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ReferenceA map, a dataset, or a directory. It makes no recommendation. · Reviewed 27 August 2026

Labs, Certifiers & Standards

Who tests it, who certifies it, and who writes the rules. The layer that turns a brewer's claim into something a celiac reader can rely on, and the layer where the science is least settled.

Every claim this site cares about eventually passes through this role. The people here decide what "gluten-free" means in law, what method proves it, and who is allowed to say it on a label. That matters more in gluten-free beer than almost anywhere else in food, because the standard immunoassay methods were not designed for fermented, hydrolyzed samples, which makes this the one role whose own methods are actively contested.

Page established 2026-08-25 · seeded from existing site entries; growing.

How to read it — entry rules, and what a listing means

One owner, but the reader never has to leave. The full description of a person or organization lives in exactly one place: the role page owns the person, the subject page owns the work. But a short identity travels with the name wherever it appears: who they are, where they work, and why they are named here, in a sentence or two. You should never have to click somewhere else to find out who someone is.

Organizations sit inside the role they perform. Testing labs, certification bodies, methods organizations and regulators all belong here.

Described, never endorsed. A listing is a map reference, not a recommendation, and implies no relationship with this site. Nothing on this page constitutes regulatory advice, and a listing is not a statement that a lab or scheme is fit for a given purpose.

What qualifies. A public-facing testing service, certification scheme, published method, or regulatory role.

Corrections and removals: contact us.

The roster — who tests, certifies and rules

— Laboratories and testing services —

USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) — US Department of Agriculture. Official, independent grain sampling and grading (test weight, moisture, damage, foreign material and mycotoxins), and the upstream half of any gluten claim, since how the sample is drawn decides what the assay can mean. Our FGIS page · testing & certification

FARRP — Food Allergy Research & Resource Program — University of Nebraska. Allergen and gluten testing with certification below roughly 3 ppm, applied to pre-fermentation inputs: grain and malt, where the analyte is still intact and countable. Testing resources · testing & certification

North Dakota State Seed Lab — germination and purity of a grain lot, the seed-side read that sits beside a federal grade rather than replacing it. Testing resources

White Labs — the packaged-product end of the chain: finished-beer analytical panel and microbiology (gravity, ABV, attenuation, color, pH, IBU, diacetyl, wild yeast and bacteria), plus an R5-competitive gliadin assay offered as a service. Testing resources · the gluten assay

Bootleg Biology — the one gluten ELISA service we have found that publishes its pricing openly: $44.99 to $299.99 per assay with a one-to-three business day turnaround, per its own listing. The service · testing & certification

CSIRO — Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. The national laboratory behind the LC-MS/MS hordein work in beer, including the finding that hydrolyzed fragments suppress their own ELISA reading. The 2014 paper · testing & certification

University of Seville — Spain. Isabel Comino and Carolina Sousa's group: the origin of gluten immunogenic peptide (GIP) testing, which measures gluten exposure in the patient rather than gluten content in the food, and the source of a highly sensitive lateral-flow method for hydrolyzed gluten in beer samples. The beer method · celiac & health

Hartwick College Center for Craft Food and Beverage — Oneonta, New York. The brewing malt panel behind this site's founding enzyme numbers. The dataset

Montana State University Barley, Genetics & Malt Quality Lab — malt-quality panels on sorghum, ASBC methods. The dataset

Midwest Laboratories — Omaha. AOAC feed-and-forage nutrition panels on sorghum malt. The dataset

USDA-ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit — Madison. The sorghum micro-malting screening this site republishes in full. The dataset

— Assay and kit makers —

R-Biopharm — manufacturer of RIDASCREEN Gliadin (R7001), the R5 kit that AOAC Official Method 2012.01 is built on and that Codex treats as the type 1 method for gluten. It also publishes a practical gluten guide written for breweries. The product · the brewery guide

Neogen — supplies an alternative gluten kit built on the same R5 monoclonal antibody as the reference method; its allergen kits appear across this site's quality pages. Gluten testing methods

Romer Labs — the third kit line, run against the R5 Codex type 1 method on the same beers in the published kit comparisons. The kit comparison · testing & certification

Hygiena — maker of GlutenTox, a competitive ELISA built on the G12 antibody rather than R5: the alternative antibody, sold as a kit. Gluten testing methods

— Certification schemes —

Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) — a third-party gluten-free certification mark, and the most widely recognized in the US of those we have found. Its threshold and audit requirements are its own; a listing here is not this site's assurance about any certified product. GFCO · getting certified

Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG) — Auburn, Washington. GFCO's parent: a patient organization that operates a certification scheme and, unusually for an advocacy body, publishes primary laboratory research, including the celiac patient antibody study of conventional and gluten-removed beer. GIG · testing & certification

Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) — the umbrella body for national coeliac societies across Europe, and the owner of the Crossed Grain licensing scheme: the same patient-body-plus-standard dual role GIG holds in the United States. Celiac & health · advocacy

Gluten Free Watchdog — independent product testing published for a patient audience, and a public contester of scientific and regulatory positions, including the Prolamin Working Group's statement on fermented foods. The objection · testing & certification

— Regulators —

FDA — Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) — author of the gluten-free labeling rule that sets the 20 ppm threshold, of the 2020 rule covering fermented and hydrolyzed foods, and, through Garber's group at CFSAN, of the research showing why that threshold is hard to measure in a fermented product. FDA Q&A · FDA vs TTB

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) — the agency with authority over most beer labeling and advertising in the United States. Ruling 2008-3 decides which products fall under it at all; Ruling 2020-2 governs what a beer may say about gluten. Ruling 2020-2 · FDA vs TTB

— The method scientists —

Eric A.E. Garber — FDA CFSAN. Senior author on the 2015 study tracking gluten through brewing and fermentation and on the 2019 treatment of fermented-hydrolyzed foods generally: the federal scientist who documented why the federal threshold is hard to measure in beer. The 2019 paper · testing & certification

Michelle L. Colgrave — CSIRO. Lead author of the mass-spectrometry work showing that hydrolyzed hordein fragments suppress their own ELISA measurement, and of the earlier ELISA-versus-MS comparison. PubMed 25454134 · testing & certification

Katharina A. Scherf — Technical University of Munich. Lead author of the Prolamin Working Group's 2021 statement on determining gluten in fermented foods containing partially hydrolyzed gluten, and co-author of the 2025 absolute quantitation of celiac-disease-active gluten peptides in gluten-free barley beer. The statement · celiac & health

Laura K. Allred — Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. Author on the 2017 celiac patient antibody response study and on the 2018 visual-examination method for gluten-containing grains in gluten-free lots, the biological and the procedural halves of the same problem. doi:10.5740/jaoacint.16-0184 · testing & certification

Seeded 2026-08-25 from entries this site already holds; filled 2026-08-27 from this site's testing & certification directory, where each entry carries its own verification date. Growing.

Bodies & gatherings — where the methods and rules get argued

Organizations this role runs through: the ones a laboratory, a scheme or a regulator submits to, is calibrated by, applies to, or attends. An employer is not one of them.

— Methods and standards bodies —

AOAC International — the analytical-chemistry body that validates the methods this subject depends on, and publisher of the Journal of AOAC International, where both Allred papers appeared. AOAC Official Method 2012.01 (partially hydrolyzed gluten in fermented cereal-based products by R5 competitive ELISA) is its instrument in this field. AOAC · testing & certification

American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) — founded 1934; its official methods are the analytical reference North American brewing measurements are reported against, and the framework any gluten-free malt specification would be written into. ASBC · evaluation methods

Codex Alimentarius Commission — the international food-standards body behind the 20 ppm figure national rules adopt, and the source of the type 1 method designation that makes the R5 ELISA the international reference. Codex · testing & certification

The Prolamin Working Group (PWG) — founded 1985 at the University of Leiden; thirteen executive members spanning gastroenterology, immunology, biochemistry, plant science, food chemistry and gluten analysis. It holds observer status at Codex, works with AOAC and the Cereals & Grains Association on ELISA development and validation, and produces the PWG-gliadin reference material gluten methods are calibrated against. A laboratory does not join it; it calibrates against its material. PWG background · testing & certification

European Brewery Convention (EBC) — founded 1946 and, since the 2007 merger, the scientific and technical arm of The Brewers of Europe. Publishes Analytica-EBC (over 240 analytical methods from raw materials through packaged beer) and defines the EBC color and haze units. EBC · IoB & EBC methods

The Brewers of Europe — the Brussels trade body the EBC merged into, and the route by which analytical and sensory technical work reaches European labeling and ingredient policy. The Brewers of Europe

Cereals & Grains Association — formerly AACC International, the cereal-science society whose approved methods sit beside ASBC's in malt analysis, and which works with AOAC and the PWG on validating gluten methods: the grain-side corner of the methods-validation network. The association · internal enzymes

MEBAK — the Central European brewing analysis commission, and the third methods tradition a gluten-free malt or beer number can be reported in. Via our rice directory

Institute of Brewing (IoB) method family — the other diastatic-power lineage, documented on this site beside the EBC/ASBC approach because the two do not return the same number on the same malt. IoB & EBC methods

South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) — publisher of SANS/SABS 235 in 1970, the diastatic-power standard for sorghum and millet malts and the origin of the Sorghum Diastatic Unit. The one national specification we have found that regulates sorghum malt activity. SABS 235, documented

European proficiency-testing rounds for gluten measurement — the standing inter-laboratory exercises documenting consistency between labs running the reference method. Participation is what a certificate's credibility actually rests on. Method and proficiency background

— Where the work is presented, and who funds it —

ASBC Annual Meeting — the meeting where analytical method work on brewing, including this category's, is presented and argued. ASBC

ASBC Foundation — the society's funding arm, with grants toward brewing science including new analytical methods: the most direct fit for method work on this page's problem. ASBC · testing & certification

Brewers Association — Craft Beer Research and Service Grants — industry-funded research money aimed at beer rather than at a crop, awarded to brewing-science projects. The program

USDA NIFA — the federal competitive agricultural grants agency. Its AFRI Food Safety, Nutrition and Health priority area covers analytical method development for a food-safety threshold; SBIR/STTR is the separate door for a laboratory or a brewery rather than a university. The instrument depends on which one you are. AFRI · SBIR/STTR

A federal intramural laboratory (FGIS or an ARS unit) is reached through cooperative agreements and fee-for-service work rather than grant applications; a university takes grants and contracts; a society takes membership, submissions and proposals. Same expertise, three different doors.

Working with them — how a brewery gets tested and certified

If you need to prove a lot, test the grain rather than the beer. The analyte is intact before fermentation and fragmented after it, so the useful measurements happen upstream: sampling first, then allergen testing on grain and malt, with finished-beer work as confirmation. The four-provider network · FGIS sampling

Before you read a result, know what the method can answer. Which antibody, which format, and what fermentation did to the sample all sit underneath the number on a certificate, and none of them usually appear on it. Gluten testing methods

If you want a mark on the label, the schemes and what each actually requires are set out on their own page. Getting certified gluten-free

Before you write the label, find out which agency you answer to. FDA and TTB use different vocabularies, and a sorghum beer does not necessarily land where a brewer coming from barley would assume. Labeling: FDA vs TTB

Keep the records anyway. For fermented foods the federal ask is documentary rather than analytical, and it applies even to a beer with no gluten-containing grain anywhere near it: what a lot was, who measured it, and when. Lot Reporting Standard · batch records and ingredient proof

If you are approaching one of these bodies, the instrument depends on the door: cooperative agreements for a federal laboratory, grants and contracts for a university, submissions and proposals for a society. The constraint travels with the organization. It is recorded on the entries in Bodies & gatherings above.

How this role connects — documented links to other roles and subjects
  • This is the only role whose own instrument can read backwards. Hydrolyzed hordein fragments produce a dose-dependent suppression of the ELISA that measures them, so a more contaminated beer can return a cleaner number. Every other role on this site — brewer, maltster, supplier — inherits that inversion the moment it cites a certificate. The finding · gluten testing methods
  • The suppression finding is why this role pushes work back onto growers and maltsters. If the finished-beer measurement is unreliable, the defensible evidence is upstream: lot identity, sampling, and allergen testing while the analyte is still intact. Confidence migrates from the laboratory to the field. Growers · maltsters
  • The FDA's 2020 fermented-foods rule turns testers into record-keepers. Because the agency concluded the tests do not adequately quantify gluten in fermented foods, compliance rests on records for the food or each ingredient, which makes a supplier's certificate of analysis a regulatory document rather than a courtesy. Suppliers · the rule, in context
  • TTB Ruling 2020-2 hands writers and educators their vocabulary. "Gluten-free" and "gluten-removed" are separate claims in the United States because of a regulatory ruling, not because of a chemical distinction anyone can measure in the glass, so the people explaining the category are explaining a legal structure. Writers & educators · FDA vs TTB
  • Certifier and patient organization are frequently the same body. GFCO sits inside GIG, and the Crossed Grain scheme inside AOECS: in this category the people who set the mark and the people the mark protects are organizationally the same, which is worth knowing before reading either one's publications. Advocacy
  • Gluten immunogenic peptide testing moves the instrument off the product and into the drinker. The Seville group's GIP work measures exposure in urine and stool rather than gluten in food, a route that belongs to clinicians and patients rather than to breweries, and the one method in this field that does not care what a beer's certificate said. Celiac & health · researchers
  • The methods bodies were built around barley, and sorghum's methods came from somewhere else. ASBC, EBC and MEBAK grew up on barley malt; the sorghum method line runs through CSIR, SABS 235 and Pretoria. A maltster working a gluten-free grain is choosing between two traditions, not applying one. Evaluation methods · maltsters
  • The kit maker sits upstream of every gluten claim in the category. Codex names the R5 ELISA as the type 1 method, and the method of record is built on one manufacturer's monoclonal antibody, so a decision made in an assay factory propagates into every label a brewer prints. Suppliers · testing & certification
  • A mash decision reaches a compliance result. A protein stand is reported to lower protein including gluten, which means a process choice made by a brewer can move a number produced by this role, and no certification scheme we have found asks what mash schedule was run. Brewers · process & equipment
  • The visual-examination method makes this a sorting problem too. Allred's work established what an inspector can determine by looking, before any assay runs, which puts optical sorters, dedicated intake and grain handling inside the same question as the ELISA. Process & equipment · growers
  • A trained sensory panel belongs to this role, not to flavor. A panel has a protocol, a reference standard and a reported result; it differs from an assay only in that the instrument is human, and it carries the same sampling and reproducibility problems. Flavor & sensory
  • The homebrew layer meets this role as a kit that cannot answer the question. A home gluten test on a fermented product is weaker evidence than its readout suggests, for exactly the reason the research literature documents, which is why this site's home guidance routes to provenance rather than to a strip. Homebrewers & home maltsters · gluten testing methods
Who's missing — where this page's coverage runs out
  • No US proficiency-testing program for gluten in beer that we have found. The inter-laboratory rounds documented for this measurement are European. A US brewery's confidence therefore rests on whether its own laboratory participates in something, and nothing obliges it to say. Testing & certification
  • No certification scheme has published how it handles the fermented-matrix problem. GFCO and comparable marks set thresholds and audit against them, and we have found no public account from any of them engaging the measurement failure the FDA literature documents. That is a gap in this page's roster as much as in the field. Getting certified gluten-free
  • The mass-spectrometry tier has no listed commercial provider. Targeted peptide LC-MS/MS is the approach shown to detect what the reference method misses in beer, but we have found no contract laboratory offering it to breweries as a routine service, so it sits on this page as a capability, not as a name a reader can call. Testing & certification
  • The certifier roster is US and European only. GFCO, GIG and AOECS are what this site has verified. National schemes elsewhere, and the laboratories that serve them, are unmapped here, which reflects this site's US-centered coverage rather than the shape of the field.
  • No public account of what a whole testing program costs. Per assay the figure is published and low. What a brewery spends across grain, malt, in-process and finished-beer checks over a year is the number a business plan needs, and we have not found it published by anyone. Testing & certification

Test, certify, or write the standards? Tell us.