Reading Ingredient Labels – Is There Gluten In that Product?

Reading ingredient labels, a reader alerted me way back in 2011 that Kraft Foods changed their ingredients for Good Seasons Italian Dressing and added wheat so it was no longer gluten free. While this is an unfortunate ingredient change, it’s not that unusual — even today.

Brands change their ingredients all the time, this example being another friendly reminder to always read ingredient labels for mainstream products to see if there’s gluten in that product, even for products you buy regularly.

When a company makes both products which contain gluten and those which don’t contain gluten, their primary customer base is not necessarily gluten free; the company will therefore not necessarily think of the gluten free customer when making ingredient decisions.

In this case, Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing now contains gluten because powdered soy sauce was added to the ingredient list. Soy sauce contains wheat. 

If you like the convenience of powdered dressing mixes, try Haddar Gluten Free Italian Dressing Mixes instead.

Other dressing brands like Hidden Valley Ranch clearly label varieties which are gluten free, and still others like Newman’s Own maintain a list of gluten-free products (including salad dressings) which are “based on our internal allergen control policies for ingredient storage, strict sanitation procedures and production scheduling procedure to prevent cross-contamination.”

Are Spices Gluten Free?

Individual spices are gluten free, however, anti-caking agents may be added in some cases, so always read labels.

There are some companies doing a much better job of labeling their spices as gluten free, in general, than others. Those which have obtained independent third party Gluten Free Certifications are always the ones to rely on, if given a choice.

Read more about how to identify these companies in this post. Brands like Spicely  and Smith and Truslow are both certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO), so they must test to below 10ppm gluten to achieve certification.

While not certified gluten free, McCormick has embraced proper food allergen labeling for their spices and seasonings. You can find the most accurate product information on each McCormick product, but the company states that they:

“will always declare the following ingredients on our label in the ingredient statement – they will never be hidden under the notations of ‘spices’ or ‘natural flavors’:

• Wheat
• Milk & Milk Products
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Egg
• Soy
• Shellfish
• Sesame (for US products made beginning January 2023)
• Fish
• Yellow Dye #5 (Tartrazine)
• Monosodium Glutamate or MSG
• Sulfites over 10 ppm
• Gluten containing grains – including barley, rye, oats, spelt, triticale, and kamut 

If no ingredient statement appears on the product label, then the products is as it appears in the product name (e.g. black pepper).” 

Are Seasoning Blends Gluten Free?

Seasoning blends are more complicated, as they are blends of spices and flavors with anti-caking or carrier agents, sugars or salts, sometimes lactose or whey, starches or flours.

While wheat must be called out on labels as an allergen, barley (usually in the form of “malt”) can be trickier to spot, since it’s not one of the top 9 food allergens and need not be bolded or called out separately.

Even soup bases, stocks and bouillon can contain gluten (almost anything can, really) so read those labels!

Making things even more treacherous is when manufacturers themselves don’t follow food labeling regulations, as in the case of Benny T’s Vesta dry hot sauces. Here, this manufacturer failed to recognize that “flour” contains wheat.

Thankfully the FDA issued a recall, but only after this company had apparently been mislabeling this product for over 15 years!!

Sadly, I could show you too many examples of companies which just don’t understand food labeling laws … but that’s no excuse. It just means that we as consumers have to read and think for ourselves rather than blindly trusting that companies are getting it right all the time.

Take Chef Myron’s Soy Sauce. It’s labeled gluten free. I’ve already told you that soy sauce (including this brand) contains wheat. It’s therefore not gluten free, despite this label.

The company tried to say that because of fermentation, the wheat was processed and therefore became gluten free. This is incorrect information, and demonstrated their misunderstanding of both the fermentation process and the FDA regulations.

Here’s another product also labeled gluten free, but containing soy sauce (wheat) powder. Also, not gluten free.

It’s important that we as consumers continue to read every label, in spite of gluten-free claims.

 

What brands have you found that are doing a good job of labeling their seasonings, spices, dressings, soups … well? What brands are not?