Oats and the Challenge of Gluten Contamination: The Full Story Behind Our ABC Landline Feature

In August 2025, ABC Landline sent journalist Halina Baczkowski to our factory in Toowoomba, then out to a wool and grain farm near Wandering, Western Australia, to answer one question: why can Australian oats never be labelled "gluten free," even when they're grown, milled and tested to keep gluten contamination out entirely? The short answer is that Food Standards Australia and New Zealand doesn't currently regulate a gluten-free category for oats, and there's no legislated testing threshold, so no brand (including ours) can legally use that wording, no matter how clean the process. Watch the full broadcast below, then read on for the science, the regulation and the farm-to-factory story behind it.

"Oats and the challenge of gluten contamination" | ABC Landline, 24 August 2025 (11:49)

Why Can't Any Australian Oats Be Labelled Gluten Free?

Oats themselves don't contain gluten. The problem is what grows and mills around them. Standard oats are commonly grown in the same paddocks and processed on the same equipment as wheat, rye and barley, the three grains that do contain gluten, so trace contamination is a real and common risk rather than a theoretical one. There's also a separate wrinkle: a small number of people who react to gluten also react to a protein in oats called avenin, which is similar to gluten but not the same thing.

In Australia and New Zealand, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) doesn't currently regulate a gluten-free category specific to oats, and there's no legislation requiring oats to be tested for contaminant gluten before sale. Other countries, including the United States, Canada and Finland, have their own thresholds that allow oats to carry a gluten-free claim if they're processed a certain way and test below a set level. Australia has no equivalent standard, which is why we, and every other Australian brand, use "uncontaminated," "pure" or "gluten tested" instead of "gluten free," regardless of how rigorously the oats are actually grown and tested.

How We Keep Contamination Out, From Paddock to Packet

Since 2021, our oats have been grown exclusively by dedicated Australian farmers near Wandering in Western Australia, about two hours southeast of Perth. Our farming and milling partner, Kim Rintoul, runs a primarily wool operation with around 30% of the property dedicated to lupins and oats, milled on machinery kept entirely separate from any wheat, rye or barley.

"It's not going anywhere near any of that material. And from that, you have confidence that you are going to provide a product that isn't going to cause an issue. When we do process it, it gets tested up in Perth laboratories to test for the allergen, and I haven't had any traumas with that."

Keeping the mill genuinely clean is slow, deliberate work. Cleaning down the dehulling section alone, including the silos and every grain flow, takes over a day to do properly, and a test batch is run through afterwards to confirm the line is clear before a real batch goes through. It's the reason a genuinely uncontaminated oat costs more effort to produce than a "wheat free" one, and why we lean on independent lab testing rather than taking the process on faith.

The Oats Behind the Story

Traditional Oats

Grown by Kim Rintoul near Wandering WA, milled on dedicated equipment and lab tested in Perth for gluten contamination, batch after batch.

From $11.94 AUD Shop Traditional Oats →

Is "Wheat Free" the Same as "Gluten Free"? Here's the Myth We're Setting Straight

A few Australian brands describe their oats as "wheat free" instead of tackling the gluten-free question directly. It sounds reassuring, but it's not the same claim, and it's not legislated either. "Wheat free" only rules out one of the three gluten-containing grains. Rye and barley, the other two, can still cross-contaminate oats during farming or milling, so a wheat-free oat can still carry a real gluten risk.

What Does Coeliac Australia Say About Oats?

Coeliac Australia's lead dietitian, Kim Faulkner-Hogg, told Landline that messaging around oats is genuinely confusing for people with coeliac disease, many of whom have been told for years to avoid oats altogether.

"To know that now 90% of people with ceoliac disease could possibly eat oats if they would like to. So in order to address that, we strongly suggest that people go and see their gastroenterologist and they have a conversation with their medical team about how they could test out whether oats is suitable for them."

Faulkner-Hogg also called for a single, standardised label so the roughly 90% of coeliacs who can tolerate pure oats can find it confidently on shelf. Until that exists, her advice is to talk to a gastroenterologist and consider a medically supervised oat challenge before adding oats back into a gluten-free diet, which we've written a full step-by-step guide to in our oat challenge guide.

From a Family Recipe to National Television

This business started with a Queensland mum trying to make her children's favourite Anzac biscuit recipe safe for them. In 2007, our founder Kylie Martin learned about a family of coeliacs in the United States who'd cracked genuinely uncontaminated oat production, and in 2009 she imported the first pallet, about 750kg, into Brisbane. It barely reached the docks before people started calling to say oats couldn't legally be labelled "gluten free" in Australia. That phone call is the reason this entire category of careful, testing-led labelling exists here today.

Those biscuits are still central to the story. Our Anzac biscuits are made under licence to the recipe protected by an approval from Veterans Affairs, and donations monthly go to Legacy Brisbane, the support organisation for veterans and their families, using our uncontaminated oats instead of the standard ones most Anzac recipes rely on. They're baked and packed locally in Toowoomba. Our oats are also packed locally with a partnership with the Endeavour Foundation, which provides meaningful employment in food packaging for people with intellectual disabilities, alongside the same rigorous allergen protocols used across our whole supply chain.

Quick Facts From the ABC Landline Feature

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't GF Oats be labelled "gluten free" in Australia?

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand doesn't regulate a gluten-free category for oats and there's no legislated testing threshold, so no Australian brand can use that wording legally, regardless of how the oats are grown or tested. We use "uncontaminated," "pure" or "gluten tested" instead.

Can people with coeliac disease eat pure oats?

Coeliac Australia's guidance, cited in the Landline broadcast, is that around 90% of people with coeliac disease can tolerate pure, uncontaminated oats. It's not universal, and the recommended path is to speak with a gastroenterologist and consider a supervised oat challenge first.

What's the difference between "wheat free" and "gluten free" oats?

Wheat free only rules out wheat. Rye and barley also contain gluten and can still contaminate oats during farming or milling, so a wheat-free oat isn't automatically a low-contamination one.

How are your oats tested for contamination?

Our oats are grown on dedicated farmland and milled on equipment kept entirely separate from wheat, rye and barley, then independently lab tested in Perth for every batch before packaging.

Where can I watch the full ABC Landline broadcast?

The full segment, "Oats and the challenge of gluten contamination," is embedded at the top of this article and was originally broadcast on ABC Landline on 24 August 2025.

See the full story, then taste the difference

Watch how our uncontaminated oats go from a WA paddock to your pantry, backed by independent testing every batch.

Watch the Full ABC Landline Broadcast →

Traditional Oats

Grown in WA, milled separately, tested nil for gluten contamination.

From $11.94 AUD Shop Now →

Read more: why we'll never say "gluten free" and how to do a supervised oat challenge.