Guide
Allergens in cornflour
Cornflour in UK kitchens means maize starch. Maize is not a cereal containing gluten. A sauce thickened only with cornflour is not wheat. Some products labelled cornflour blends, and some US corn starch products, are different — read the pack.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The usual pattern
Pure maize starch is used in shortbread, sponges and gravies specifically to avoid wheat. The rest of the recipe can still contain gluten. Cornflour does not cancel wheat flour used beside it.
What to check in cornflour
| What you see | What it means on a PPDS label |
|---|---|
| Maize starch | Not a gluten cereal |
| Wheat flour in the same sauce | Wheat |
| Some gravy mixes called cornflour | May still contain wheat |
| Oat or barley malt elsewhere | Those cereals, not the cornflour |
How to write it on the label
PPDS food needs the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the 14 allergens emphasised every time they appear. The Food Standards Agency’s PPDS guidance is the practical reference. A typical ingredients fragment looks like this — yours must follow the specification of the product you actually use.
Example fragment
Maize starch.
Where it shows up
Gluten-free sponges, custards, gravies, shortbread and coatings.
Assuming the whole dish is gluten-free
The thickener can be maize and the soy sauce, rusk or pastry still wheat. Look at every ingredient.
In American recipes corn starch is the same idea, but an imported pack can include additives. Use the specification.
Specification first
Brands differ. Treat this page as the usual pattern, then match the label to the tub, bag or recipe in front of you.
Questions
Is cornflour gluten-free?
Is sweetcorn an allergen?
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
- Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK