Gluten-free cookies
Consumer response
Cookie Time's new gluten-free cookies turned out to be a hit with consumers. In the three weeks following the launch of the new cookie, the company received "50 or so" positive email messages about the new product, a response Lincoln Booth describes as "phenomenal", "highly unusual" and "staggering". Ongoing feedback has been just as positive.
What next
The development project was more complex than anticipated and the company is keen to draw breath before committing to other gluten-free products. Given the huge size of the international gluten-free market, it is obvious the new cookie has real export potential. Cookie Time exported to Australia for seven years, but withdrew in 1994 to focus on the local market. In early 2008, the company decided to re-visit export opportunities, as it had been receiving an increasing number of overseas requests for product. The company is currently working with a few New Zealand-based exporters to develop opportunities in Asia and the Middle East and pursuing some opportunities directly.
Food technologists have to be aware of food labelling requirements in other countries if their company is interested in developing export markets. This is a fraught field, as the world has yet to define a universal 'gluten-free' standard. For international trade purposes, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint effort of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, declares that no more than 0.03% of a gluten-free food's total protein can come from wheat, barley, rye or oats. Codex is in the midst of revising this standard, and is unable to reach a consensus in doing so. But until it does, it sets its limit at no more than 20ppm (20mg/kg) gluten in a naturally gluten-free product, and no more than 200ppm (200mg/kg) in a product "rendered gluten-free in processing" (such as purified wheat starch or alcohol distilled from rye or wheat).
