Gluten-Free Certification
Gluten-free certification built for supplement, cosmetic and small-business food producers — with the exact ppm threshold stated on every certificate.
Gluten-free certification is independent verification that a product meets a stated gluten threshold: Below 20 ppm gluten — the threshold applied to your products is recorded on your certificate. V-Cert reviews formulations, validated test reports, supplier declarations and cross-contact controls remotely, and issues a certificate that records the threshold applied and carries a QR code any buyer can scan to confirm it.
Tell us what you make and a certification reviewer scopes your quote with you.
Gluten-Free certification
Get my quoteWhy this claim pays
1 in 100
An estimated 1 in 100 people worldwide have celiac disease.
And the gluten-free shelf reaches far past diagnosis — to sensitivity, and to whole households buying one way for one member. For those buyers the claim is a safety decision, and “gluten-free” without a stated number is a promise they can’t check. The threshold printed on the certificate face is what your buyer, your pharmacist and your export file actually verify.
Source: Celiac Disease Foundation · verified 2026-07-03
Four checks, one reviewer, your whole file
A stated ppm threshold, never an implied one.
The certificate names the exact threshold standard applied. Where an export scope requires a different recognized threshold, the certificate says so explicitly.
Validated tests, current and representative.
Recent gluten test results from a validated method, no older than 12 months, for representative finished products — the documents that carry the review.
Shared lines, risk-assessed.
Shared facilities are the norm at SME scale, not a disqualifier: scheduling, cleaning validation and testing cadence are reviewed as one coherent file.
Starches, excipients and botanicals, traced.
Wheat-derived starches, maltodextrin sources and broker-traded botanicals are traced through supplier specifications to their declared source.
“Usually gluten-free” is not a certificate. The supplier’s specification and the test report are.
Gluten risk rarely sits where the label suggests. It sits in an excipient’s starch source, in a botanical that crossed a broker’s blending line, in an oat lot without a declared sourcing protocol — places only a specification or a test report can see.
That is why the review asks for documents you mostly already have: the supplier specifications and the last validated test. If your testing is current, you are at the fast end of the review; if a document is missing, it is named plainly and the clock pauses rather than the file failing.
Where gluten-free claims fail
The frequent findings in gluten-free files — and the document that settles each one.
| Risk point | Typically hides in | What the review asks for |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat-derived starches and maltodextrin | Excipients, fillers, flow agents | Supplier specification naming the source and processing |
| Broker-traded botanicals | Herbal blends and powders | Chain-of-custody declaration plus a finished-product test |
| Shared lines and facilities | Co-packed and SME production | Cross-contact risk assessment, cleaning validation, testing cadence |
| Hydrolyzed wheat protein and grain derivatives | Cosmetics, under INCI names | Declared botanical source per ingredient |
| Oat ingredients | “Gluten-free” oat claims | Declared sourcing protocol and current test reports |
Below 20 ppm gluten — the threshold applied to your products is recorded on your certificate
Built for your scope — and plain about the rest
Built for
- Supplement and cosmetics producers who need a credible gluten-free claim
- SME food producers selling direct, online or to independent retail
- Exporters who need a verifiable certificate their buyers can check by QR
Not built for
- Retail programs that mandate GFCO specifically — some chains require it by name
- Buyers whose contracts require an on-site audit scheme
If that’s your buyer, we’ll tell you before you pay anything.
Process — three steps
Apply · online
Apply online
Your marks, your product category, your scope — no documents needed yet, and nothing to pay at application.
Review · documents, not visits
Remote desk review
A named reviewer works through your formulations, ingredient specifications and supplier declarations against the V-Cert Gluten-Free Standard — no site visit.
Issue · decision day
Certificate + mark artwork
Your certificate arrives with its own number and QR code, alongside mark artwork in four formats. From that day a buyer can check the number without going through you.
Typical desk review: 5–10 business days from complete documentation.
What the Gluten-Free mark requires
These are the requirements themselves — not a summary of them.
- Finished product tested below 20 ppm gluten, the threshold recorded on your certificate
- Gluten test reports from a validated method, no older than 12 months
- Cross-contact risk assessment for shared lines and facilities
- Ingredient-level review of starches, excipients and botanical sources
- Threshold standard printed on the certificate face
Gluten-Free certification at a glance
| Threshold | Below 20 ppm gluten — the threshold applied to your products is recorded on your certificate |
|---|---|
| Scope | Food · supplements · small-batch producers |
| Review model | Remote desk review of documents, wherever you manufacture |
| Quote | Calculated at application — nothing to pay until you approve |
| Standard | V-Cert Gluten-Free Standard |
| Verification | Every certificate carries a number and a QR code — anyone can check it, current status included |
| Renewal | Annual — a re-review of deltas and refreshed declarations |
Go deeper
Supplement labels often carry gluten-free beside vegan and non-GMO — the specifications and declarations already in your file cover most of all three claims. One application, one review, one invoice.
Tools and ingredients for a Gluten-Free claim
Four working instruments for this claim — check your file, look up an ingredient, read the guides, and arm the person who signs off.
More Gluten-Free guides
Questions the page hasn’t answered
Is V-Cert accepted where retailers require GFCO?
Some retail programs mandate GFCO by name — if yours does, that requirement decides. Send us your buyer’s requirement and we’ll answer plainly. For direct-to-consumer, online, independent retail and export buyers, a certificate with a stated threshold answers the question actually being asked.
What ppm threshold does V-Cert certify against?
Our standard applies Below 20 ppm gluten — the threshold applied to your products is recorded on your certificate. Check the certificate by its number and the same threshold comes back — what was tested, by which method, to what limit, is never left implied.
What documents do we need?
Formulations, supplier declarations, a cross-contact risk assessment, and gluten test reports from a validated method. The checklist below names every document; shared lines change the controls we look for, not your eligibility.
Is V-Cert accredited?
V-Cert is an independent certification body and is not ISO/IEC 17065 accredited. What each mark requires and the rules for granting, suspending and withdrawing certificates are published, and every certificate is verifiable by QR code.
What does gluten-free certification cost?
Your exact figure is calculated at application and shown before any payment. Small scopes sit at the bottom of the fee bands and there is no application fee — see what drives the number.
Desk-Review Document Checklist (Gluten-Free)
Every document our reviewers ask for in a gluten-free desk review — one email field, nothing else.
Page last updated
A number your buyers can check
Start the application whenever your file is ready — a person reads every one.
- Free to apply
- No card, no deposit — nothing is payable until you approve a quote.
- Your quote, scoped to you
- Your quote is scoped by a certification reviewer who has read your product list.
- We disqualify ourselves out loud
- If a desk review — or V-Cert itself — is not the right fit for your scope, we say so at the quote stage.
Not sure the Gluten-Free mark fits your file? Ask the V-Cert Certification Team before you apply — a reviewer reads every message.
info@v-cert.org