Is Chocolate Gluten-Free?
Many Americans are switching to a gluten-free lifestyle after finding they have allergies or sensitivities to this protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Some are doing it for weight loss. So, as we all read over the list of ingredients on our food packaging, we naturally want to know, “Can I still eat chocolate?”
Is Chocolate Gluten-free?
Chocolate itself has no gluten naturally. Cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, and sometimes vanilla, lecithin (to make sure the cocoa butter doesn’t separate), and milk or cream goes into making chocolate.
Hidden Sources of Gluten
Generally, the fewer ingredients in your chocolate, the better, as this chocolate tends to be closer to the original cocoa bean. However, you’ll still want to watch out for hidden sources of gluten.
Look for these added ingredients that may indicate gluten:
- Artificial flavors or extracts
- Malted Chocolate or Malted Milk
- Malt Extract, Syrup, or Flavoring
- Modified Food Starch
- Dextrin
- Maltodextrin
- Caramel color*
* We make all of our caramels gluten-free, but some companies do not, which is why it is so important to verify each item.
Most chocolate companies warn the public when their chocolate is made in a facility that processes foods containing wheat. For those with serious concerns, it may not be certain whether the food contains enough to be an issue for someone with celiac disease.
Does Asher’s Chocolate Contain Gluten?
When Chester Asher was writing out his original chocolate recipe on the back of sugar bags, it did not contain wheat or gluten ingredients. Our milk chocolate is made with chocolate liquor, sugar, vanilla , milk and cocoa butter. Our dark chocolate is the same, except made with a higher cocoa content.
Although Asher’s does not make our classic chocolate recipe with wheat or gluten ingredients, gluten IS essential to many of our gourmet confections, including all of our chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered graham crackers, among others.
We do our very best to prevent cross-contamination when making our chocolates. However, for safety, we cannot absolutely guarantee it, as they are made together in the same location.
Allergies can be very serious, so we encourage you to contact us if you have questions about a particular candy. You may email us at [email protected] to get a complete list of the ingredients. Please let us know which product you’d like the ingredient list for.