Glossary

Gluten-free claim

A gluten-free claim means the food meets the legal level for gluten, not simply that you left wheat flour out of the recipe. Oats, barley, rye and spelt still count. Wheat-free is a different sentence and does not support a gluten-free claim.

Reviewed 23 September 2026 against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.

In practice

Emphasising wheat, barley, rye or oats in an ingredients list is allergen labelling. A gluten-free claim is extra, and it fails if any ingredient — malt extract, ordinary oats, soy sauce, rusk, a biscuit base — brings gluten in over the threshold.

Do not print gluten-free on a PPDS pack unless you mean it and can show it. Customers use the claim to decide whether the food is safe for them. The ingredients list still has to emphasise any of the 14 allergens that are present, including egg, milk and soya in a gluten-free recipe.

Questions

Is wheat-free the same as gluten-free?

No. A wheat-free product can contain barley, rye or ordinary oats.

Are gluten-free oats required for a gluten-free flapjack?

A gluten-free claim needs gluten-free oats, not standard porridge oats, and every other ingredient has to comply too.

Official sources

Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.

Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS foodFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food productsFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK