Natural Flavorings Etc.

[jenvan]

Hi there! Question-How anal are you all about the following ingredients--natural/artificial flavorings and caramel coloring? I have been checking on them so far with manufacturers... Do you always check? If so, have you found that typically they are okay? Thanks!

[celiac3270]

With natural and artificial flavorings, you always need to check...they may or may not contain gluten. The same goes for modified food starch, which you should be checking, as well. With the company Kraft, however, you only need to read the label. If there is wheat in the natural flavors, it will be listed in parentheses. See this article:

Open Original Shared Link

This comes from the celiac.com site about caramel coloring:

1) If this ingredient is made in North America it is likely to be gluten-free.

3) The problem with caramel color is it may or may not contain gluten depending on how it is manufactured. In the USA caramel color must conform with the FDA standard of identity from 21CFR CH.1. This statute says: "the color additive caramel is the dark-brown liquid or solid material resulting from the carefully controlled heat treatment of the following food-grade carbohydrates: Dextrose (corn sugar), invert sugar, lactose (milk sugar), malt syrup (usually from barley malt), molasses (from cane), starch hydrolysates and fractions thereof (can include wheat), sucrose (cane or beet)." Also, acids, alkalis and salts are listed as additives which may be employed to assist the caramelization process.

[mommida]

"McCormick & Co. does not hide gluten on their labels. i.e. other natural flavor.", That is the quote I got from the company.

www.mccormick.com or 1-800-632-5847

I won't eat it or let my kids eat it if I don't know. I am making the food choices for 2 toddlers. I consider it safe/unsafe depending on the companies response. I will spend extra money for a gluten free label. I also avoid artificial sweeteners and other suspect ingredients. I try and buy more organic foods and environmental responsible products.

Laura

[celiac3270]

The following companies will clearly list gluten (unless otherwise noted to list only wheat):

Aunt Nelly's

Balance

Baskin Robbins

Ben & Jerry

Betty Crocker

Blue Bunny

Butterball *lists wheat only

Breyers

Campbells

Cascadian Farms

Celestial Seasonings

ConAgra *lists wheat only

Country Crock

Edy's

General Mills

Good Humor

Green Giant

Haagen Daz

Hellman's

Hershey

Hormel

Hungry Jack

Jiffy

Knorr

Kozy Shack

Kraft

Libby's

Lipton

Martha White

McCormick

Nabisco

Nestle

Old El Paso

Ortega

Pillsbury

Popsicle

Post

Progresso

Russell Stover

Seneca Foods

Smucker

Stokely's

Sunny Delight

T Marzetti

Tyson

Unilever

Wishbone

Yoplait

Zatarain's

[Guest Mari]

Thanks for the list. As I am new to all this, any help is appreciated. Does anyone know about inulin? In one book I was reading it said it was forbidden, but I have also read that Stoneyfield Farm yogurts (which have inulin) are okay. What's the right answer? If it isn't okay, what yogurts are okay?

[celiac3270]

what yogurts are okay?

Dannon Plain, Dannon Low Fat Plain, Dannon Fat Free Plain, and everything by Yoplait (Yoplait will list gluten, but right now, everything by them--whips, custard style, etc.--is gluten-free.

[KaitiUSA]

Yep Yoplait is my favorite and I always eat it...I was told by Dannon that they couldn't guarantee any of their products were gluten free....I found it on their website I don't know if they changed it but I just stick with Yoplait

[celiac3270]

Dannon told me those three were gluten-free--I called when I was in the hospital in February.

[KaitiUSA]

Thats good to know but why does their website not say that? Maybe they haven't updated it?

Open Original Shared Link

It says no gluten is added but that they can't be considered gluten free so I'm a bit confused when it comes to that brand

[celiac3270]

Yep-- I think I've heard about that before. I thought that was why the flavored yogurts weren't gluten-free...so either their document isn't up to date or the person on the phone lied...not good either way

[KaitiUSA]

Yeah I agree all of their answers should be the same...kind of has be skeptical about them. I think I will call them tomorrow and ask them #1 if they are gluten-free and if they say they are I am going to ask why their website doesn't say that

[celiac3270]

Good idea. I don't eat Dannon, anyway, since Yoplait labels like Kraft and since they have a much greater variety. I've only tried the "custard style", but I've had nearly all the flavors--it's so much nicer than eating the plain kind . Plus, after Dannon makes things so questionable, I definitely wouldn't have them. I just had them in the hopstial because I was told they were gluten-free on the phone and I didn't really have a choice regarding which yogurt I ate.

[KaitiUSA]

Yeah if I was told they were gluten-free in the hospital I would have had it too. It's really not good business for them to say 2 things. I will tell you what they tell me today. I eat yoplait's original alot....are the custard style ones good? I haven't tried them yet.

[minibabe]

I was told by Dannon that they couldn't guarantee any of their products were gluten free....I found it on their website I don't know if they changed it but I just stick with Yoplait

Dannon is still not gluten-free. I was at school one day and really stranded and needed food, so I figured that yogurt would be okay.....Def. not, I felt sick almost instantly.

[celiac3270]

I eat yoplait's original alot....are the custard style ones good? I haven't tried them yet.

Yep...they're pretty good. The only two kinds that I've seen in a small grocery store near my house is the custard style and whips. I didn't try the whips at the time since I only knew that the custard style was gluten-free. Then I stuck with the custard style out of habit......it's a long story

[jenvan]

Thanks for the info ladies... Here is one more for you: Post Honey Comb. What do you think? I believe its a Kraft brand, and has no wheat, barley, rye, just corn/oat flour. I saw it on a gluten-free list somewhere. Do any of you eat it? It seems a little shady to me since it belongs to a gluten-full cereal producing company

And where you are all at in the oats debate? Do you partake or not? I did read McCann's had the lowest incidence of contamination of all the brands and is considered gluten free. That's what I have at home. What do you think?

Gracias !!

[KaitiUSA]

I am strongly against oats...they have high amounts of contamination of wheat. So I would strongly stay away from Honey Comb. The cocoa pebbles and fruity pebbles are gluten free. Kraft is a good brand thouugh they will clearly list wheat,rye,barley, oats. With Kraft and some other brands all you have to do is read labels they are very celiac friendly

[celiac3270]

I'm strongly anti-oats. See below:

A registered dietician took 12 containers of rolled or steel cut oats that represented 4 different lots of three brand names. The brands being McCanns, Country Choice, and Quaker.

The ELISA R5 test was used on the 12 samples. All of the brands showed contamination!!!

McCann's

1st- below level of detection (so under 3ppm)

2st- below 20ppm

3nd- 23ppm

4rd- 725ppm

Country Choice

1st- below 20ppm

2nd-4th ranged from 120-210ppm

Quaker

All four tested from 338-1807ppm

Under 20ppm is the codex standard used to determine Gluten free.........but all of the brands showed some crazy levels of contamination and were inconsistent. I wouldn't trust them!!

[scoutfinch]

So what is in the different yogurts that is not gluten-free? Since diagnosed with celiac disease, I've been eating more yogurt. My symptoms are silent, so I don't typically get noticeably sick. I eat mostly the Lucerne brand of yogurt, and didn't see anything on the label to worry me. What am I missing?

[KaitiUSA]

https://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=12

Take a look at the forbidden list and see all the things gluten can be hidden under. It can be hidden under natural and artificial flavors and so forth.

If you are eating alot of yogurt yoplait will clearly label wheat,rye, barley, oats so that is all you have to look for on that label.

[JJL]

The plain Stonyfield Farms yoghurts are okay. The flavoured ones may not be. I checked out their website and found this in their FAQ:

Q: Does your yogurt contain gluten?

A: Our nonfat, lowfat and whole milk plain yogurts do not contain any gluten source ingredients. We do not add gluten to our products; however, some of the natural flavors used to make our products may contain gluten-derived stabilizers.

Plain Brown Cow yoghurts are also safe. I went to their website, too, and found an even better answer:

Q: Is there any gluten in Brown Cow yogurts?

A: Though we don't add gluten, there may be trace amounts of gluten in our yogurt, which come from the processing of the fruit and flavors with a grain alcohol. The only flavors we can be absolutely certain have no traces of gluten are our nonfat, low fat and whole milk plain yogurts. We are still in the process of learning more about Celiac disease and have been told that some individuals are sensitive to even miniscule amounts of gluten. We have difficulty answering questions because we are concerned about giving out information to individuals who have unique and sensitive health issues without the person going through their doctor, especially since the outcome could be very serious.

I love that answer, and I hope they will update it with their results in the near future. Also, both of these brands are all natural. SF is all organic. Brown Cow used to have an all organic line but discontinued it because people weren't buying the organics - but they are still all natural. Both are also certified kosher and contain a minimum of what I call "stuff that is in my yoghurt, but isn't yoghurt" (corn starch, corn syrup, gelatin, etc.) Very good brands in my opinion.

[Guest ajlauer]

I also avoid artificial sweeteners and other suspect ingredients.

I use Splenda all the time! I actually like the taste of it BETTER than sugar - there's no funky aftertaste. Is it forbidden? Questionable? I haven't looked at the package - does it even have an ingredient list??? I figured it was like... a bag of sugar contains: sugar. A bag of Splenda contains: Splenda. Didn't even think to check! Is this why my coffee makes me sick? OMG what about non dairy creamer?? ahhhhhhhh I need to go read some labels!

[tarnalberry]

Splenda is gluten-free, but it still does bother some people. (Ironically, I think it has a funky aftertaste. Some friends swore it tasted no different, but we did a blind taste test, and sure 'nough, I could taste that chlorine atom and that rotational twist. ;-) ) Non-dairy creamer, however, you definitely want to check. Some of them contain starches. It's taken a while to get used to it, but I've really come to embrace "use NOTHING without reading the label". (Took the longest to remember to do that for lotion and shampoo...)

[lovegrov]

Some yogurts use a little bit of distilled alcohol to extract flavors and so warn there could be some gluten. I think all distilled alcohol is gluten-free so I don't worry about the ones that warn about this.

richard

[mommida]

I looked into artificial sweeteners and they are NOT good in my opinion. The calories in Splenda can not be digested by the stomach. There are so many disturbing articles and connections to artificial sweeteners. I was also told by the Gastro. during Celiac testing to avoid them. There are other natural sweeteners to try.

Laura