"I have a 2-year-old daughter with Celiac," writes a worried mother in an e-mail to the Israel Celiac Association (ICA). "I am very nervous about using a lot of the products in the booklet of permissible foods. On the one hand, they are on the list, but on the other, their labels state, 'May contain gluten.' I feel quite lost, and would be very thankful for some advice."

People with Celiac cannot eat foods that contain gluten, a component of wheat flour. Lately, Israelis with Celiac have been witnessing a considerable increase in the number of food products they are afraid to buy or eat - despite the fact that the products in question often do not contain flour, and should not hurt Celiac sufferers.

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The reason for this apparent food shortage is not changes in the products or doctors' orders. The only thing that has changed is how manufacturers label their products. People with Celiac say an increasing number of products are labeled as possibly containing gluten, even when none of the ingredients would indicate this. The food companies are doing this to protect themselves legally against potential lawsuits by Celiac sufferers.

Now bearing warning labels are staples in the Celiac sufferer's diet - including rice crackers, candy, snack foods, rice and hummus.

Why are an increasing number of manufacturers labeling products with gluten warnings? It all started last Passover, when Elite notified Celiac sufferers who had purchased ostensibly safe "Kosher for Passover" candies that they could contain higher than permissible gluten levels.

Following the announcement, a couple whose children have Celiac disease requested to open a NIS 375 million class-action suit against Elite, on the grounds that the company should have labeled the products as containing gluten. A decision on the suit is still pending. Rakefet Sheffer, of the ICA, says the association opposed the suit.

"We were afraid it would backfire," says Sheffer, "and now we see this is exactly what happened."

Elite, apparently in order to prevent similar errors and additional suits, decided to mark all its products with a warning that they could contain gluten. Other companies have adopted a similar policy to a lesser extent.

The problem is particularly prominent just now. Pesach was always considered a good holiday for Celiac sufferers, as potato-based products hit the shelves. For years Celiac patients would stock up on months of Passover foods. This year, there are likely to be far fewer such products.

Still, does the "Kosher for Passover" certification, which ostensibly indicates the product does not contain wheat flour, not contradict the warning "May contain gluten"? Even though all the products in question have reliable kashrut supervision, one rabbi who preferred not to be named said he finds it hard to understand how a product that "may contain gluten" could also be kosher for Pesach.

"The products themselves do not contain gluten," Haaretz was told after calling Elite's customer service hotline, posing as a customer, "but there could be tiny traces of gluten in the manufacturing environment. Still, the products are approved as kosher for Pesach. Elite seems to be trying to get the best of both worlds - warning celiac patients while assuring those who keep kosher. The kosher for Pesach products have an additional notation under the "May contain gluten" warning - that the Pesach version contains no gluten.

When Haaretz called the kashrut superviser at the Netivot Rabbinate to try to clarify this issue, he assured the products did not contain gluten.

"[The label] says the product may contain gluten only to avoid problems with Celiac patients, but there is actually no gluten in it," explained the kashrut supervisor. "Where the product is manufactured, there is only one machine used to make products containing chametz, and it is shut down prior to Passover."

"The labeling was added at the request of the kashrut supervisors," said Elite's spokesman, "so that no one from the religious public would worry about chametz. Anyway, all the production lines are cleaned for Pesach."

According to Health Ministry sources, the regulations on the labeling of gluten content were published in 1996, in order to make labeling practices uniform, mainly for Celiac sufferers. According to regulations, manufacturers must state that a product "contains gluten" and the name of the source grain on the label of products that contain gluten.

The regulations also address the conditions for manufacturing gluten-free products: Manufacturers must make sure these products are not contaminated with gluten.

"There is a loophole in the gluten labeling regulations," explains Sheffer, "with respect to secondary contamination from nearby production lines. In order for a company to be able to provide Celiac patients with precise information on the presence of gluten in a product," continues Sheffer, "the company has to make a real effort. It has to conduct laboratory tests and supervise the manufacturing process, and of course it also has to want Celiac patients to be able to enjoy the product, too. Instead, companies adopt the simplest solution, stating they cannot guarantee the absence of gluten, and if the customer does not want to buy the product, that's up to him. This makes the regulations pointless."

Sheffer, whose husband and son both have Celiac disease, confirms the significant increase in products marked "May contain gluten."

"When I go to the supermarket I see products labeled "May contain gluten," and I have no choice but to treat them as if they do contain gluten. I have no way of knowing if there is a negligible trace or a larger, potentially harmful amount.

"When a manufacturer says, 'I clean the machines, but cannot guarantee there is not a single grain of wheat, so I put 'May contain gluten' on the label,' he thinks he is doing a good thing, that he has warned me, but he is effectively saying, 'Don't buy it.' This is also what I tell countless Celiac patients who call me and ask whether to buy the products, despite the warning. Unfortunately, I tell them that if that is what the label states, and the manufacturer cannot say what the actual gluten content is, don't buy it."

As noted, Elite is the leader in labeling products "May contain gluten," and this warning can be found on many of the company's products, including candies and snack foods.

"When a giant company like Elite does this, it becomes difficult to find alternatives," says Sheffer. "It is very difficult for a parent to tell a child he cannot eat candies at a friend's birthday party, for example. For now it may be only Elite, but what if Tnuva, Telma and Osem follow suit? What will there be left [for Celiac patients] to eat?"

The ICA believes that regulations should be amended to limit manufacturers to labeling only products that have a real risk of secondary contamination.

"If the manufacturer knows there is a real risk of contamination, let him label the product 'Contains gluten,' and not 'May contain gluten,' because for our point of view, they are the same," says Sheffer. "This information does not help us distinguish between products."

"Our gluten-sensitive customers are very important to us," responded a Strauss-Elite spokesman. "We are committed to them and care about them. We meticulously follow the regulations and until recently noted 'Contains gluten' only on products that actually contain gluten. Following the filing of the petition by gluten-sensitive consumers, and as an additional precautionary measure, the company's management decided to label all products 'May contain gluten.'

"In special consideration of Celiac sufferers, and in a move that goes beyond the letter of the law, we are conducting tests on products and production lines so we can certify products as being gluten-free, or alternatively, we will indicate their exact gluten content.

"We are also working in cooperation with the Manufacturers Association to change the regulations such that products containing less than 20 ppm can be labeled as suitable for gluten-sensitive consumers," the spokesman said.

"Labeling products 'May contain traces of gluten' is voluntary and is undertaken at the initiative of the food manufacturers and importers," said a Health Ministry spokesman.

"The ministry has set up a committee that includes members of the Israel Celiac Association in order to update the regulations and bring them in line with international legislation, including indicating gluten content."