Standard tests do not always detect all gluten residues in barley beer

Some barley beers labeled "gluten-free" contain small amounts of gluten residues that may trigger celiac disease but are not detected by the standard antibody-based tests currently in use, according to a study by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich. In the study, researchers compared two antibody-based testing methods with a mass spectrometric detection method newly developed at the institute. The results show that modern food analytical methods could help further improve the safety of gluten-free products in the future. The study is published in Applied Food Research.