Food

10 hidden sources of gluten

It's not just breads, pastas and pastries. Gluten can lurk in some surprising places.

Written by Sharon Curtain

1. Cornflour. The name itself lulls you into a false sense of security, unfortunately some contain wheat.

2. Roast chicken. Seasonings and stuffing may contain gluten, so the only sure way to keep it gluten free is to roast it yourself.

3. Packaged and luncheon meat. Those individual packs of ham, chicken and turkey you can buy at the supermarket (or processed meat in the deli) may contain wheat gluten as a binding agent. Ham off the bone, unseasoned chicken and turkey breast are the best choices.

4. Flavoured rice crackers, popcorn, potato chips and corn chips. The seasoning may contain gluten, so stick to plain flavours.

5. Liquorice. You’ll find wheat flour in there with all that glucose syrup and molasses.

6. Flourless cakes. Although flour-free, these dense and delicious cakes may contain other gluten containing ingredients such as icing sugar.

7. Flavoured and herb cheese, blue vein and bread moulded based cheese. If you are particularly sensitive to gluten then these cheeses may cause symptoms.

8. Soy sauce. Some soy sauces contain barley and therefore gluten.

9. Vegetable and yeast extracts (e.g. Vegemite, Marmite). Made from yeast grown on barley and wheat, these spreads are great sources of B vitamins and unfortunately gluten too.

10. Milo and Ovaltine. These cereal-based cocoa powders are made from gluten containing malted barley.

It's not just breads, pastas and pastries. Gluten can lurk in some surprising places.

Written by Sharon Curtain

Sharon Curtain is a dietitian with experience in hospital, community and industry settings and specialises in food industry process.

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