'Surprise' gluten?

[FlouncyMcFlouncer]

Hi, I suspect I may have a gluten intolerance. I'm planning to get tested asap, but in the meantime am trying to research a bit. Can anyone tell me of any foods which contain 'unexpected gluten', i.e foods that you would be surprised to find it in? Thanks.

I've not introduced oats yet, the dietician told me I could gibe him 25g of GF certified oats a day - but school made him some flapjack just after him being diagnosed with GF flour and "normal" oats, the first I knew about it was when I collected him at the end of the day and he had 5 massive mouth ulcers on his front gums (he'd never had one in his life) so I darent .....

Its Barley Malt they add to breakfast cereals - soooooo annoying !!

I'm a coeliac so have to be really careful with gluten. It's everywhere IMO & contamination is the main issue. Lots of things are naturally gluten free but will be made in a gluten factory etc. Most labels will say this.

I still get caught out with the chocolate powder on top of cappuccinos (usually contains wheat), smoothies often contain wheat germ, ice cream often has wheat in, most sauces (brown, tomato, mayo) are out too. Restaurants often don't know & will say it's GF when it isn't.

What's wrong with ketchup and mayo? I've checked the bottle and can't see anything that I would see is a derivative of gluten... Also, if the raisins say that palm oil is the 'glazing agent' does that mean it's ok??

When dd was first diagnosed, rice crispies were listed in coeliac uks directory, as ok, despite having barley malt in. Apparently, the amounts were negligible. Unfortunately, at the time, dd was so sensitive, she couldn't eat them any way!

Ketchup and mayo are generally fine as far as I know. I think there's sometimes confusion because they often contain vinegar which is derived from barley malt but the fermentation process means that malt vinegar is fine for coeliacs, even sensitive ones (that's what Coeliac UK told me anyway).

www.coeliac.org.uk/ Have a register of all foods, but you have to subscribe.

Sorry I meant distilling processing not fermentation (confusing vinegar and beer!) :)

I nearly ate some ham the other day, but thought I'd check to make sure there was no dairy. There wasn't, but wheat got a mention and no, it wasn't breaded ham, either! Would never have guessed that one - most ham doesn't have wheat in it, does it?!

Anything processed is suspect (tins, packets, soups,sauces) some yogurts, sweets, chocolate, crisps and some spirits I believe.

As horrible as it is, keep eating lots of gluten before you have the coeliac blood tests and endoscopy, otherwise you may get a false negative result because your gut starts healing as soon as you go gluten free (like I did! Doh!)

gluten is used in so much manufactured foods that if you are super sensitive (like me) you can only really eat foods that are unprocessed and GF (raw meat, veg, fruit, rice, quinoa, corn etc) and processed foods that are made a dedicated factory or at least not on the same production line as gluteny foods.

I no longer eat crisps unless it states GF on the packet now as many flavours are sprayed on in factories and so there's cross contamination of wheat even with ready salted flavours!

www.coeliac.org.uk are a charity who publish a food directory that lists manufactured foods that are checked and okay - brands and supermarket own brands - which is very helpful. They also have lots of good info and advice on their site or you can ring them if you're confused about anything.