May 18/Plano, Texas/PRNewswire -- PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America division announced a multi-year initiative to validate many of their products as gluten free, with package labeling to follow. Since many of the company's snacks, such as Lay's Classic potato chips and Fritos Original corn chips, are made from simple ingredients like corn or potatoes, they are, and always have been, naturally made without gluten ingredients.
Frito-Lay is not removing gluten from products. Rather, it claims it has developed a gluten-free validation process with input from the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP) and the Celiac Disease Foundation (CDF) for testing ingredients and finished products to ensure they contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten before making a "gluten free" claim. This level is in accordance with the limit set forth by the FDA in its Proposed Rule for Gluten Free Labeling (2007).