Gluten found in ‘low-gluten’ beer in Australia

A CSIRO study funded by the Australian Coeliac Research Fund has shown that many beers, including some brands labelled ‘low-gluten’, contains levels of hordein, the form of gluten present in barley, that could cause symptoms in patients with coeliac disease.

The study was prompted by speculation as to whether gluten remained present in beers after the barley fermentation process and, if so, in what amount. It was recently reported that levels of gluten in several commercial beers tested (using ELISA) in one study were less than 20ppm, which is the Codex standard of ‘gluten free’.

Using tandem mass spectrometry, the present study analysed 60 commercial beers and found that eight labelled “gluten-free” did not contain gluten. But many regular, commercial beers had significant levels of gluten. Two beers labeled as ‘low-gluten’ had similar levels of gluten as regular beer.

The full paper can be downloaded from the Journal of Proteome Research website.

Reference: Colgrave et al. 2012. Journal of Proteome Research Vol. 11(1). pp 386–396. Doi: 10.1021/pr2008434.