I just read a newspaper story where a doctor said that ketchup and mustard could contain gluten. What ingredient in these condiments would contain gluten?
We saw that story too and were troubled by all the undue worry it would cause when we know ketchup and mustard are nearly always gluten free. Coleman’s prepared mustard and Nance's honey mustard contain wheat flour, but that is rare. Otherwise, the only thing we can think is that the doctor quoted in the story was depending on old information that put ketchup and mustard in the questionable category because they contain vinegar. More than 10 years ago, we used our journalism training to investigate vinegar. We found that there was no good reason to think distilled vinegar might contain gluten. It was and always has been gluten free. We have repeated this information frequently but distilled vinegar continues to be questioned and unnecessarily avoided by some people who follow a gluten-free diet. Distilled vinegar is in a lot of products and worrying about it makes following the diet a lot harder than it needs to be. Basically ketchup is made from tomato paste or concentrate, corn syrup, distilled vinegar, salt and spices. Most mustard is made from mustard seed, distilled vinegar, spices like turmeric, salt, paprika, and garlic, and natural flavor. Dijon mustard also contains white wine. You might also wonder about mustard flour. It’s the name for ground mustard seed and it does not contain wheat.
