I sometimes get asked the question if vegan sweets are gluten free. For some reason people believe that this is always the case, and I get that it can get confusing, especially if people first get involved in veganism and also with the surge in "-free" products on the market. In this brief article I would like to give you an answer to this question.
Let´t take a look at what Gluten-Free Actually Means.
For people with celiac disease it is very important to avoid gluten. Should they eat gluten, they can experience serious side effects if they consume it. However, there are also people who make the lifestyle choice to avoid gluten. While people with a celiac disease really have to ban gluten from their diet entirely, and even traces can lead to side effects, people who choose to avoid gluten sometimes still eat gluten, but make the conscious decision to choose food with less gluten (such as bread made of spelt). Some people only have negative side-effects when they eat modern wheat flour (the one that you find in supermarkets) as the modern wheat that is often used for baking is different from ancient wheat. If they choose a more traditional form of wheat, they sometimes can eat it without problems.
What is Gluten? Gluten is what gives dough its elasticity. Therefore, it is quite popular and can be found in bread or cakes. It, for example, can be found in wheat. It gives shape, strength, and texture to bread and other grain products.
Which Food is Gluten-Free?
Some gluten-free foods are naturally gluten-free and healthy. These foods are, for example, apples, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc... Other gluten-free foods are processed to remove gluten or processed with gluten-free ingredients, such as bread made of corn flour. Gluten-free bread for example, is a practical alternative for a person with celiac disease, because it contains no gluten or only minor traces of it.
To count as gluten-free, a food must contain less than 20ppm of gluten.
This leads us to the question if Vegan Sweets are Gluten-Free. Of course, this depends.
The problem is that not all vegan sweets can be included in your gluten-free diet, even if gluten isn’t listed as an ingredient on the ingredients list. This is because some different brands of sweets carry ‘may contain’ statements, meaning the manufacturer has decided that there is a risk that the product could be contaminated with gluten. This might not matter if you choose to avoid gluten for lifestyle reasons. However,, people with celiac disease may have to avoid these sweets with ´may contain´statements altogether.
We have therefore below put together a short list of sweets and snacks that are we regularly buy and that we know are definitely gluten free. They are advertised as gluten-free and definitely vegan. These are all sweets that we have tried as well, and which we can definitely recommend:
Jealous Sweets Happy Bears: https://amzn.to/3pMNN2M
Blueberry & Raspberry Gummy Candy: https://amzn.to/3nHBJOv
Montezuma´s Truffle Bites: https://amzn.to/3kPO3KE
Mummy Meagz Chocolate Bars: https://amzn.to/35QiPyJ
Sweet Chilli Black Eyed Pea Puff Snacks: https://amzn.to/334Peji