There are many coeliacs who are wondering why they sometimes feel sick, (or perhaps have recurrent eczema, or mouth ulcers) and those whose biopsies show that their villi have not fully recovered. It is quite likely that many of them have just not been educated on the gluten content of say wheat-starch (also called cornflour) compared with say, maize-starch (also called maize cornflour) - which is 100 % gluten free.

To assert that gluten-free food is less appealing is ridiculous and an insult to the many cooks here as well as in the Netherlands and Canada where this problem was aired many years ago.

By focusing exclusively on the coeliac patient, this definition also ignores the other form of Gluten Enteropathy, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, and those people who have been diagnosed as allergic to wheat, gluten or as "gluten intolerant." In these conditions a 100% gluten-free diet MUST be followed. Although there are no figures available, experience suggests that the numbers are at least as high as the number of diagnosed coeliacs.

People need to be able to choose for themselves. The current labelling of food in Australia does not permit people to make that choice.

CORNFLOUR

The dictionary defines "corn" as "the seeds of the important cereal crop (as wheat, oats or Indian corn) of a particular region." The word "cornflour" was used for the fine, white sifted flour of the region, sometimes made from rice, sometimes wheat, sometimes maize. Most countries have discontinued the term "cornflour". Australia is one of the few countries where the term is still used and normally refers to the fine flour made from wheat (the predominant grain of the region).

Accurate labelling of food would mean the discontinuance of the ambiguous term "cornflour" and the use of the correct term of either "wheat-starch" or "maize-starch". Only then can individuals clearly make an informed choice about what products they buy.