CiCi · Lists

Lists

The things a single-ingredient lookup can't teach you. Grouped and explained, with the reasoning behind each entry.

Hidden sources of glutenThe ingredients that contain gluten without naming a gluten grain. It explains why careful label-readers still get sick.Gluten-free foods that sound like they aren'tIngredients people cut out unnecessarily. Over-restriction has a real cost, and this list is here to give some of that food back.Naturally gluten-free foodsWhole foods that never contained gluten in the first place. They are the cheapest and safest way to eat, and they sidestep the 183% price premium on labeled gluten-free products.Grains that contain glutenThe gluten grains, every alias they travel under, and the one grain whose answer changes depending on which country you are in.Gluten-free grains, seeds and floursThe complete list of grains, pseudocereals, seeds and flours that contain no gluten, including several that databases and older guides get wrong.A gluten-free shopping listA working list for a first shop after diagnosis, organised the way a supermarket is. The few things in each aisle that need checking are called out.Gluten-free alcoholWhich drinks are gluten free, which are not, and why distillation changes the answer even when the starting grain does not.Eating gluten free at chainsChains are more predictable than independents, and that predictability cuts both ways. What to ask, what almost always fails, and why a published allergen menu is not the same as a safe kitchen.Newly diagnosed with celiac diseaseWhat to do first, what can wait, and the three mistakes almost everyone makes in the first month.
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.

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. TheGluten-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 oGluten-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 feGluten-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 mGluten-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 rouGluten-free pastaConventional pasta is durum wheat semolina and contains gluten. Rice, corn, chickpea, lentil and 100% buckwheat noodles are gluten free. Soba is the tGluten-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 comEating 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 "gluGluten-free flourRice, sorghum, almond, coconut, cassava, buckwheat, teff and oat flours are gluten free. The two things that catch people are wheat starch, which appeGluten 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 sGluten-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 flaGluten-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, procesGluten-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 nGluten 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 whGluten 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, andGluten-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 crisGluten 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