In a press release issued by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, it was revealed that after a number of meetings between the department of health and the Malta Coeliac Association, it was agreed that the number of products available for purchase through vouchers entitled to coeliacs will increase.

During these meetings, the possibility of revising the value of the aforementioned vouchers was also discussed.

Parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne said, “We had made a promise to the Association and to all those people who are celiac that after six months with the voucher system there will be discussions on how to improve the system”.

The system of vouchers introduced in February was aimed at people who are celiac by supplementing financial assistance to offset the price difference between food products processed gluten free - i.e. products that do not contain flour made ​​from wheat, barley and oats - to those processed foods containing gluten.

The list of products for those entitled to the vouchers can be made use of for the time being; however updates will be made from time to time, according to the needs.

Thanks to the conclusions from these meetings, people living with the coeliac condition can benefit from a wider range of products, said the parliamentary secretary for health.

Moreover, patients are not tied down to a particular establishment when redeeming vouchers, but they can now redeem them are a large variety of establishments throughout Malta and Gozo.