I am learning to read absolutely every ingredient in a food product before I consume it. And, I’m teaching my daughter to do the same thing. Experience tells me I must.
Recently our family was at the airport early one morning. Once we were through security, we wanted to grab waters and juice. My arms were laden with too much stuff, and my travel anxiety was neatly tucked in my back pocket. I was also wearing my usual thick, protective armor of travel instinct which is why I must have decided to read the ingredients list on the popular orange juice brand we had picked out. I don't usually pay attention to ingredients in juice.
I quickly scanned the ingredients and to my surprise was “modified food starch.” What??!! I couldn’t believe it. I picked up another popular brand and read “natural flavoring.” I know that “natural flavoring” is always suspect for those eating gluten free. Also, at the end of the list of ingredients was an asterick (*) stating that there could be anything else in this juice that wasn’t listed. Seriously??!! Of course, any food that is in a package or has a cap on it is processed food and, therefore, suspect to contain gluten. I am continually learning.
I didn’t have the time or patience to look up these juices online to see if they were actually gluten free. And, because we were traveling, I certainly wasn’t willing to take a risk on getting sick. Water would taste delicious!
I just learned about an App called Gluten Freedom App which scans the barcode to see if product is gluten free. I'm testing out the App now and will let you know how it works. Check back.