GFCO Manual Update

GFCO has released a 2023 update of the GFCO Manual, which can be downloaded at www.gfco.org/certification. The following are some of the highlights of those updates, but there is a complete summary of changes at the end of the document. Any changes which will affect your operations should be implemented within 60 days of this notice.

• There is a new definition of an “Applicable Gluten-Free Threshold”. This definition is intended to account for regulations that may require gluten-free products to contain gluten at levels below the GFCO threshold of 10 ppm.
• Products that used to be categorized as Retail or Industrial will now be categorized as Publicly Available or Publicly Unavailable, and definitions of these terms are provided.
• Wording has been added to clarify that a certification client’s contract covers all of the brands that they own, and that separate certification contracts are not required for each brand.
• There is a new offering of pre-assessment audits for new applicants
• The step-down schedule has been simplified, with 40 consecutive negative tests required for each step. NOTE: If you have already stepped down, you do not need to go back and repeat this process with the additional tests. But if you ever get a positive and need to go back to your assigned testing level, then you will need to follow the new schedule with 40 consecutive negative tests per step.
• Documents used for ingredient approval or risk reduction will now be considered to expire within one year, unless the document states a longer expiration, which can be no longer than two years.

Bilingual Spanish-English Logo Update

GFCO released its new global certification mark in March of 2020, with the transition intended to be completed by March of 2022. Additional time was granted for the transition from prior bilingual marks, as the need for new bilingual GFCO marks was assessed. The Gluten Intolerance Group, responsible for the GFCO program, has made the decision not to pursue the trademarking of a Spanish-English bilingual version of the new mark. Therefore, we are requesting that all users of the previous Spanish-English mark transition to the new English-only mark. In countries which may have a Spanish-language requirement for trademarks, we recommend using the new GFCO consolidated mark, as shown below:

What we are reading:

According to SPINS, 49% of consumers are values-oriented consumers and 73% of these values-oriented shoppers are influenced by product certifications when purchasing a product. Read on to learn more about values-oriented shoppers:

After an unprecedented decade of growth, the gluten-free market shows little sign of letting up in 2023. While manufacturers are eager to capitalize on this growing market, it’s imperative to remember that a gluten-free diet is, at its core, a medical diet. Food manufacturers must follow stringent processes for making and packaging gluten-free products from start to finish... and we break it down into four steps in our latest contribution to Food Manufacturing Magazine. 

Proficiency Testing for Surfaces

GFCO offers an annual proficiency testing round for gluten, but the sample types are intended to cover raw materials and finished products. This type of testing may not be relevant for plants that only do environmental surface swabbing for cleaning verification. GFCO has learned that NSI Lab Solutions now offers a quarterly gluten proficiency testing round for surfaces, which can be used to meet GFCO’s PT requirement in plants that do not test ingredients or products in-house, but who do gluten-specific surface testing. Information on this program can be found here.

Check out our latest contribution to Progressive Grocer where we outline three steps grocers need to pay attention to.

Last week we issued a survey to all GFCO-clients and have received a great response. Our hope is to have all voices represented in this survey. Your input is invaluable, so if you have yet to respond, click here now.



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