Where is gluten found?

Gluten is found in foods that contain wheat, barley, or rye.  Food that contains the flours made from wheat, barley, or rye will also contain gluten.

Gluten is found in most breads, cookies, cakes, pizza, pasta, breakfast cereals, gravies, and processed foods that use wheat to flavor or thicken them. 

Gluten is also found in products that are made from barley.  Barley is an ingredient in many types of beer.  Pearl barley is often added to soups and stews and barley flour can be an ingredient in bread. 

Gluten is found in products that contain rye.  Rye is a grain that is most commonly used in hearty breads.  It is relatively easy to identify rye as an ingredient because the rye flour colors the bread a rich brown.  Rye is also used as an ingredient in some distilled liquors such as vodka, whiskey, and bourbon. 

If you are gluten intolerant you don’t have to give up bread, cakes, cookies, pasta, and beer.  Many foods made from wheat, barley, and rye can be made ’safe’ by substituting naturally gluten-free foods such as rice, corn, potatoes, tapioca, sorghum, millet, and uncontaminated oats that are certified as gluten-free.  There are gluten-free beers made from rice and sorghum.

All it takes is a little effort to identify which products are safe for you to consume.  For help in determining if products contain gluten see the information in our Easy Delicious Gluten-Free Skillet Meals cookbook.