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Hidden sources of gluten

The ingredients that contain gluten without naming a gluten grain. It explains why careful label-readers still get sick.

In the US, wheat is a major food allergen and must always be declared. Barley and rye are not. That means "malt extract" and barley hiding inside "natural flavor" are both legal ways for gluten to appear on a label that never says barley. Trust "no wheat" from a US label. Never trust "no barley or rye."

Barley in disguise

Every one of these is barley, and none of them has to say so.

Malt extractA legal ingredient name that never mentions barley.
Malt syrupSame. Common in cereals and snack bars.
Malt flavoringBarley-derived flavoring.
Malt vinegarNot distilled enough to remove the protein. Banned from gluten-free labeled food.
Brewer's yeastA beer byproduct carrying barley protein. Distinct from nutritional and baker's yeast.
Malted milkMalted barley plus milk.

The declaration gaps

Legal catch-all terms that can conceal barley or rye with no disclosure.

Natural flavorsCan be built on barley-grown yeast extract. Wheat would have to be declared; barley would not.
Yeast extractSometimes spent brewer's yeast. Marmite has tested around 30 ppm.
Seasoning blendsOften use malted barley flour as a free-flow carrier.
Smoke flavoringBarley malt flour is a common carrier for capturing smoke.

Wheat under another name

All of these are wheat. On a US label the allergen statement will say so, but the ingredient name alone will not.

SemolinaCoarsely milled durum wheat.
DurumA hard wheat used for pasta.
FarinaMilled wheat. Cream of Wheat is farina.
SpeltAn ancient wheat, often marketed as an alternative to wheat. It is wheat.
KamutA trademarked khorasan wheat.
FarroCovers emmer, einkorn and spelt, all of which are wheat.
FreekehYoung green wheat, roasted.
CouscousSmall semolina pasta. It looks like a grain but it is not one.
BulgurParboiled cracked wheat.
SeitanWheat gluten itself.
TriticaleA wheat-rye hybrid. Missing from most ingredient databases.

Situational

Not gluten by default, but worth a check when there is no gluten-free claim.

Brown rice syrupCommonly produced using barley enzymes.
Blue cheeseHistorically cultured on bread. Most modern production tests clean.
Soy sauceConventionally brewed with roughly equal parts soybeans and wheat.
Imitation crabTypically bound with wheat starch.
Communion wafersLow-gluten hosts test around 56 ppm, about 0.002 mg per wafer.
Check it in the aisle instead

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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

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.
26 ingredients on this list

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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.
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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.

Sources
FDA gluten labeling RFI, 91 FR 2781 (Jan 22, 2026)
National Celiac Association — ingredients people question