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Maureen asks: “Can someone on a gluten free diet eat glucose syrup (derived from wheat)? Is there gluten in it?” The answer is "yes, may be!"
Glucose syrups can be made from any starch source (wheat, maize, tapioca, potato, rice, etc). If it made from wheat starch, then it might contain traces of gluten. But, with the current food labelling laws, this wheat-based glucose syrup is permitted to contain up to 200parts per million (ppm) of gluten and still be allowed to be labelled gluten-free. So, a lot of your decisions are based on how sensitive you are to gluten. I see hundreds of people who are so sensitive to gluten that they have to strictly avoid ALL glucose syrups if they are wheat-based.
This is the same story for maltodextrins. A maltodextrin is a chain of sugar molecules: lots of glucose sugars joined together like a string of beads. They may contain gluten, depending on the source. The other starch sugars that you need to be wary of include: modified starches, thickening agents, dextrin, dextrose, hydrolysed protein, glucose, glucose syrup, and caramel (colour). Please note, that different countries have different labelling laws. That means that what is said to be gluten-free in one country might be labelled as “contains gluten” somewhere else. Another note: modified corn-starch, also called maize-starch, is gluten-free. |
