Foods to Avoid for Celiac Disease

If only the guidelines for avoiding gluten were as easy as telling you to stop eating wheat, barley, and rye flour, but it's more complicated than that. There are many hidden sources of gluten, and beyond that, some naturally gluten-free products can be contaminated with gluten.

Here are lists of foods, ingredients, and additives to avoid. (Check out the Food Additives & Unsuspecting Foods list towards the bottom that may have gluten lurking where you weren't expecting...)

Common Foods That May Contain Gluten

Barley (and anything with the word barley in it, such as barley malt)
Beer (all types)
Bleached flour
Blue cheese (sometimes made with bread mold)
Bran (also called wheat bran)
Bread flour
Bulgur
Cake flour
Communion wafers
Cracker meal
Croutons
Couscous
Durum
Farina
Farro
Flour (this usually means wheat flour)
Gluten, glutenin
Graham flour
Groats
Kamut
Malt (and anything with the word malt in it, such as rice malt, malt extract, or malt flavoring)
Malt beverages
Matzo
Oats and oat bran
Orzo
Pasta (all varieties made with wheat, wheat starch, oats, barley, rye, or any ingredient on this list)
Rye (and anything with the word rye in it)
Seitan
Semolina
Soy sauce (check ingredients—it’s often made with wheat)
Spelt
Suet
Tabbouleh
Teriyaki sauce
Triticale
Triticum
Unbleached flour
Vital gluten
Wheat (and anything with the word wheat in it, such as wheat grass, wheat berries, wheat germ, wheat starch; buckwheat is okay and is the only exception)

Less Common Foods & Food Additives That Contain Gluten

Abyssinian hard (a wheat product)
Amp-isostearoyl hydrolyzed wheat
Brewer’s yeast
Cereal binding
Cereal extract
Dextrimaltose
Dinkel
Disodium wheatgermamido Peg-2 sulfosuccinate
Edible starch
Einkorn
Emmer
Filler
Fu
Granary flour
Mir
Udon (wheat noodles)
Whole-meal flour

Food Additives & Unsuspecting Foods That May Contain Gluten

If a favorite food contains one of the following ingredients, contact the company and ask questions. Depending on the manufacturing process, these suspect ingredients can sometimes be gluten-free.

Artificial color
Artificial flavoring
Bouillon cubes
Brown rice syrup
Caramel color
Coloring
Dextrins
Dried fruit (may be dusted with wheat)
Flavored coffee
Flavored vinegar
Flavoring
Food starch
Glucose syrup
Gravy cubes
Ground spices (wheat is sometimes added to prevent clumping)
Hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP)
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Miso
Modified food starch
Modified starch
Monoglycerides and diglycerides
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Mustard powder (some brands contain gluten; check ingredients)
Natural flavoring
Processed cheese (check ingredients)
Processed meats (cold cuts, hot dogs, sausages, and canned meats that contain wheat, barley, rye, oats, gluten fillers, or stabilizers)
Rice malt
Rice syrup
Seasonings (including powdered flavorings and dustings on chips, nuts, popcorn, rice mixes, and rice cakes)
Smoke flavoring
Soba noodles
Starch
Stock/bouillon cubes
Surimi (imitation seafood)
Textured vegetable protein (TVP)
Vegetable starch
Vitamins