Anyone had a reaction to Quorn?

[flowerqueen]

Having recently given up eating meat. I was pleased to find at  the Christmas holidays that a lot of Quorn products were gluten free, I even had some for Christmas dinner. Over the next few weeks I noticed I was having a lot of stomach cramps, and wondered if I had eaten any gluten by mistake. This has gone on intermittently for about 3 weeks.  Then on Monday, I felt extremely unwell about 45 minutes after eating Quorn (which I understand is now available in the States - I'm from the UK). It was then that the penny dropped, and that it was every time I'd eaten Quorn.  The symptoms I had were very similar to being 'glutened', cramps, extreme nausea, constantly needing the bathroom, extreme fatigue etc., and I don't feel like I've fully got over it 4 days later.  I have since found out, that some people can be allergic/intolerant to Quorn, I was also shocked to find it is derived from mold).  I was wondering if it is more likely that someone may have a reaction if they are already coeliac. (With it being an auto-immune disease). The products I've eaten are clearly labelled "gluten free". 

[squirmingitch]

Hi flowerqueen,

I had never even heard of quorn until I saw your post. I've never bought it & I won't either. I am sensitive to mushrooms which I understand these are made from or something like that. However, it has just come to my attention that Quorn Grounds --- these I have linked here:

Open Original Shared Link

contain MALT EXTRACT.  THIS PRODUCT WILL NOT BE GLUTEN FREE

Go to the link I provided & look at the ingredients list. It clearly states MALT EXTRACT. Malt is barley & barley is a big no-no on the gluten free diet.

I don't know if you ate this particular product but I would be wary. Remember our motto for life is:

READ EVERY LABEL EVERY TIME.

I hope this helps you & hope you are feeling much better by now.

[Galixie]

I tried Quorn a number of (more than 10) years ago. I had a pretty significant reaction to it (bloody D) and have never eaten it again. I'm sure it is fine for many people, but some, like myself, clearly do have a bad reaction to it. I wasn't watching for gluten back then, so I would never have noticed if it had any gluten or not. Gluten alone doesn't give me that kind of reaction so there was something particular to Quorn that my body truly didn't care for.