Corn Gluten - Allergen or not?

I read that corn gluten is usage is suggested instead if wheat gluten as an ingredient. Do you have any idea why this is suggested?
Is not corn gluten allergen? Is not the gluten it self allergen?
Please help, any information may be helpful.

Hi, all gluten is allergen according to European law, I don't know the specific differences between both types.
I hope the following link will be useful for you http://eur-lex.europ...011:0014:EN:PDF

I am trying to find out why corn gluten is suggested instead if wheat gluten? I think the only and simple answer is becase corn is not an allergen.

I've read some info about both typees of gluten. Corn does not seem to cause harm to celiac patients.Gliadin is a protein that can be obtained from wheat gluten and it causes intestinal damages in people with celiac disease. On the other hand there are no evidences that corn zein-the simple proteins in corn, causes reaction in celiac people.

When I worked in a factory involved in wet milling maize, the maize 'gluten' was a byproduct consisting of the separated maize kernel husks which were mixed with the evaporated liguor in which the maize kernels had previously been soaked (steeped). After drying the resulting bran-like product was sold as cattle feed.

As far as I'm aware, corn doesn't contain gluten at all as gluten is a protein found only in wheat, barley etc. Cornflour can be a substitute for wheat flour though depending on the use. Cornflour is often used as a gluten free alternative to other flours, mainly as a thickening agent however, if you're buying some cornflour from a supplier to use in a gluten free product, I'd check it is 100% maize and not at risk of cross contamination during the milling process.

Dear Immortal,

I think yr original question sought information on (a) the existence of corn / wheat allergy (ignoring the related question of “intolerance”) and (b) if gluten allergy triggered by corn gluten. The information on the net seems plentiful but (to me anyway) rather confusing and occasionally contradictory. This is I guess partly due to the biochemical complexity of the reactions involved (and the terminology) so that most articles try and simplify the science to varying degrees to enable clarity.

I’m not competent to evaluate the content or judge whether any particular article is more or less authoritative than others but I selected 5 articles which seemed relevant to yr queries and fairly readable. I extracted them and put them in a word file (attached).

The basic answer to (a, b) seemed to be yes /yes and no, but with qualifications (see attachment). Maybe other people will draw a different conclusion.

corn__gluten_allergy.doc   43.5KB   101 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

Like GMO said and Charles´ post confirms, gluten is formed only by wheat flour being mixed with water.
Interesting that there are people allergic to corn products. Mexico and Central America gets most of its carbohydrates from corn, but it´s nixtamalized corn. Haven´t heard of any corn allergies in this region.
Immortal, there is no way that a corn product is going to give you the same effect as wheat gluten. What do you need this gluten for? If it´s for baking, if you don´t use wheat flour, your product is going to be very dense.

Thank you all for your time and informaton.

Immortal, I found this document that explains what corn gluten is and how it´s obtained. Like Homealone said, it´s used for animal feed.