CiCi · Learn

Learn

The things worth understanding once, so you don't have to look them up again. Written from primary sources: regulations and published studies. Everything is cited so you can check it.

How to read a label for glutenWhat a US label guarantees, what it quietly does not, and the asymmetry that explains most accidental exposures.Cross-contact: what actually mattersWhich precautions are supported by measurement, which are folklore, and where the real risk concentrates.Are oats gluten free?The most contested ingredient in the diet, and the one where the correct answer changes by country.Gluten in medicationsAllergen labeling law does not apply to drugs at all. Here is what that means for risk versus effort.Gluten-free rules by countryWhat "gluten-free" legally means in each place you might travel, and where the surprises are.
The scanner

Reading a page is fine. Standing in the aisle is the hard part.

This site answers the question you knew to ask. The app answers the one you didn't: the barley malt in a rice cereal, the wheat starch in a gummy. Scan the barcode, or photograph the panel when the barcode isn't in any database, and CiCi shows which words on the label produced the answer.

  • 360,000+ packaged foods already read. Ingredient statement, allergen declaration and nutrition panel, each one assessed by the same rules you can see working on this page, so most scans are an instant answer rather than a lookup.
  • Unlimited scanning, about two seconds an answer. Fig and Spoonful both cut you off at five scans a month.
  • Carbs and the full nutrition panel on every scan. Total and net carbohydrate with the arithmetic shown. For the roughly 6% of people with type 1 diabetes who have coeliac disease too, that is two apps collapsed into one.
  • Your glutening log. Record a reaction and CiCi shows what those days had in common. It counts overlaps and never tells you what caused it.
  • Saved products. The regular shop in one place, so next week is not a re-scan of the same forty items.
  • Scanning happens on your device. No scan is ever attached to you, sold, or sent to an analytics service.
Try it free for 14 days →See pricing

14 days free, then $29.99 a year. Cheaper than Fig, and it does what three separate apps do. This website stays free forever either way: every answer on it, permanently, with no account.

Food guides by category

Gluten-free breadOrdinary bread is wheat and contains gluten. Gluten-free bread is a separate product category built from rice, sorghum, tapioca and starch blends. The…Gluten-free beerOrdinary beer is brewed from barley and contains gluten. Two different things sit on the shelf labeled for gluten-avoiders. Beer brewed from sorghum o…Gluten-free soy sauceMost soy sauce is not gluten free. Conventional soy sauce is brewed from roughly equal parts soybean and wheat, and the wheat is fundamental to the fe…Gluten-free oatsOats contain no gluten of their own, but the answer changes by country and by supply chain. In the US and EU, oats labeled gluten-free are permitted; …Gluten-free candyMost hard candy, most gummies and most plain chocolate are gluten free. Four things decide the rest: wheat flour in wafers and cookie pieces, barley m…Gluten-free sauces and condimentsCondiments are where gluten hides most reliably. Soy sauce is a wheat product, most Worcestershire outside the US contains malt vinegar, gravy and rou…Gluten-free pastaConventional pasta is durum wheat semolina and contains gluten. Rice, corn, chickpea, lentil and 100% buckwheat noodles are gluten free. Soba is the t…Gluten-free breakfast cerealA cereal made from rice or corn is still usually not gluten free, because barley malt is the standard flavouring in the category. This is the most com…Eating out gluten freeRestaurant risk is mostly not about the menu. It is about shared fryers, shared pasta water, shared grills, flour in the air, and the gap between "glu…Gluten-free flourRice, sorghum, almond, coconut, cassava, buckwheat, teff and oat flours are gluten free. The two things that catch people are wheat starch, which appe…Gluten in medications and supplementsAllergen labeling law does not apply to prescription drugs the way it applies to food, so a medication can contain a wheat-derived excipient without s…Gluten-free snacksPlain corn chips, plain potato chips, popcorn, nuts and most rice cakes are gluten free. The failures cluster in seasoning blends, in malt vinegar fla…Gluten-free dairy and cheeseMilk, plain yoghurt, butter and almost all natural cheese are gluten free. Three things break that: blue cheese made with bread-cultured mould, proces…Gluten-free meat and deliPlain fresh meat, poultry and fish are gluten free. Processed meat is where it changes. Meat labels are written under USDA rules, where bare "starch" …Gluten-free coffee, tea and drinksPlain coffee, plain tea, water, juice and soft drinks are gluten free. The risks are barley-based coffee substitutes, malted and barley-blended teas, …Gluten-free bakingBaking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, cocoa, vanilla, sugar and yeast are all gluten free. The two things worth knowing are that gluten-free flour n…Gluten free for kids and schoolThe food part is the easy part. What actually decides how well a coeliac child does is whether the adults around them understand cross-contact, and wh…Gluten free travelThe rules change at the border. Australia and New Zealand require no detectable gluten and exclude oats entirely, Chile sets 1 ppm, Japan sets 10, and…Gluten-free frozen and convenience foodPlain frozen vegetables, fruit and fish are gluten free. Frozen potato products are the surprise, because many are coated with a wheat batter for cris…Gluten in cosmetics and household productsGluten cannot be absorbed through intact skin, so shampoo, body lotion and most cosmetics are not a celiac risk. What matters is anything that reaches…