Unsafe items – Gluten present as an ingredient

Some items popularly used in India, which are made out of one of these ingredients – wheat, barley, rye or oats – are listed below. This is not an exhaustive list but only some of the most commonly consumed gluten containing food items.

1. Items made from Wheat and all its forms like daliya, sooji and maida such as:

• Rotis, paranthas, pooris, noodles, pasta, macaroni, daliya, couscous, sooji
• Maida items: Samosa, spring rolls, naan, kulcha, ice cream cones, jalebi and most of the commercially available mithai (sweets)
• Bakery items: Breads, pastries, cakes, pizza, biscuits, buns, patties, rusk, cookies
• Chaat items: Papdi,mathri, golgappa, panipuri,sevpuri
• Sooji  items: Soojidosa, soojiuttapam, seviyan, upma, pasta

2.  Items made from barley (‘Jau’ in Hindi) such as:

• Barley water, barley tea
• Beer and other fermented beverages made from barley
• Barley malt flavouring, malt extract, malt syrup
• All products using malt like malt based drink mixes ( Most  of the malt is manufactured from barley)
• Breakfast cereal: Cornflakes, rice krispies and others contain malt flavouring

3. Items made from Rye such as:

• Rye bread
• Rye cracker

Though very popular in many European countries, it is rarely grown or used in India. Do not confuse with Rai seeds, (i.e. sarson/mustard) which are used very often in Indian cooking.

4.Items made from oats such as:

• Oatmeal
• Oat flakes
• Oat porridge

There is ongoing debate about whether oats is safe for gluten free diet or not. (Read more about oats in FAQs )

Gluten can also be present as the source of an ingredient or/and due to cross-contamination.