In my experience, it isn’t easy to determine with absolute certainty what foods or drinks truly are gluten-free at cafes or restaurants. When you go to Starbucks, you really cannot read the labels to find out about the ingredients that are in the foods. I did a little bit of investigating, and here is what I found.
One of my absolute favorite places to grab a treat from is Starbucks. I go there at least once a week. Since I discovered that I have a gluten allergy, it has become a lot harder to figure out what will be safe for me to eat from Starbucks.
As far as food, there is one choice that I am certain is safe. They now sell KIND bars. You can usually find them near their registers. All of the products from KIND are tested for gluten and meet FDA’s proposed requirement of 20ppm (0.002%) of gluten. Their manufacturing plant is dedicated gluten free and has a strict allergen control program, (according to the KIND website).
You might think, as I did, that the “Marshmallow Dream Bar” would be gluten-free. I thought it was because it contained Rice Krispies, and not wheat. Wrong! According to the Starbucks website, these are the actual ingredients: Marshmallows (corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch {corn}), dextrose, water, gelatin, natural flavor), crisp rice (milled rice, sugar, salt, corn syrup, BARLEY MALT, reduced iron), corn syrup, butter (cream {from milk}), sugar, salt, maltodextrin, vanilla (water, alcohol, vanilla bean extractives).
It is the barley malt that makes this food not safe for people who have to avoid gluten. Also, there is no way to know what the “natural flavors” are made up of. Imagine my disappointment from this discovery!
If you can tolerate a little cross contamination, then you can eat (most of) the foods in one of the Starbucks Bistro Boxes. The Protein Bistro Box has foods in it that are gluten-free. You get one hard boiled (cage free) egg, a few sliced tart apples, some grapes, and some white Cheddar cheese.
You also get a little package of Justin’s honeyed peanut butter spread. According to the Justin’s website: “All of our nut butters AND peanut butter cups are gluten-free! They are certified by GFCO.” This might be good to put on the apple slices.
Don’t eat the “multigrain muesli bread”! Some of the ingredients include: cracked wheat, cracked rye, and unbleached wheat flour, (to name but a few). This part of the Bistro Box is NOT gluten-free!
If you are at the Starbucks for breakfast, you might be out of luck. Their oatmeal contains “whole-grain rolled oats (with oat bran), and oat flour,” to name just a few ingredients. The problem with oats is that there could be cross-contamination going on if the oats were processed in a plant that also processes wheat. If you are able to safely tolerate a little cross-contamination, this might be ok. I wouldn’t suggest this for someone who has celiac disease, however.
Image by Marco Paköeningrat on Flickr