If you are feeling heavy with the word gluten, then let me tell you its nothing but proteins that naturally occur in wheat, rye, barley, and triticale. And that helps in balancing the grain’s shape and consistency.

But how will you know if you’re sensitive towards gluten or not? These are the symptoms to get you to hold off the disease such as:

1. Abdominal pain

2. Bloating

3. Diarrhoea

4. Constipation

5. Headaches

After going through the signs as mentioned above, you must be already burdened in guessing about a bunch of your craving delicacies. And honestly, marshmallows cant be declared to be an exception.

To say, gluten can also be present in one’s favourite candy like marshmallows which comes produced from the United States. It contains sugar, water, and gelatin (dairy-free) in proportionate amounts.

Ingredients to be checked in Marshmallows

Marshmallows are made from wheat starch or glucose syrup which again traces its origin to wheat. And as you know, wheat isn’t gluten-free in the primary concern!

Various marshmallow brands in the country derive the product from corn starch instead of wheat starch that can be tagged as gluten-free.

How come gluten-free?

The only way to stay safe about your marshmallows as gluten-free calls for checking the label. Now, you need to know, when it’s not stated specific enough to guide your purchase decision, just place a call to the company’s consumers department. For your information, gluten-free products usually come under the Nutrition Facts label.

Ingredients that contain Gluten

Sometimes, its also possible that a product isn’t carrying the gluten-free label. In that case, you should check the below-mentioned ingredients to be sure about its gluten content.

Wheat protein

Hydrolyzed wheat protein

Wheat starch

wheat flour

Malt

Triticum Vulgare

Triticum spelta

Hordeum vulgare

Secale cereal

Vegetable protein

Natural flavourings

Natural colourings

Modified food starch

Artificial flavour

Hydrolyzed protein

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

Dextrin

Maltodextrin

Brands That go Gluten-Free

Many marshmallow brands in the United States source their products from corn starch, rather than wheat starch or wheat by-products. Now, although corn starch is gluten-free, it’s always better that you run through the labels once before buying for prior verification. Also, the added flavours provided by suppliers can amount to gluten at times.

A few marshmallow brands conform to gluten-free content that gets mentioned in their labels:

• Dandies vanilla marshmallows

• Trader Joe’s marshmallows

• Campfire Marshmallows by Doumak

• Marshmallow fluff

Note: Jet-Puffed Marshmallows are probably safe for gluten intolerant individuals but not for those affected by celiac sensitivity. Other brands that pose the risk for cross- include flavours of Peeps, a holiday-themed marshmallow made out of corn starch.

Cross-contaminated Marshmallows

Finally, some marshmallows despite being gluten-free are packaged in factories that make gluten-containing products and thus bear high chances of getting cross-contaminated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations permit foods to be labelled as gluten-free if they contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten(not included on Nutrition Facts labels).

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