When we talk about gluten free food, a range of concerns immediately flushes our minds. Cross-contamination? Dedicated Facility? Certification? For good reason, they are all valid concerns for someone who could fall gravely ill if they eat anything with a hint of gluten. This is one main reason that consumers prefer to go with Gluten Free Certified companies worldwide.
However, in the context of Pakistan, this has also resulted in a range of misconceptions being formed among the various celiacs we come across today which need to be debunked regarding Gluten Free Certification.
Gluten Analysis Lab Reports
Many labs in Pakistan such as PCSIR, Qarshi & SGS offer gluten detection tests of submitted samples which basically serves as evidence that a particular sample does not contain any gluten.
An example of a gluten analysis test from PCSIR Labs, Lahore
But the problem starts when gluten free food businesses start to use these valid test reports to advertise that they are somehow “gluten free certified”. This couldn’t be further from the truth though. A gluten free certification is something very different in which a third party agency evaluates a business based on their quality control & good manufacturing practice(GMP) methods which would ensure that the products they are offering are indeed gluten free. For example, does this manufacturer carefully review all its suppliers? Does it use dedicated facilities to guard against cross-contamination?
A simple lab test does not evaluate any of these factors and hence, to call it equivalent to certification is dishonesty. This has sadly been done by quite a few gluten free businesses here.
Nonetheless, this brings us to another major question, why don’t manufacturers get Gluten Free Certified in Pakistan?
The answer is that there exists no certification agency in Pakistan which offers a Gluten Free Certification Program(GFCP). Therefore, it is not possible for manufacturers like us to get such a certification even if we wanted to. SGS Group advertises on its Pakistani website of doing so but a quick call with one of their representatives revealed that this is not true.
But then why doesn’t any agency offer a certification program in Pakistan?
A few reasons:
- For someone to offer a certification program, they need to be accredited by the Pakistan National Accreditation Agency(PNAC) to do so. Yet, the PNAC to date does not offer any such standard which would allow it to evaluate prospective agencies that can be deemed suitable to go forward with such a program. Neither has the Pakistan Standards(PS) put together a standardization program that it has for other certifications such as the Halal Standard(PS 3733).
- It does not make financial sense to do so. Let’s assume that a company like SGS does start offering a certification program in Pakistan soon, would it work? The truth is NO. Any certification program incurs a certain amount of costs for the regular testing of products prepared, internal & external audits, and service fees as well. This makes us realize that not every gluten free business would be able to afford these costs and the time required for the implementation of such systems. Naturally, therefore, apart from a handful of manufacturers, no one would even get such a certification. Nonetheless, we do hope that such a program is offered in the future at least for those of who want to get certified.
- A dedicated certification agency would never work in these times. The reason is, if you’re an agency dealing with other certification programs such as ISO, Halal, and PSQCA, doing a one-off gluten free certification wouldn’t be a problem since you’ll only have to divert a couple of auditors for such a specific client when needed. However, if someone thinks of an agency formed ONLY to conduct gluten free certifications with full focus, who would they serve? 3 clients across Pakistan and then sit idle-handed all year? Doesn’t look very feasible.
To conclude, the only alternative that may exist at this time would be to hire a foreign certification body to do the honors. However, again, who’s going to pay hefty costs for the transport and accommodation fees of the required auditors if they agreed to come to Pakistan? No one really. A virtual audit on the other hand would not bring such challenges but no one that we know offers them currently.
For the future, if such an opportunity arises, we’d love to be at the forefront of getting certified!
