Category: News Page 2 of 3

After two years using the WordPress Twenty Eleven theme it was about time to give the site a refresh. Due to the increasing use of mobile devices it was necessary to change to a full responsive design which offers more comfortability on any mobile device. I now play around with themes from Anders Noren. I always liked his designs and use his themes already on my other sites.

Please note I am still in the testing phase and play around with the themes to customize them to my own needs. It will take a few days until I have done all the changes. Thank you for your understanding.

The most visited page on my site is the test results summary table. As I received a few enquiries how the table works here a short explanation on how to read the test results.

I test the beer with two different test kits which also work differently.

The Gluten-in-Food kit works with an intensity scale, the darker the test spot the more gluten is in the sample. The test spot intensity is scaled from 0 (no visible spot) to 20 (dark red) whilst the control spot is estimated with an intensity of 6/7 (light pink). This allows the estimation of the level of gluten based on assay from the manufacturer.

The GlutenTox Home kit works with thresholds which can be set to 40, 20 or 5 ppm depending of the number of drops from the extraction solution which will be added to the unit. If a red test line appears the test is positive based on the defined threshold.

This is how it looks like on desktop PC’s:

On smartphones and other responsive devices it looks like this:

Today I want to inform you about my experiences with the gluten test kits I use to test the level of gluten in beer.

According to my doctor the toughest for men with Celiac Disease is the avoidance of normal beer as beer naturally is brewed with barley and so they believe they cannot consume it anymore. When I was diagnosed with CD I had the same reaction. I don’t like strong alcohol or wine but I really enjoyed a beer with friends. In our culture beer is a popular drink when socialising. It’s not about getting drunk but moderate consumption of beer in good company gives you a good feeling.

I gave up wheat containing pasta, pizza and bred – not so difficult for pizza but I really loved pasta and the numerous wonderful German bread types. So I said OK I gave up good food already but is it true that I cannot drink normal beer anymore and have to drink this horrible tasting and expensive gf beers brewed with artificial ingredients, glucose syrup and whatever? And now after more than one year testing beer on its gluten content I am convinced that a lot of normal beers are suitable for a lot of Celiacs. Not for all – there are people who react on the tiniest amount of gluten. But I believe the majority can drink a lot of the normal beers available without getting reactions or intestinal damage. But it definitely makes sense to test your favourite beer on the gluten level. There are a number of test kit manufacturers and here is what I experienced:

Gluten-in-Food

Manufacturer: Imutest
Costs: GBP 52.50 for a 5 test kit
Antibodies used: Skerritt
Method: Lateral Flow Through
My experience: Sensitive test kit with very low detection limit (1-2 ppm). Works with test spot intensity to determine level of gluten.
Hints and tips:
-according to Imutest the extraction step can be skipped for beer as gluten in beer is already solubilized
-if you use the pipette to measure the sample let the beer settle in a glass for 30 minutes or so to avoid a bubbling effect when you fill the pipette
Here are some more information and pictures.

GlutenTox Home

Manufacturer: Biomedal
Costs: USD 70 for a 5 test kit (International), EUR 42 for a 5 test kit (Benelux)
Antibodies used: G12
Method: Lateral Flow Through
My experience: Reliable test kit. Works with thresholds (5, 10, 20, 40 ppm) depending on the number of drops taken from the sample.
Hints and tips:
-the extraction must not be skipped according to Biomedal however when I tested the same sample with and without extraction the result was the same
-to measure the sample use the enclosed spoon
Here are some more information and pictures.

EZ Gluten
Manufacturer: ELISA Tech.
Costs: USD 60 for a 5 test kit
Antibodies used: Skerritt
Method: Lateral Flow Through
My experience: -none, not tested yet-
Hints and tips: –

AgraStrip Gluten
Manufacturer: Römer Labs
Costs: price available upon request
Antibodies used: G12
Method: Sandwich Lateral Flow Through
My experience: -none, not tested yet-
Hints and tips: -not suitable for testing beer according to the manufacturer

UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATE:

All the test results can always be found here (click or tap here). I will always add the latest test results there. This is a static page so you can bookmark this page if you like.

UPDATE END – UPDATE END – UPDATE END

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I established a table with all my test results so far. I will make it a static page and will always add the latest test result. But I haven’t found a useful table plugin for WordPress so far. Click on the Continue Reading link below to see the table. I established the table with Excel but it is not very comfortable to convert to html as it loses formatting and style. If anyone knows a good plugin for WordPress please leave a comment.

Read More

This is my first post about gluten in food and not beer. However, you may find it useful when you are sensitive to gluten. During my recent trip to Tenerife I visited a McDonald’s restaurant and at the door I saw already the well-known gluten-free symbol. The sign just says “pan sin gluten” which means something like “gluten-free bread (buns) available”.

For those who are not familiar with Europe and its territories Tenerife is an island in the Atlantic ocean belonging to Spain but having some sort of autonomy. I don’t know if the gluten-free burgers are also available in continental Spain but I guess so. And I hope McDonald’s will just test the acceptance of gluten-free stuff in Spain and then extend to other countries. Very smart, they would be pioneers in the fast food industry.

McDonald’s is also very clever not advertising their products gluten-free but just saying that gluten-free buns are available. Obviously it is almost impossible for McDonald’s to sell something really gluten-free as they use the same surfaces for their normal burgers and also the chips/french fries and chicken nuggets are made in the same fryer and oil which means the fries can be contaminated. However, for someone who is sensitive and can accept traces of gluten this is just fine. I ordered a McRoyal Deluxe meal including fries (I explained already I can handle traces of gluten without problems) and here are some pictures of the burger with gluten-free buns:

The buns are actually surprisingly strong and don’t fall apart when touching them. The taste is very neutral and generally OK but of course not like a normal wheat-containing bun. Anyway this is a fantastic opportunity and all you Celiacs or gluten-sensitive people out there should contact your local McDonald’s representatives asking for these buns with reference to this post and pictures. I’m lovin’ it 😉

Thank you:
First I would like to thank all visitors, friends and registered users for your interest in my site. I started the site in August and the feedback is amazing. Thanks to all people who send nice words via Email, contact form or post comments. The number of visitors is also constantly increasing which makes me proud and confident to have set up something useful for a lot of people. Please see some statistics at the end of this post.

Emotions:
The gluten content in beer seems to be a very emotional topic. I posted a few of the results in some forums and sometimes I was surprised by the feedback. Beside those who were really thankful to have some test results and facts there are people who completely ignore all these facts by spreading paranoia and misinformation.

Fear sells:
The gluten free lobby is very active to tell people that they should create a completely new life by buying their gf products. It’s a huge industry already with the interest to sell and make money – and you know how expensive these products are. Unfortunately a lot of people in these forums are already manipulated and follow the cult. I stopped posting in these forums as it is really useless to discuss with ignorant people. It actually embraced me to continue testing beer and showing the gf industry that even not officially gf labelled beers can have as low gluten as the official ones.

Barley is a cereal killer 😉
I also read some funny statements. For instance one guy said that barley kills him. I did not comment this paranoid statement. Don’t get me wrong, I do know there are people who really suffer from gluten and should avoid it but some statements are just hilarious.

Again:
I have to say it a few more times. The intention of this site is to test beer on the level of gluten. For some people low gluten might be absolutely OK whilst for others only absolutely no gluten is acceptable. And that’s just fine, it should be everyone’s free decision to drink a beer with high, low or no gluten. I will focus on LOW gluten as the name of site already indicates.

Contribution:
I wished more people to contribute and I hope with time the site will become more popular with more contributors. Please purchase test kits (they are not that expensive), test your favourite beers and post the results here. So we can build a huge database with the level of gluten in all kinds of beer from all over the world.

Here are some statistics:
The lowgluten.org visitors by country:

USA 42%, Germany 32%, UK 8%, Spain 5%, Poland 4%, Australia 2%, Sweden 2%, Finland 1%, Italy 1%, Other 3%

This is how the people found lowgluten.org using search engines (top 10):

1. low+gluten+beer
2. low+gluten+beers
3. gluten+content+of+beer
4. corona+low+gluten
5. american+beers+with+low+gluten+content
6. gluten+testing+of+beers
7. is+corona+low+in+gluten
8. gluten+content+beer
9. gluten+content+level+in+beers
10. gluten+testing+beer+at+home

Most of the website visitors and requests I received are from America. I am very happy to get this positive feedback from America. There seems to be a huge demand for exactly these gluten tests and so I ordered a few American beers for the next test series.

It is quite difficult to get original American beers here in Germany and it mostly comes in this fancy aluminum bottles. I prefer glass bottles but never mind, it doesn’t make a difference for the test – only for the taste.

From left to right: Budweiser, Miller Lite, Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra