Celiac disease or what is the same, the intolerance stay to gluten, It is a fairly frequent disease in our society, which suffers one in 150 people, then has a high prevalence. As already mentioned in other posts, the good thing about this disease is that it has an effective treatment: eliminate gluten from our diet forever.
Effective yes, but expensive and difficult to follow. Foods that are produced specifically for celiacs are many more expensive than the same product with gluten. The price can easily triple the normal price. Another big inconvenience is the mislabeled of many food products. There are many foods that apriori should not carry gluten and contain it. And many times it is not specified in the labeling.
For this reason, the Spanish Health Minister, Bernat Soria, has sent a royal decree to the European Commission to better regulate the labeling of these products. Thus, it will only be admitted that foods labeled as "gluten-free foods" are marketed, if it is guaranteed that the maximum concentration of gluten they contain is twenty parts per million. Likewise, both on the label and in the advertising of products that contain gluten, the presence of this substance in the food should be mentioned. Foods that do not contain gluten should inform that they are suitable for celiacs.
This decree will not come into force until the next legislature. In addition, the first map of celiac disease in Spain has begun to be able to have real data on the prevalence of this disease in our country. This is part of the Support Plan for People with Gluten Intoleracy that the Ministry of Health is developing, and which also includes a program for early detection of these patients.
