Do you ever wonder, "is bacon gluten free"? Does it even matter if there is gluten free bacon? Of course it does! People have special dietary restrictions and we're aiming to broaden their options.
Bacon is one of the world's most popular and most loved food because of its salty goodness—despite the dripping grease that comes from it. It'd be really unfair if those who couldn't have gluten products missed out on such a savory, flavor-enhancing stripe of deliciousness.
Is Bacon Gluten Free Or Nah?
Breaking News! According to Urban Taste Bud, bacon is gluten free—it has a list of bacon companies to prove it. A majority of the mainstream companies like Boar's Head, Butterball and Oscar Mayer are gluten free.
Bacon is only made out of pork belly, pepper, salt, sugar, spices, smoke flavor, and nitrates: no gluten products. However, some companies cannot make any guarantees because of potential cross-contamination between equipment or processing facilities shared with gluten products.
Apparently, the smoke flavor used in some bacon products contain barley malt powder—a powder formed from malted grains. This is why they can’t guarantee if it's 100 percent gluten free. If you do see bacon labeled gluten free, but containing malt, avoid it. You can call the company's customer service line for assistance. Also, check the label for other seasonings and spice mixes to verify that you can eat it. We don't need people getting sick or having allergic reactions.
If you visit most company websites, they'll list which products are gluten free and which are not. For example, Hormel lists all their products in the "not gluten free" or the "gluten free" category.
Change Is Coming!
Is bacon gluten free? For the most part, yes. You know what this means, right?
You get some bacon. I get some bacon. We all get some bacon!
This means your salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes just got more savory. Your taste buds will love you for this, I promise.
This is a huge gamechanger because those who are on restricted diets now have a new option. You can add bacon to any meal or eat it by itself without having to worry about breaking your dietary rules. You'll just have to worry about the labels, sadly.
Now that we don't have to ask ourselves, "is bacon gluten free?", we can go buy some and treat our taste buds. Just be sure to check the label and read the ingredient listing thoroughly.