Cotton Candy

[snklivie]

can anyone tell me if cotton candy from a fair is safe? (gluten free)

[Lisa]

I can't guarantee, but I would think that cotton candy would be the ONLY safe thing at a fair.

Cotton candy is just spun sugar.

[Guhlia]

Cotton candy shouldn't be a concern. However, you should make sure that the person/people making it are wearing gloves and not handling soft pretzels, etc. with the same gloves.

[KristenF]

Cotton Candy is also made with artificial color, which may or may not contain gluten. The fair our town had this summer sold cotton candy pre-made in bags, and I was able to read the ingredient list, finding artificial color on it. It stands to reason, considering how un-naturally pink it is The only answer would be to call the company that makes the mix your fair is using if they are making it on-site, or the manufacturer on the bag if it's premade. (If it's a Thurs-Sun fair at least you have a chance of being able to call on a weekday during business hours-we went to our fair on a Saturday, so we didn't have a chance to contact anyone during business hours).

[blueeyedmanda]

Cotton Candy is sugar. I was to our county fair last night and I have a bag in front of me. It says Sugar and and the artificial flavors, and under that it tells the artificial flavors are Red # 1 etc. I eat it all the time and no problems.

[Ceramics girl]

As with all things... proceed cautiously. I am fairly certain I am ill right now from eating cotton candy.  I was at a restaurant, and how novel! So I had some thinking that it would only be sugar and coloring.  But it seems wheat can be a filler in their mix according to a friend I was talking with about where I went wrong (and, yes it is a restaurant so there were several options) but she mentioned a restaurant by her where the cotton candy contains wheat as part of the mix. 

[Ennis-TX]

Out of curiosity of the absurdness of the idea, I checked with my supplier for my bakery about if they sell cotton candy mix. Found they have a entire line from "Great Western" and it is all gluten free per the manufacture. Of course they could use something else. My question is if they put something else in the machines at one point for a "fun" experiment....I have worked in concessions before....staff sometimes gets bored and tries making their own creations. I shiver at the thought but "beer" flavored cotton candy sounds like something a idiot might try once. Another thought is....those machines I know can make cotton candy out of hard candies...so if they tried making them with a hard candy that used malt flavoring etc I can see it.