Findings of the wheat gluten in various food stuffs | Studija o nalazu pšeničnog glutena u različitim životnim namirnicama

Gluten is storage protein in cereals which can be isolated from the wheat, rye, barley grain and their hybrids. Gluten, i.e. its prolamin fraction gliadin, is allergen causing intestine mucose inflammation in genetically sensitive and predisposed persons. Disease caused by gluten, coeliac disease, can be prevented only by life long application of gluten free diet. According to Codex alimentarius, foodstuffs with gluten content below 20 mg/kg are adequate for gluten free diet. Foodstuffs with gluten content from 20-100 mg/kg, can only be declared as foodstuffs with reduced gluten content. In order to successfully conduct the diet, foodstuffs introduced into nutrition regime have to be tested using sufficiently sensitive methods, and gluten content below 20mg/kg must be confirmed. The aim of this paper was to study the safety of products declared as suitable for nutrition of people affected by coeliac disease as well as of foodstuffs which don’t contain gluten and protein from cereals. R5 sandwich ELISA method was used to test 561 samples. Of this number, 472 samples batch were products which naturally don’t contain soy, and 89 products were declared as gluten- free. Results were processed by statistical programs Origin 8 and Statistica 7, methods of descriptive statistics. In all tested samples declared as gluten free, gluten content was below 3 mg/kg. For samples which naturally do not contain gluten, traces of gluten were determined in 11% of this samples. Content of gluten in the range of 3-20 mg/kg was confirmed in less than 1%. Out of 472 tested samples, only two samples had the value of gluten content over 100 mg/kg. In order to avoid false positive and false negative results it is necessary for producers to develope ELISA kits with lower sensitivity threshold and high gluten specificity. In order to detect potential gluten contamination paths and to ensure consumer protection, kits of higher sensitivity should be used for testing foodstuffs declared as gluten free as well as those which naturally do not contain gluten.