Please be aware that today is the day when the 20 parts per million (ppm) limit for any products labeled Gluten-Free officially becomes effective. IOW, processed food products can contain up to 20 ppm and still be legally labeled as Gluten-Free. Obviously the mathematics involved in this law don't speak very well for the math expertise of our legislators and the FDA, since most of the rest of us have always considered any product labeled as "free" of anything to contain none of that item.
Obviously, in the new math used in the law, "free" means up to 20 ppm. Why they couldn't label it honestly, as "Low-Gluten" (with a 20 ppm limit) is beyond me. I suppose that would be to logical, or too honest. Be that as it may, most manufacturers have already been following that convention for a year or more. And please remember that as always, thanks to the incompetence of our legislators and the FDA, only wheat must specifically be listed (separately, in plain English) on the label as a source of gluten on labels of products that are not labeled as Gluten-Free. Barley and rye (and oats) do not have to be separately named.
Therefore, just because you do not see Wheat listed prominently on the label, don't assume that a product might be gluten-free anyway. It might contain barley or rye ingredients, hidden somewhere in the ingredient list. For such products, barley malt, for example, might be included in the list of ingredients, but "barley" would not have to be listed separately as a source of gluten, the way that wheat would be (as a requirement of the changes in the labeling law).
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