KOOEE! is proud to be the only gluten free jerky endorsed by Coeliac Australia. This isn’t something we take lightly: we have a staff member with Coeliac’s disease, so we’re aware of the very real challenges of eating gluten free. (And for the record, yes, she also endorses our beef jerky as one of her favourite healthy gluten free snacks!)
So let’s take a deeper dive into what can be classified as gluten free, and what makes a gluten free jerky.
What does it mean to be “gluten free”?
In Australia, a food product must have no detectable traces of gluten to be labelled “gluten free”. Practically, this means that a product must have gluten less than 3 parts per million (<3ppm). This is a more stringent standard than in the USA and European countries, which consider products with <20ppm to be “gluten free”.
As such, in the USA or Europe, “gluten free” food can contain 7X(!) as much as the equivalent allowed under the Australian Standards. What this means is that jerky products overseas may be labelled as gluten free, but may in fact not be a truly gluten free beef jerky!
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to correctly identify gluten free snacks. Often food that is legitimately gluten free will not have this attribute clearly labelled. Worse still are the many products that are labelled “gluten free” that actually contain gluten… It’s a minefield out there! This is why Coeliac Australia has instituted an endorsement program. And we’re very proud to now be endorsed by Coeliac Australia as their first and only gluten free jerky.
Coeliac Australia has endorsed our gluten free jerky
To be endorsed by Coeliac Australia, a product must be independently tested every 12 months (and can be randomly tested at any point). Testing results must show that the product contains no detectable gluten, as per the Australian Standard. Products endorsed by Coeliac Australia are marked with an easily visible symbol (at right).
Most of the time, beef jerky falls foul of being genuinely gluten free due to the presence of soy or teriyaki sauce in their base marinade. KOOEE! avoids this altogether by using only coconut aminos sauce as our marinade instead (which also happens to be soy free), while also ensuring every ingredient and spice is tested to be gluten free to our specifications. Going to these lengths allows us to legitimately make a gluten free jerky.
After months of hard work, we are now delighted to be endorsed by Coeliac Australia. But we’ll continue to work hard to ensure KOOEE! becomes your favourite gluten free jerky snack – whatever the occasion!
In practice, the following systems ensure that KOOEE! products are gluten-free:
- Supplier approval programs
- In-house testing program
- 3rd party testing by the National Measurement Institute
- Random testing by Coeliac Australia
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. And if you’d be interested in purchasing some seriously good jerky (that also happens to be gluten free), find our products here.
Thanks!
Andy, Co-Founder of KOOEE!