Possible Sauce Has Gluten When They Say No?

[mommyto3]

Last night I ate some President's Choice Fire Roasted Tomatoe Sauce with gluten free pasta and within an hour I got a really bad reaction. Went to look at the label and it contains "natural flavours". I assumed I had inadvertently glutened myself but when I called PC this morning to ask about the ingredients she said the product contains no gluten. What the heck?

I was sure I got glutened by the natural flavour as the day before I made the same mistake with Danone yogurt containing natural flavour.

I just wish they had to declare all gluten here in Canada on the label. It would make life SO much easier.

Has anybody had this happen?

Thx

[GlutenFreeManna]

What was in the gluten free pasta? I had a bad reaction to Quinoa pasta that was certified gluten free. It turns out I can't eat Quinoa either.

[mommyto3]

It was just brown rice pasta that I eat all the time. Never react to it. I just don't understand the deal with natural flavouring...sometimes it has gluten, sometimes not and in Canada they don't have to declare gluten on the label. What a PAIN!

[Ahorsesoul]

Could be the tomatoes. If your intestines were a little upset the day before, the tomatoes could have irritated them a little more.

[psawyer]

It is possible for gluten to hide in flavoring, but it almost never does.

Shelley Case, RD, in her book Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide says,

It would be rare to find a "natural or artificial flavoring" containing gluten because: (a) hydrolyzed wheat protein cannot be hidden under the term "flavor," and ( barley malt extract or barley malt flavoring is almost always declared as "barley malt extract" or "barley malt flavoring." For this reason, most experts do not restrict natural and artificial flavorings in the gluten-free diet.

Shelley is Canadian, but her advice applies equally to the US.

[tarnalberry]

did you use a new colander or an old one? a new wooden spoon or an old one? was anyone in the house eating bread? have anything else that day? there is so much space for contamination that is not just the food you eat, and not all reactions are at the same meal.

[dilettantesteph]

Some of us can be sensitive to the 20 ppm allowed in gluten free foods. I seem to be. A lot of gluten free foods are a lot lower, but some of them are very near that level. It could be that you are like that and this one food was more near the upper limit of allowed gluten.

[T.H.]

Also, 'contains no gluten' may not be entirely accurate. Might be worth asking if the sauce is processed on a dedicated gluten free line, or in a gluten free room or facility. If it's not (which is highly likely), it could simply be that your batch of the sauce got contaminated somewhere along the way, ya know?

I've had this happen with a company that makes chips. No stated gluten ingredients (it was the veggie, a salt, and an oil, real simple), and I had them a few times and did fine, and then had them again and I was sick as a dog. Looked around and found out they run gluten products on the same line, and some other celiacs have had problems with their chips periodically, as well. Definitely can happen.