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Indian Food

slcceliac

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slcceliac Rookie
slcceliac
Posted

As I was eating my curry dish and reading "Gluten Free Food Guide for Celiac Patients", I read that curry powder is on the "not allowed" list!!!

The curry dish I made was delicious, and I used lots of curry powder. The brand I used is imported from India (Flower Brand, Curry Powder - Hot). When I looked at the ingridients, it listed: coriander, turmeric, chilli, fengugreek, mustard and OTHER SPICES???? Can wheat/barley/rye/oats be considered as other spices???

Why would the publication (printed in 1996) even list curry powder as gluten containing spice???

Is the jury out on curry powder??? I thought that indian food was mostly gluten free (except naans, etc)...

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JEM123 Newbie
JEM123
Posted
As I was eating my curry dish and reading "Gluten Free Food Guide for Celiac Patients", I read that curry powder is on the "not allowed" list!!!

The curry dish I made was delicious, and I used lots of curry powder. The brand I used is imported from India (Flower Brand, Curry Powder - Hot). When I looked at the ingridients, it listed: coriander, turmeric, chilli, fengugreek, mustard and OTHER SPICES???? Can wheat/barley/rye/oats be considered as other spices???

Why would the publication (printed in 1996) even list curry powder as gluten containing spice???

Is the jury out on curry powder??? I thought that indian food was mostly gluten free (except naans, etc)...

Hi,

I use McCormick spices because they list all ingredients. I use their curry spice often and never had a problem with it. The packaged curry sauces I have found many wheat in them.

Thanks

sunshinen Apprentice
sunshinen
Posted

I'd call the company and ask if it OK. Chances are it is safe, but it's not worth the risk until you confirm.

gfp Enthusiast
gfp
Posted

On the whole Curry should be gluten-free....

The problem is often fillers.... a classic is fenguereek (sp)... which is very strong and bitter... you only need a TINY amount and people don't like paying per milligram (saffron perhaps excluded)... so its not unknown for them to use filler...

Obviously developing world counties can't afford to be as fastidious about this as us....

On the plus side its just a possibility...

Equally curry powder is easy to make yourself... however you have to find the ingredients...

If you can find them in decent sizes (like an Indian family would buy) they are ridiculously cheap....

The hard part is collecting them all :D

Since you enjoyed this so much!!!!! I'm thinking it must be worth a bit of time investment for ya :D

A UK brand Pataks lists potential gluten, its mainly pastes... which is just the powder and oil...

I use them for a quck easy curry... I love curry :D

However I also make my own mixes... its no0t hard in itself...like I say its finding the ingredients... its REALLY easy in England because we have lots of great Indian immigrants who sell them real cheap :D so much its our new national dish....

There is a set of books (and products) by some guy called Pat Chapman... the self appointed head of the Curry Club of GB.

He makes a decent living I guess as well... HOWEVER.. the books are really good.... because they start off with a list of raw ingredients.. the initial recipees are actually just making mixes of spices... etc. like garam marsala's that are used again and again in the recipees.... once you make them up and bag or tupperware them the recipees are dead easy...

He also has recipes for accompanyments and chutneys etc. almost everything is gluten-free except some of the indian breads and these I tend to use gluten-free mix and they work....

They aren't so expensive and

The curry dish I made was delicious, and I used lots of curry powder.

given your enthusiasm you can easily recoup the price of the book on what you pay for 2-3 packets of pre-mixed stuff ....

On top of that its hundreds of different ones.. from a white chicken and almond korma to firey red hot ones.. (though the extra beauty is you can easily adjust the spicyness)...

happygirl Collaborator
happygirl
Posted
As I was eating my curry dish and reading "Gluten Free Food Guide for Celiac Patients", I read that curry powder is on the "not allowed" list!!!

The curry dish I made was delicious, and I used lots of curry powder. The brand I used is imported from India (Flower Brand, Curry Powder - Hot). When I looked at the ingridients, it listed: coriander, turmeric, chilli, fengugreek, mustard and OTHER SPICES???? Can wheat/barley/rye/oats be considered as other spices???

Why would the publication (printed in 1996) even list curry powder as gluten containing spice???

Is the jury out on curry powder??? I thought that indian food was mostly gluten free (except naans, etc)...

If it is sold in the US, any product MUST list wheat. So, in terms of "other spices"---it can NOT contain wheat unless it was listed.

As mentioned above, McCormick clearly states that it will list any source of gluten in any of their products. If you read their labels, and it doesn't have any sort of wheat/rye/barley/malt/oats, then it is safe, and nothing is hidden.

gfp Enthusiast
gfp
Posted
If it is sold in the US, any product MUST list wheat. So, in terms of "other spices"---it can NOT contain wheat unless it was listed.

You can quote rule until your blue in the face but its not me you are trying to tell but some manufactuerer in India...

As she stated the powder was imported from India...

Secondly it doesn't really matter if the raw spices already contain gluten ... Who in the Flower brand factory is really going to bother checking.... when half the country is so poor they would eat wheat stalks if they could get hold of them...

I suspect youi have never been to India...I have and I somehow doubt this is foremost on their mind when they package stuff to ship off and sell... Sorry that's not meant to be an insult, I spent nearly half my life in the 3rd world... and the main thing is you can't expect things work in the same way as they do in developed nations....

Sometimes this stuff gets analysed... sometimes it doesn't and sometimes they guy selling the fengureek to flowerbrand might use chick pea flour and other times wheat??? Open Original Shared Link

OK that's Canadian but they still have hundreds of undelacred allergens EVEN on domestic food, let alone imported... the difference is they actually randomly test them....I somehow doubt the US is any better???

If they imported seperate spices and paid whomever will work for less than $1 an hour.. to pack it that they pay in India then they may analyse the raw ingredients but this brand is imported as is...

The average wage in India is about $50 a month... you really don't get modern analysis and stuff they just can't afford it... most people can't afford water without salmonella, let alone the luxury of avoiding wheat...

slcceliac Rookie
slcceliac
Posted
  • Author

When in doubt, do without. I donated my curry dish to nonceliacs and they loved it! I guess I better buy some spices where the ingridients are clearly listed. :)

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hathor Contributor
hathor
Posted
Is the jury out on curry powder??? I thought that indian food was mostly gluten free (except naans, etc)...

I have nothing to add about curry powder, except that I've used the Whole Foods one without problem (it has a list of ingredients where everything is named).

I did want to add that my Triumph dining card says one has to avoid asafoetida (hing). Restaurants may use it in any number of dishes & it apparently frequently contains wheat, since a flour has to be used to convert this resin for culinary use. But I guess it doesn't have to be wheat. For instance, I found this company that says it only uses rice flour in its Indian spices.

Open Original Shared Link

kbabe1968 Enthusiast
kbabe1968
Posted

I go to an indian/asian grocery to get most of my flours. The one brand of spices we did buy from them (it was a curry powder) straight from India (well, the spice is from india, but packaged for sale in NJ). It listed rice flour as an ingredient. It was Batak, i think.

I would definitely call the mfg if they have an american distribution place (a lot of internation foods DO have an American importer/distributor that MAY have the information). :)

Good luck.

Karen B. Explorer
Karen B.
Posted

My gastro doc is from Pakistan and we discussed curry powders. She warned me that a lot of the imports may contain unlisted wheat as filler and as a non-caking agent. She did tell me that Sadaf brand contained no wheat. Now, that was in 2003 and I know these things can change, but I still use Sadaf brand (I get it from an Indian import store) and I've had no problems.

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