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Eating gluten free at chains

Chains 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.

A chain's allergen menu tells you about recipes. It tells you nothing about the fryer or the prep surface in the location you are standing in. Testing studies have repeatedly found detectable gluten in restaurant food ordered as gluten free, concentrated overwhelmingly in pizza and pasta. The ingredients are consistent across a chain. The kitchen is not, and it varies store by store.

The three questions that resolve most of it

"Is there a dedicated fryer?"Shared oil is the most common failure. Fries, chips and anything battered all inherit it.
"Can this be prepared on a clean surface with clean utensils?"Covers grills, boards and tongs in one question.
"I have celiac disease — is there a manager I can ask?"Saying "celiac disease" rather than "gluten free" measurably changes the response, and managers know things servers do not.

Almost always a problem

French fries at a shared fryerAlso often battered before freezing, independently of the oil.
Gluten-free pizza in a wheat pizzeriaFloured bench, shared cutter, shared stone, airborne flour.
Gluten-free pasta in shared waterGluten dissolves and transfers.
Grilled items on a shared flat-topBuns and battered items leave residue.
Salads that had croutons removedRemoving them does not remove the gluten. Ask for it made fresh.
Soft-serve and shake machinesCookie and brownie mix-ins share the same equipment.

Usually workable

Corn tortilla dishes at a taqueriaAsk whether they are warmed on the same surface as flour tortillas.
Plain grilled meat and rice bowlsThe marinade is the question, not the meat.
Coffee shops, drinks onlyThe espresso side is generally clean; the pastry case is not.
Chains with a dedicated gluten-free protocolA written protocol with staff training is the signal that matters, not a symbol on a menu.

Timing and tactics

Go earlyA clean line before service beats the middle of a rush by a wide margin.
Order at the counter, not through an appAn app order cannot answer a question about the fryer.
Check the chain's current allergen PDF, not a blog postChains reformulate constantly, and third-party lists go stale within months.
Ask for the manager during quiet hoursA two-minute conversation once makes a location reliable for years.
Check it in the aisle instead

Point CiCi at the barcode on anything on this list and get this same reasoning in about two seconds, plus the carbs and whether it has been recalled. 360,000+ packaged foods are already read and waiting.

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Food guides

Each guide covers a whole aisle and explains the mechanism, which is more portable than any list of names.

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…

Other lists

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.Newly diagnosed with celiac diseaseWhat to do first, what can wait, and the three mistakes almost everyone makes in the first month.
17 ingredients on this list

Every one of them is checked automatically when you scan a product — along with everything else on the label, and every rule that fires. Unlimited scans, free.

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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.