Is It Gluten Free?
Over the last three months people arrived here from just over five thousand different searches that were all the same question: is ketchup gluten free, does teriyaki sauce have gluten, is bulgur gluten free.
This is the book that answers it — not with a list you have to trust, but with the reasoning that produces the answer, so it still works on the product in your hand that no list ever covers.
The one fact most people get wrong
US allergen law requires wheat to be declared. It does not require barley or rye to be. They hide in malt, malt extract, malt flavouring and brewer's yeast, and a label can legally carry all of them with no warning at all.
"I checked, it doesn't say wheat" is the most common way a coeliac is glutened by a packaged food. Chapter one is about closing that gap permanently.
What's in it
The three rules that decide everything
Why "gluten-free" on a package is a legally defined claim, why "Contains: wheat" is reliable but its absence is not, and why "may contain" is a lawyer talking rather than a test result.
Reading a label in ten seconds
The words that always mean gluten — including the ones that carry no allergen warning under US law — and the much longer list of industrial-sounding ingredients that are perfectly safe.
Aisle by aisle, with the reasoning
Ten supermarket categories: condiments, sweets, snacks, grains and noodles, meat and deli, dairy, spreads, drinks, ready meals and the store cupboard. Each one explains why, so it survives a reformulation.
The quick-reference table
Fifty of the most-asked foods with a verdict and the reason behind it — from ketchup and gummy bears to bulgur, udon, teriyaki and imitation crab.
The five cross-contact risks that are real
Where gluten actually reaches you at home and in shops — and, just as usefully, the widely-feared risks the evidence does not support, so you can stop spending vigilance on them.
Getting a straight answer
Medication and supplements, which no food labelling law covers. Plus a copy-paste script for manufacturers, and how to tell a real answer from legal boilerplate.
What this book will not do
It will not tell you a named brand is safe forever. Recipes change without announcement, the same brand differs between countries, and no printed list survives a reformulation. Every verdict explains why, so that when the formulation changes you can tell — and it says throughout that the label in your hand is the final word.
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Already using the scanner? This is the reasoning behind it, written down. The scanner reads a label for you; the book means you can read one yourself when your phone is flat or the print is too small to photograph.