Gluten-free lifestyles are not just a trend.

From serious celiac diseases to light intolerances, there is a wide spectrum of side effects connected to gluten sensitivity. Some people MUST avoid it for their own safety. Others are willing to trade off some bloating and brain fog for a gooey treat here and there. The rest aren’t affected one bit. Regardless of where you belong, you still have the right as a consumer to know whether the food you are about to eat contains gluten or not, especially when it comes to everybody’s favorite sweet craving: chocolate.

How can you tell if a chocolate product has gluten in it?

Chocolate professionals may roll their eyes when asked about gluten-free chocolate. They would like to scream: “There was never supposed to be gluten in chocolate!”. But don’t worry. They will usually keep their cool and politely explain to you why (plain) chocolate is always gluten free. The doubts arise because many consumers still don’t know how chocolate is made and what it is made of.

All basic ingredients for dark, milk and white chocolate are gluten free by default:

• Cacao is gluten free. Cocoa beans are the seeds of the cacao fruit. They get fermented, dried, roasted, winnowed, refined, tempered and molded into chocolate treats. They are naturally made of carbs, proteins, fats and minerals, but contain no gluten.

• Sugars are gluten free. Whether artificial like xylitol, natural like honey, refined like white sugar, unrefined like panela, or fruit-based like monk fruit, no sugar contains gluten.

• Milk and Mylks are gluten free. Animal-derived milks (cow, goat, camel), nut-based drinks (almond, cashew, macadamia) and others (coconut and most oats) are all free of gluten.

• Lecithins are gluten free. Both sunflower and soy lecithin, the most common lecithins used to produce chocolate, are also gluten free since they are extracted from sunflower seeds and soybeans.

• Vanilla is gluten free. Even vanilla in all its variants (from the natural vanilla beans to the more artificial vanillin and vanilla extract) is always gluten free.

Moreover, there is no step of the bean-to-bar process that requires the addition of gluten-containing ingredients. Chocolate makers may add lecithin or cocoa butter to make chocolate run smoother, but nothing else. A different matter is when large manufacturers add gluten-containing preservatives and additives to cut costs and/or give chocolate products a longer shelf life, but this is not the norm (you will learn how to spot these ingredients later in the article).

So if plain chocolate shouldn’t contain gluten, why do people still worry about it?

Because we don’t want to consume chocolate only in its plain dark, milk and white version. Where would the fun be? Concerns emerge when chocolate professionals decide to add ingredients that contain gluten to plain chocolate. Now we have a gluten problem.

WHY DOES CHOCOLATE CONTAIN GLUTEN?

The main reason why chocolate companies add ingredients with gluten to their products is for improved flavor and texture. Bread crumbs, cereals, malt syrup and other gluten-containing ingredients confer crunchy textures and flavor depth to otherwise flat creations. But if this is done to improve the sensorial experience of the consumer, the intentions might not be so genuine in other cases.

Large manufacturers may add ingredients with gluten to cut costs, facilitate their production flow and artificially elongate the shelf life of their chocolate products. They may add artificial flavorings, preservatives, non-lecithin emulsifiers and mysterious ingredients that contain gluten for all the reasons mentioned above.

Together with the intentional addition of gluten-containing ingredients, another issue is accidental cross-contamination.

Unless they aspire to be gluten-free certified, chocolate companies won’t have dedicated machines to process their gluten-including and gluten-free products separately. Everything gets processed on the same machines. Especially small, family-owned and local brands won’t have the space capacity to avoid gluten contamination.

So how can you find gluten-free chocolate that is safe for you to consume? Let’s see all the different scenario that you could be presented with.

GLUTEN-FREE CERTIFICATIONS

Gluten-free certifications are given to companies by third-party entities. These perform ingredients review, product testing, factory inspections and other protocols to ensure that the requesting company adheres to strict manufacturing standards. The goal is to keep each product at 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten or less, which is considered safe to consume even in case of celiac diseases. A company can claim to be gluten free and put their own label on the packaging, but a certification involves a third-party entity to verify and approve that claim.

This is a great reassurance for everyone looking to avoid gluten. So the question is: why don’t all companies get a gluten-free certification?

The third-party company runs a business like any other. It wants to be paid for its services which include staff training, inspections and testing. Depending on the gross income and production volume of the requesting company, a gluten-free certification can cost thousands of dollars. These costs are only added to the extra time needed to apply, gather documents, test products, wait for approval, change production protocols, coordinate staff and the like. Therefore, a gluten-free certification is worth the hustle only for those companies that:

• can afford it

  and/or

• make Gluten-Free a big part of their unique selling proposition.

Many chocolate companies don’t process gluten in their facility, but can’t afford a certification or don’t see the value in getting one. Sure companies that go the extra mile to be certified should be applauded and rewarded for going above and beyond. But a gluten-free certification should be seen an extra reassurance, not a way to exclude all the other brands from your purchase.

If a gluten-free certification is self explanatory, there is a claim that frequently appears at the bottom of many ingredients list that usually leaves consumers wondering: what does the “May contain traces of gluten” claim REALLY mean?

“MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF GLUTEN” CLAIM

This claim is put voluntarily on the packaging when chocolate manufacturers want to warn you about a possible cross-contamination.

You will find these words on a product that does not contain gluten in the recipe (so you won’t find gluten-containing ingredients in the ingredients list), but the company can’t guarantee that gluten hasn’t found its way into the product regardless.

In short, the company produces some chocolate with gluten and some without, but has no way to produce them on entirely separate manufacturing lines. For example, freshly molded plain dark chocolate could have been in the vicinity of milk chocolate with an inclusion of bread crumbs. Two different types of bonbons could have been enrobed on the same machine. Or some traces of gluten might still be wandering even after a deep cleaning session. There is some degree of risk of cross-contamination along the line.

The quantity of gluten that you can expect from a product with the “May contain” claim is of course way lower than a product deliberately containing gluten in the recipe. However, highly sensitive consumers can show reactions even to such miniscule quantities. So this voluntarily claim also represents a legal protection for the chocolate company in case someone has an allergic reaction to one of their products.

After diving into gluten-free certifications and explaining the “May contain” claim, let’s finally have a look at the chocolate products that intentionally contain gluten.

GLUTEN IN THE INGREDIENTS LIST

The ingredients list is the most reliable tool to spot gluten-containing chocolate, no matter what the words or the pictures on the packaging might suggest.

Thankfully, you don’t need to know the list of all the existing foods that contain gluten. The chocolate company is required by law to write the ingredients that contain allergens like nuts, dairy and gluten in a way that distinguishes them from all the other ingredients. So you will find them either in bold letters, different colors and underlined to make them noticeable (the method will vary depending on the country’s food labeling regulations).

Common gluten-containing ingredients usually added to chocolate are barley malt, malt syrup, rye flour, non gluten-free oats, or you can find chocolate with inclusion of gingerbread, cookies, crackers, cereals and breadcrumbs.

Here are the final recommendations:

1. If there is a gluten-free certification label on the packaging, you can be reassured that no gluten has come into contact with the product. However, don’t exclude from your shopping list those brands that don’t have a certification.

2. Checking the ingredients list is a must if there is no gluten-free certification present. The allergens will be indicated with a different font, style or color compared to the rest of the ingredients.

3. Despite an ingredients list with no allergens, you can still find the “May contain traces of gluten” claim. This means that a cross-contamination may have happened. So it’s up to you, based on your personal level of sensitivity to gluten, to decide whether to purchase the chocolate or not.

4. If you still have doubts after checking the ingredients list and other disclaimers, you can always reach out to the company and ask them directly if there is any risk correlated to the precise product you intend to purchase.