be carrying gluten because it has gluten at levels of, for example, eight parts per million.

Let me quote from a letter written by the Coeliac Society:

The Coeliac Society is concerned that the term ‘gluten free’ may disappear altogether and we will be the only country not able to supply gluten-free foods.

I have raised the issue with the ACCC, which has an interest in this because of the very strong position it takes in relation to the use of the word ‘free’. It seems that there is something of a bureaucratic stand-off because Food Standards Australia New Zealand and the ACCC seem to be pointing fingers at each other to some extent as to who polices the use of the word ‘free’.

I have written to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Roxon, about this issue and I would argue that we ought to seek a sensible resolution so that the food-labelling laws serve rather than frustrate the interests of sufferers of coeliac disease. In practical terms it ought to be possible to label food as gluten free if it has a sufficiently low level of gluten that it does not cause adverse health effects, even though, because of the latest testing standards, it may have minute levels of gluten present within it. I do hope we can get a sensible response and I commend the work of the Coeliac Society in speaking up for sufferers of this disease.