Characterization of a gluten reference material: Wheat-contaminated oats

Oat could be a good addition to the Gluten Free diet, but the purity of the oat supply is under scrutiny. As celiac disease becomes more prevalent, better detection tools for gluten in oats are necessary. We aimed to produce reference materials (RMs) of Canada Western Red Spring wheat (CWRS)-contaminated oat flour. Pure, uncontaminated oats flour (cultivars Navan and Gehl) was supplied by Cream Hill Estates. CWRS samples were provided by the Canadian Grain Commission from the 2009 Harvest Sample program. RMs containing 0, 20 and 100 ppm CWRS gluten-contaminated oats were created using a V-shell blender and tested by sandwich-type ELISA for gluten. Marked variations in ELISA results for the RMs were found among different test kits due to differences in capture antibodies and kit construction. The Veratox test was accurate at the 0, 20 and 100 ppm levels but detected only 30% (Veratox) and 50% (Veratox R5) of gluten at the 1000 ppm level; the Ridascreen test was accurate at all levels; the Biokits test detected roughly 10% of the gluten dosage; the Gluten-Check test detected some 30% of the gluten dosage. The RMs created could serve as standards for gluten detection in oat containing foods.