Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley—so it might be easy to assume that wheat starch isn’t compatible with a gluten free diet. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be true.
For over a decade, wheat starch products specifically designed to have gluten removed have been labeled as gluten free in Europe, but it wasn’t until recently that this became the case in the United States. With an update to rules issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these wheat starch products can be labeled as gluten free—which means that they’re proven not to be harmful for those with celiac disease.
According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, (https://celiac.org/celiac-disease/understanding-celiac-disease-2/what-is-celiac-disease/) celiac disease is a “serious autoimmune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.” If someone with celiac does ingest gluten, even in small amounts, this can lead to damage on the villi (projections that line the small intestine) and when the villi is damaged, there’s a threat to the ability of nutrients to be absorbed in the body. That means that for people with celiac disease, there are serious consequences to ingesting gluten, so it’s crucial that the gluten free label is used carefully to protect those with this disorder.
The FDA’s requirements for gluten free foods are that they contain less than 20 ppm (parts per million) of gluten. To meet this requirement, wheat starch has to go through a gluten extraction process, which our Simpactor machine can accomplish. Here’s how that process works: milling the wheat into flour, making dough, and washing out the starch. Gluten does not dissolve in water, but starch does, so the gluten protein sediment will sink to the bottom allowing for the starch to be drained out and dried leaving a wheat starch achieving the less than 20 ppm of gluten threshold and providing those with celiac, or gluten intolerance, to incorporate wheat starch into their diets.
Learn about our machine, the Simpactor, which can be used to mill wheat starch.