Monitoring plan for the detection of gluten not declared on labels in meat preparations: preliminary results

European Union (EU) legislation protects consumers who have a known sensitivity to gluten making obligatory to label the presence of this protein in all foods. Lazio region has therefore adopted a four-year monitoring plan in order to acquire information about the presence of undeclared gluten in products considered as a serious risk to food safety. Preliminary data reported in this work indicate the absence of gluten in all 100 samples analyzed (29 meat preparations and 71 meat products), in accordance with legislation in force. However, the number of samples of this work is still limited and therefore additional data need to be collected.