Are you a fan of Wendy’s restaurants? Wendy’s has been widely successful over the years due to their great tasting foods, but did you know that its menu includes a number of gluten-free items as well?
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Here at Celiac-Disease.com, we’ve managed to research and verify the following items at Wendy’s are indeed gluten-free and safe to eat:
Wendy’s Gluten-Free Menu
Wendy’s Meats:
- Hamburger Patty
- Ultimate Grill Chicken Fillet+
Wendy’s Condiments:
- American Cheese
- Buttery Best Spread
- Natural Swiss Cheese
- Cheddar Cheese Sauce
- Bacon
- Lettuce
- Tomato
- Onion
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Honey Mustard Sauce
- Special Thousand Island Sauce*
- Tartar Sauce*
- Dill Pickles
- Ranch Sauce
- Reduced Fat Sour Cream*
Wendy’s Baked Potatoes:
- Plain
- Sour Cream & Chives
- Bacon & Cheese*
- Broccoli & Cheese*
- Chili & Cheese*
Wendy’s Salads:
- Caesar Side Salad (without croutons)
- Garden Side Salad (without croutons)
- Baha Salad – Seasoned Tortilla Strips+
Wendy’s Side Items:
- Chili
- Hot Chili Seasoning Packet
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Mandarin Orange Cup
Wendy’s Beverages:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Coca-Cola®
- Diet Coke®
- Sprite®
- Barq’s Root Beer*
- Coke Zero®*
- Dr. Pepper*
- Fanta® Orange*
- Hi-C® Flashin’ Fruit Punch*
- Minute Maid®Light Lemonade*
- Pibb Xtra*
- Dasani® Water*
- Nesquik® Low Fat Chocolate Milk
- Nesquik® Low Fat White Milk
Wendy’s Dressings:
- Avocado Ranch Dressing*
- Classic Ranch Dressing*
- Italian Vinaigrette Dressing*
- Creamy Red Jalapeno Dressing*
- Fat-Free French Dressing*
- Light Classic Ranch Dressing*
- Lemon Garlic Caesar Dressing*
- Pomegranate Vinaigrette Dressing*
- Thousand Island Dressing*
Wendy’s Frostys™:
- Chocolate FrostyTM
- Vanilla FrostyTM
- Coffee Toffee Twisted FrostyTM
- M&M’s® Twisted FrostyTM
- Chocolate Fudge Frosty Shake
- Strawberry Frosty Shake
- Vanilla Bean Frosty Shake
Wendy’s Dipping Sauces:
- BBQ Nugget Sauce
- Sweet & Sour Nugget Sauce
- Honey Mustard Nugget Sauce
- Honey Nugget Sauce*
- Wild Buffalo Ranch Sauce*
- Heartland Ranch Sauce
* – Certain menu items may vary from store to store and may not be available at all locations.
+ – Contains maltodextrin.
As always, when dining out gluten-free, do your due diligence and make sure the staff understands your needs. There are very few restaurants that are 100% gluten-free, so cross-contamination is always a risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with what you are hearing from the staff, perhaps it is best to dine elsewhere.
For information about other gluten-free restaurants menus, check out our gluten-free restaurants page.
Are they certain the Blue Cheese dressing is GF? It is usually “started” by rolling french bread in the culture, and it grows into cheese from there. All veined cheeses are on the “don’t eat” list.
The tests in 1991 and the latest one done by the CCA (Canadian organization) have shown blue cheese to be safe for people who can’t eat gluten. Even the varieties started with bread mold tested at less than 20 ppm for gluten 😉
the only CHICKEN that is GLUTEN-FREE at Wendy’s is the Ultimate Chicken Grill Fillet. The chicken used in all other recipes contains wheat. Here’s a link to the detailed nutrition guide. It gives you everything you need to know about everything they serve: http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf
The french fries are GF as well. They’re cooked in their own fryer to avoid CC issues.
Careful- the fries ARE NOT gluten free! Check out the above link- it is really helpful.
The fries are definitely not GF! I am sick as heck this afternoon! Glad I found this site so I will know beforehand in the future! Thanks
Rosie – sorry you were not aware before that the Wendy’s fries are made in the same fryer with their gluten items. I get a baked potato there (only if traveling with no other good options for a quick stop) and I tell them not to cut it. This way, at least I know the potato is perfectly fine to eat. It is unreasonable for us to think people working in the fast food industry (including store managers) know what gluten even is. After all, most U.S. docs don’t even know much about celiac disease.
Some locations do have GF fries because they do have a separate deep frier for their fries. You have to verify with each location individually. Here in South Bend, the location I visit they are and the employees are very careful with my order.
I worked at Wendys for a few years. The fries ARE NOT gluten free. They ARE NOT cooked in their own fryer. They are cooked in the same fryers with the same oil that the nuggets and breaded chicken breasts are cooked in.
Just returned from Wendy’s. Which of the new salads are Gluten Free??????
I used to enjoy the SW Taco Salad.
I would love to know why Wendy’s only sells the grilled chicken sandwich as a whole sandwich. At Burger King you can purchase the chicken patty alone. The managers at Wendys are not very pleasant. Most people don’t understand the allergy but the manager should be more understanding. Wendy’s should train the managers to have more knowledge w/the food safety issues.
Wendy’s does not consider their fries to be gluten-free because they don’t have a dedicated fryer for the fries there. It has been established that most (if not all) blue cheeses are gluten-free, regardless of how they were started (with or without bread mold). The Canadian study on this type of cheese was first done in 1991 and in 1992 blue cheese was listed as “allowed” on the gf diet. The test was recently redone to prove that blue cheese is safe for those with celiac. http://www.glutenfreediet.ca/img/bluecheese.pdf Many restaurants still don’t know the deal on blue cheese so they just say it’s not gluten-free without checking into the particular brand they carry.
Not sure the Cheddar Cheese Sauce used in the Broccoli/Cheese Baked Potato is GF…. I am sick as a dog! The label does contain Modified Food Starch, but no specifics for the makeup ingredients. I, for one, won’t try it again!!!!
CJ – sorry you got sick, but I double checked the Wendy’s updated menu (and made changes in the above post to note them) and that baked potato is still listed as gluten-free. Their fries are not gluten-free, but I’m assuming you didn’t have those 😉
love wendys gluten free menu! get a baked potatoe and chilli all the time-yums!
Jenn i LOVE there Baked potatoe and chilli all the time also YUMMMMMMMMMMMY 😉
My husband and son went to the local Wendy’s and asked what they have that is gluten-free. The person at the counter looked at them like they were from another planet. Eventually they directed them to some posters in the hallway that showed a few items along with the ingredients. My son was able to get a bowl of chili. It seems to me that even people working in fast-food should be educated enough to at least know what gluten is.
i find that all people are basically stupid.i do not care for when they pretend to be knowledgable.
never believe anything anyone says
You are definitely right, I said to a girl at Mcdonalds does your ice cream cone made out of gluten or is it made out of corn and she also looked at us like we were from another planet. She said it probably wouldn’t have gluten and then she asked me why and I said I will get very sick and she looked at me in horror and then she said YES it does contain gluten.
Life is a (word removed by admin.) end of story!
No kitchen in a restaurnt keeps designted fryers. The manager might say they do but they are not the ones cookin your food. Most cooks don’t care or have the time to deal with that. Whatever fryer is open they will use. So beware of any product cooked in a fryer. U will get sick 95% of the time. I’m new to the gluten free diet, but have cooked for last 4 years.
That’s not true. McDonald’s fries are made in a dedicated frier. I worked there and worked the fry station many a time.
Not anymore they said it on the news even tho they have a dedicated fryer they are not gf. Here is a link http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/28504-mcdonalds-french-fries/
According to the new Wendy’s that opened up in my area, they have more fryers because they are a newly built. The manager said the fries are fried in one fryer and the breaded items in another. I will be sure to double check to make sure they don’t rotate the use of the fryers, but she seemed to be very certain that they were not.
jj14- That is fantastic! The only fast food fries I used to like were Wendy’s so I’ve not had them in five years. My locations definitely don’t have a ded. fryer for fries and your location is the first one I’ve heard of that does. Do you mind saying where the store is so that others in the area will know where to find safe fries?
I have been told a few times at restaurants that even with a dedicated fryer, the fried items are kept right next to each other after they are fried. So even though they are in separate bins, when they are rushing and packing foods, a breaded item often falls into the bin with the fries. Its very difficult or impossible to guarantee against cross contamination in fried fast foods.
A lot of mainstream restaurants have dedicated fryers. Even the McDonalds I worked at 20 years ago did (and still does). Fries and hash browns had their own vats at their own temperature that was never used for anything else.
The chili is NOT gluten free. I got sick after eating it to find a posting that said the chili packet they use to put in there has wheat in it.
Do they put that packet in it or give it to you to choose to use it?
I just ate lunch at Wendys thinking that the apple pecan chicken salad was gluten free-WRONG!!! Now my tummy is mad at me. I am new to this after nearly 2 year of being sick. It’s a relief to finally know the culprit but so frustrating navigating my way through. I hope this warns someone to avoid this salad!
So very sick today…thought that Wendy’s fries were safe…I should have known better!
Having worked in fast food in my 20’s, I would NEVER trust a fast food restaurant to avoid cross contamination. One of the favorite hobbies of the late-night staff during dead time was to toss random things into the fryers to see what happened to them (ice cream cones, pickles, cookies, etc.). During busy times there was no hesitation in grabbing a handfull of fries or assembling a salad with crumbs on your hands. I’m sure staff drop bread products or crumbs into the chili all the time and just shrug it off, unless they personally know someone with Celiac. These are kids making minimum wage; not chefs who take pride in the quality or purity of their food.
Arby’s has ALOT of hidden allergens in their food. If you are allergic to food preservatives do NOT eat any dipping sauce OR breaded items that they serve. My son is red 40 and the idiot managers there didn’t even know that the cherry turnovers that they sell (Pepperidge Farm brand by the way) contain Red 40 in the filling! As for gluten free unless it’s grilled or salad I wouldn’t trust it from Arby’s. Their deli meats DO contain wheat product in many of them. I used to work at an Arby’s in college is how I found this out. It’s amazing how ignorant people that serve this stuff are to food allergies. I still get goofy looks when I tell them “no mayo” because I have an allergy to a preservant in their commercial mayonnaise. People that don’t live with food allergies or that don’t have children that deal with these issues don’t get it.. at all. It should be REQUIRED job training for all employees to go through.
Four years ago I asked a manager if I could eat the French fries. She looked it up and told me “NO”. Even she didn’t know this. The potatoes are coated with wheat flour before they are frozen so that they will all brown to the same color in the fryer.
When the new All Natural French fries came out, I asked a manager again. He checked and told me that he would not sell me any.
I eat at Wendy’s a least twice a month. I order a baked potato with sour cream and chives but not butter, a small chili with the hot sauce but no crackers, and a large chocolate Frosty. Yum!
Just go to FIVE GUYS –fries are COMPLETELY GF-made in Peanut Oil-DELISH!!!!!!!!!!!
How about the new strawberry grilled chicken salads?
Are the fries gluten free
Wendy’s Frosty is not gluten free because it has malt in it.
I knew it. There had to be a reason for my muscle spasms and back pain today. The baconator fries!!
Why can’t we buy gluten free french fries at Wendy’s
Wendy’s soft serve ice cream is on their gf list, and typically ice cream is gf. I am not dairy intolerant and have always enjoyed their ice cream, but i’m Afraid last night is the last time. For some reason I have my typical gluten reaction when I eat it and it really is not fun. Soooo, good-bye to Wendy’s ice cream:(.