Cooking Gluten-Free

Ingredients, Ingredients, Ingredients

My mother says:

Take your time. Trips to the grocery store might take longer when you first go gluten-free. Plan on spending extra time reading the labels and educating yourself on the words that mean there's a gluten ingredient.
When in doubt, ask. Call food companies or look online at company Web sites to find out if their products include gluten, or the steps they take to make sure their products are gluten-free. This may be especially necessary when you see "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor" on the label (see below).

First, check the ingredient label for wheat, barley, and rye.

Next, look for some of the other things you might see on an ingredients label that signal gluten.

Gluten Ingredients

Barley (flakes, flour, pearl)
Breading, bread stuffing
Brewer's yeast
Bulgur
Durum (type of wheat)
Farro/faro (also known as spelt or dinkel)
Graham flour
Hydrolyzed wheat protein
Kamut (type of wheat)
Malt, malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavoring
Malt vinegar
Malted milk
Matzo, matzo meal
Modified wheat starch
Oatmeal, oat bran, oat flour, whole oats (unless they are from pure, uncontaminated oats)
Rye bread and flour
Seitan (a meat-like food derived from wheat gluten used in many vegetarian dishes)
Semolina
Spelt (type of wheat also known as farro, faro, or dinkel)
Triticale
Wheat bran
Wheat flour
Wheat germ
Wheat starch

These other ingredients may be less familiar to you, but they also contain gluten:

Gluten Foods

Double-check the ingredients label on these items, as they're possible sources of gluten:

The following terms represent the most commonly used Latin terms for wheat, barley, and rye. If you see any of these, the product contains gluten:

Natural flavor/natural flavoring: Can come from barley
Artificial flavor/artificial flavoring: Can come from barley
Caramel color: Now considered a safe ingredient, but if you're in doubt, check with the manufacturer