Mauna Loa Milk Chocolate Mountains Gluten-Free

[joelmw]

A coworker just returned from vacationing in Hawaii and brought back a box of Open Original Shared Link to share. Since I miss out on most of the other treats in the office, I was eager to find out if these are gluten-free. The woman I ended up talking to at Hershey customer service walked me through the process of verifying that they are. Just wanted to pass that on, since I didn't find any clear statement online. 

 

I only know for sure that this particular Mauna Loa product--the Open Original Shared Link--is gluten-free. I don't know either way on the others, though I suspect at least some are.

 

The rest of the story (with information that should help with other unlisted Hershey products): [This is "old news" to some of you, but thought it might be helpful to others (and wanted to show my source).]

 

1. Mauna Loa is a Hershey brand.
2. In fact the Mauna Loa customer service number is the Hershey customer service number: 800-468-1714.
3. As of today, none of the Mauna Loa products is on the Open Original Shared Link (published elsewhere in these forums).
4. As they say, not all of their gluten-free products are listed.
5. The rep I spoke with told me that if an ingredient is sourced from a gluten-containing grain, according to Hershey policy, that grain will be listed with the ingredient.
6. Also, if the production lines are subject to cross-contamination, the allergen will be listed--as tree nuts and peanuts are listed for this product.
7. Since it is their policy to identify both gluten-containing grains and potential cross contamination and Open Original Shared Link for this product include neither, it's gluten-free.

Score.   Of course, it's got other stuff I probably shouldn't be eating, but just one or two shouldn't kill me. 

 

 

[ElyMac]

I know this post is old, but I just found it while visiting Maui, drooling over these things, so I thought others might find it too. I react to less than 20ppm. In 2016 I reacted to Hershey's plain chocolate bars, which are labeled gluten free. After a LOT of research, I found a conversation on the topic in which a few people who were very sensitive to various things concluded that Hershey's uses barley in their "natural flavors" which is common practice with chocolate. I don't know if that's the case, but I have reacted to every "gluten free as always" Hershey's product I've had. If it's less than 20ppm they can still claim it "gluten free" and if it's part of "natural flavors" it's not sourced on the ingredients list. Just in case someone out there is as sensitive as I am, I hope this helps.