14 Sneaky Foods and Food Ingredients that Contain Gluten

Once you understand that gluten is found in wheat, rye, spelt, triticale, barley and kamut, it’s easy to avoid those items if you are gluten-sensitive or celiac, but it’s much harder to avoid hidden gluten found in many common foods. Here are some of the sneaky foods that frequently contain gluten:

BAKING POWDER

Both baking powder and any baked goods, packaged breads, buns, pretzels and other foods that may contain this ubiquitous ingredient, even seemingly gluten-free baked goods may include baking powder. Choose certified gluten-free baking powder for your baking.

CARAMEL COLOR OR CARAMEL FLAVOR

While it’s easy to assume that caramel color or flavor comes from cooked sugar, in reality, it often contains gluten-based ingredients and frequently are made from barley malt or wheat. Caramel color or flavor is often found in sodas, candies and snack foods.

CITRIC ACID

While citric acid is naturally found in citrus foods like oranges, lemons and limes, many packaged foods contain citric acid that is derived from fermented beets, corn, molasses or wheat, so it is best avoided unless the food product is certified gluten-free. 

COLORS

Artificial colors and dyes often contain gluten. Additionally, many foods only state “colors” on the label and still frequently contain gluten. Colors are often found in pastries, baked goods, sodas, candies, snack foods and even in many prepared foods.

EMULSIFIERS

Many food products contain emulsifiers. Some of these foods include condiments, salad dressings, hot sauces and even ice cream. It may be listed on the ingredients list as flour, emulsifier, vegetable gum, food starch and modified food starch. While not all of these foods contain gluten, if you are highly sensitive or full-blown allergic to gluten then you’ll want to avoid them in favor of foods that are certified gluten-free or that you make at home from fresh ingredients devoid of gluten.

FOOD STARCH

Starch, food starch and modified food starch often contain wheat.

JUICES

Many juices, including ones claiming to be natural juices, sometimes contain gluten. I’m not sure why any juice manufacturer would ever need to include gluten ingredients in juices, but that doesn’t change the fact that they sometimes do.

MISO AND SOY SAUCE

While miso and soy sauce can be made from many ingredients like soy, rice or chickpeas, sometimes these ingredients contain gluten so if you are gluten intolerant or celiac, you’ll need to be sure the miso or soy sauce you eat, or the Asian prepared foods or restaurant foods that contain these ingredients contain certified gluten-free options.

PROTEIN

Watch out for protein powders and other fast food or prepared food products that contain protein, textured vegetable protein, TVP, seitan, hydrolyzed wheat protein, wheat protein, hydrolyzed plant protein or hydrolyzed vegetable protein since they are often derived from wheat.

SOUPS AND VEGETABLE BROTH

Most soups and vegetable broth, or foods that contain vegetable broth, typically contain pre-made bouillon mixtures that usually contain gluten.

SPICES

Many spice mixtures or foods that contain the ingredient “spices” often contain wheat, and therefore gluten.

While it may seem a bit overwhelming when you consider how many foods contain gluten, once you become accustomed to making more foods from scratch or purchasing only certified gluten-free foods, it becomes much easier to stick to a gluten-free diet. While some people may have the luxury of the choice, in reality, people who are celiac or allergic to gluten, or highly intolerant to gluten, including many people with thyroid conditions fare much better when they make the effort to avoid sneaky foods that contain gluten.