What "May Contain Gluten" Really Means (And What I Do)

You're standing in the grocery store, you've checked the ingredients, and everything looks safe—until you spot the words, "May contain wheat," "May contain traces of wheat," or "Manufactured in a facility that also processes wheat." Suddenly, what seemed like an easy decision becomes much more complicated. Should you buy it or put it back? Does the product actually contain gluten, or is the company simply using the label as a legal precaution?

 In this episode, we're breaking down what these precautionary allergen statements really mean, what they don't mean, and how I personally decide whether a product makes it into my shopping cart. By the end, you'll have a practical framework to help you make confident decisions instead of feeling overwhelmed every time you see one of these warnings. 

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Transcript

Medical Disclaimer And The Setup

Carrie Saunders 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. You're in the grocery store, you checked ingredients on a product, everything looks safe, then you see it. May contain wheat or may contain traces of wheat or manufactured in a facility that also processes wheat. Suddenly what seemed simple isn't so simple anymore. Should you eat it, put it back? Does it actually contain gluten? Or is the company just trying to protect itself legally? In today's episode, we're talking about what these labels actually mean, what they don't mean, and how I personally decide what goes into my card. Because by the end of this episode, I want you to have a practical framework instead of feeling overwhelmed every time you see one of these warnings. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Gluten Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Kiri Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything. But I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks, and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun, and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything.

The Label That Stops You Cold

Carrie Saunders 1:25

Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about the dreaded labels on food packaging and what those may contain wheat style messages mean and how we can determine whether we can eat the item. Because it is one of the most confusing parts of gluten-free living. When you need to be gluten-free, you usually have found out that you need to avoid wheat, barley, and rye. And then there's you know a number of other ones that are still a derivative of those, but they're less common, thankfully. But you know you need to at least avoid those main ones the wheat, barley, rye, and then oats that aren't certified gluten-free. But what do these labels mean? Because the ingredients is one thing, and cross-contamination is another thing, and that's what these labels can infer. So these statements around wheat are there because wheat is of top eight allergen, and they must say whether it might contain some wheat, at least in the United States and probably most other countries, if it could have some wheat in it. Wheat doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have gluten in it. Um, more than likely, yes, it will likely have gluten in it if it if it's got wheat, because most of the wheat uh we use in our products and our food products are made from the grain part of the wheat, not the grass part, which doesn't have gluten in it. And you never know if that's going to get cross-contaminated anyway. So avoiding all wheat is very, very important, especially if you're celiac and if you're highly sensitive, it's just generally a good idea.

Why Wheat Warnings Show Up

Carrie Saunders 2:58

So let's talk about what each one means. So the may contain wheat does have a potential cross-contact concern to it. Also, the one that says manufactured on shared equipment with wheat. This is even more higher concern, potentially, because it depends upon the cleaning practices of that manufacturer. You know, how well do they thoroughly clean the lines before they put something gluten-free on it? You know, say the previous run had uh wheat on it, maybe it was kit cat bars or something like that. I'm gonna pick on the candy industry right now. So maybe it was kit cat bars and it had wheat on it, and then they're next going to run Snickers, which doesn't have wheat in it. But if they don't clean the lines appropriately, some of those Snicker bars could have traces of the wheat from the previous run of Kit Kat bars, for example. So that means that it's on shared equipment and it has a potentially higher concern for cross-contamination because you don't know whether your Snickers bar was right after the runs of the Kit Kat bars. So you don't know how high of a risk you have for getting wheat in you. And then next is the made in a facility that also processes wheat. This one's all over the place as far as how big of a risk it is. I always avoid it in my experience. Whenever I've seen this on the label, I've gotten sick. So back when I was early being gluten-free and didn't realize how sensitive I was, I ate these one pre-packaged cookies. They said they were gluten-free. And every time I ate them, I didn't feel quite right. And so I started, as my engineering brain does, I started investigating and trying to figure things out. Well, I really scrutinized the label and it said made in a facility that also processes wheat. So for that manufacture, that product, I knew I could not eat those products because I was getting sick from it. Now, the problem here is though, is if you are a celiac who doesn't have obvious symptoms, you don't have digestive symptoms right away. And some celiacs don't have any digestive systems that they can tell, you may not know that you're getting damaged. So if you're celiac, I highly recommend, and you can talk with your doctor or nutritionist to double check

May Contain Vs Shared Equipment

Carrie Saunders 5:14

to avoid anything that says may contain wheat manufactured on shared equipment, made in a facility that also processes wheat. If you're celiac, I just completely avoid it if it says it could have wheat in it. Now, if you are gluten intolerant, that's really up to you and your doctor. That made in a facility also processes wheat, can be a very a lower concern simply because the facility could be enormous. Products may never touch the same equipment. You don't know. It's you know potentially in the air, is what they would like to say, or you know, just know that it's in within the vicinity. So it's kind of a catch-all, you know, legal protect themselves in case some wheat gets into some food products and it causes somebody with an allergy to have a reaction. So in general, it's a great that they do that for us in the community. But I just want you to know as a celiac, I would highly avoid it if you're gluten intolerant. Again, you know, that's completely up to you and you're a doctor in it. But that's what that means is there's something else in the facility that's uses wheat um to make their product. So this can these labelings can get really confusing because these labels don't tell us if there's actually any gluten testing, if there's any cleaning procedures, unless they voluntarily put that on there. I have seen some companies who have products that are in the same facility, but they talk about cleaning the lines and testing their equipment. So they talk about that separately. But the actual these types of label don't doesn't mean whether they're going to be cleaning the lines, um, what your risk level is, how many parts per million is there potentially gluten in these products? So two products can have the same exact warning label, but have very different risks. That's what I want you to really get out of this episode is you just don't know with these warning labels. So for me personally, since I'm celiac, I always make sure it is certified gluten-free if it's a pre-packaged food item. Almost, almost always, unless there's a brand that I know and that I trust and that has a reputation for being very careful. So if you see a certified gluten-free item that says made in a facility that also processes wheat, you can be pretty rest assured that that product is not going to have gluten in it above the legal limits for your country. So what that means is you shouldn't get sick from it. It should be completely safe from it for you. And they have tested to make sure that the lines of products coming out are safe and don't have you know enough gluten in them to fail their test, their certified gluten-free test. Now, I'll also go for gluten-free labeled products where they say gluten-free, but it's not the certified label as long as they don't have the other warnings. If they have the other warnings, then for me being a celiac, it's a no-go for me. And then if something says may contain wheat, that's an absolutely, absolutely no-go for me. I do not even get near it. Barley is worse for me of the three grains than wheat, but it's still wheat, just I'm not even going to risk it for that item. So I always look for certified gluten-free. Then I'll next look for gluten-free labeled food products, especially if they don't have the other warnings that we're talking about. And then that may contain wheat. I just completely, it's it's off the limits for me. So if you want to keep your grocery shopping really simple and you know minimize how much you're making these decisions that we're talking about, I want to encourage you to shop the borders of the grocery store. Um, most grocery stores, when you go into them, you start with fruits and vegetables. If you go around the back, that's usually um animal proteins. And then you continue on, you're gonna probably run into dairy. And then on the other end, usually on the opposite side of the fruit and vegetables, you're going to find the frozen food products. So if you're not going down those center aisles, you're going to not be running into foods that are

Facility Warnings And Hidden Damage

Carrie Saunders 9:14

processed, that are man-made, basically. And then you're not going to worry have to worry about gluten. If it's a single ingredient item, you're not going to need to worry about gluten in it. Now, if they add additives or food things like that, then you're going to need to worry about gluten. So, you know, fruits and vegetables do not have gluten in them naturally. Animal products in general do not have gluten in them. Now, there's a little caveat there. I will say that many modern day animals, at least in the United States, are fed lots of grains. So for me personally, I my stomach gets upset on grain-fed animal products like beef, um, chicken, things like that. So I try to get grass-fed beef. It's just better for the environment and better for yourself. Um, and I also try to get naturally fed um chickens. They're meant to eat bugs and stuff like that, not grains. Um, so I try to actually work to eat a little bit healthier and better for the environment types of proteins because I do eat animal products. Um, and I try to be conscious about that for my own stomach as well as for you know the environment. That's obviously a completely different debate here. But my point is that if it's a plain single ingredient food in the grocery store, it should not ever have um gluten in it. You don't just go to the store and buy wheat, like a stock of wheat or a stock of barley, at least I've never seen it in how long I've been alive, or a stock of rye. It's just not normal to find in a typical grocery store. So it's hard to just go buy gluten without buying a processed food. So then if you do go down those aisles, because sometimes we do need the convenience of processed foods, you know, sometimes bread's very convenient, pasta can be very convenient, things like that can be comforting and convenient. Next, I then want to make sure it's sudify gluten-free. If you're celiac, it says gluten-free. If you're not celiac,

My Framework For Safer Choices

Carrie Saunders 11:06

and then you want to look for those warning labels to make sure there aren't some sort of weird exception to something that doesn't have a gluten ingredient in it, but could have a higher potential of cross-contamination. So I usually avoid anything that says may contain wheat or process in a facility. I actually avoid all those, but I'm celiac, so I have to be even more careful than those that are gluten intolerant. So I want to encourage you that while these labelings might be a bit confusing, hopefully this episode helped you understand a little bit more about what they truly mean. And you will get better at this the more you do it. So if you're newer to this, don't feel you know defeated. Just look for the opportunities to learn and to grow and to help this get easier. The more you build confidence, the easier this is going to get. And it, you know, when I go to the grocery store now anymore, it's just a normal trip to grocery store. It's kind of like pre before figuring out I had a celiac. Um, when it was early on for me going to the grocery store, it was pretty stressful. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it was really stressful and it felt very overwhelming. So I want you to look for all the little golden windows when you're shopping of things you do right and you know, things you can have, and look for those positives, and then you're gonna have a much better outlook on your diagnosis, whether it's celiac or gluten intolerance or some other reason that you need to be gluten-free for some other health reason, and use it to your advantage and look at it this way, too. This is one thing people were like, Oh, Carrie, don't you just wish you could have gluten? And I'm like, you know, not really, because it has forced me to eat more whole foods and to eat a better diet naturally than if I hadn't figured out, found out however you want to say it, that I had celiac. And if our family hadn't figured out that pretty much we all have celiac, we now don't go out to eat fast food. You know, we are not eating high-process foods all the time. It's just in it's a blessing in disguise that, you know, we are forced to think about what we eat because most Americans don't think about what they eat, and we're forced to eat more whole foods and more healthy foods that are direct sources of vitamins and minerals and things to fuel our body so we can feel better long term and in the short term, too. So I want to encourage you again, confidence doesn't come from knowing every answer, it comes from having a framework you can trust. So hopefully, this episode helps give you some framework and some decisions you can, you know, make on a regular to

Shop Simpler And Build Confidence

Carrie Saunders 13:42

make this journey much easier for you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources, and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineer.com. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun, and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode. And we will see you next week. The Gluten Free Engineer Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns, or advice specific to your health.