Are Turkeys Gluten-Free?

This time of year is fun for a lot of people, but those new to the gluten-free diet can become quite confused about what is and is not gluten-free on their holiday dinner table. Having large companies share incorrect information with consumers doesn’t help things either.

In 2006, a very nice Butterball customer service representative told me that since their frozen turkeys contain corn gluten, I should avoid eating them. She suggested I buy fresh turkeys that do not contain corn gluten. At that time, I didn’t know that corn contained gluten and most importantly, I did not know that corn gluten is not one that people with celiac need to avoid. That year we bought a fresh Butterball turkey and realized that we preferred the frozen one. That corn gluten must really make the turkey juicy. Anyway, once I found out that the frozen turkey was also gluten-free, we switched back to those.

Even this year, people are confused about turkeys. So, here is the deal on the label laws regarding meats. The USDA requires that manufacturers list any grain that is added to meat – wheat, rye, barley, etc. The reason for this law was that years ago, companies added a lot of grain to meats to bulk them up if you will. It was deceptive and eventually, the practice led to a law requiring ALL grains to be included in meat labels if they were present.

The USDA law is unlike the FDA law for packaged foods where the only form of gluten that is legally required to be listed is wheat. So, read the label of any turkey brand you like. If it does not list a form of gluten on the label, it’s gluten-free. If you feel better calling the company before buying their product, please do. So far I’ve not run into plain frozen or fresh turkey with gluten, but glazed hams often contain gluten. The exception for turkeys is stuffed turkeys. Those are generally stuffed with gluten bread and you’ll see wheat on the label for those, of course.

Keep in mind that some turkeys come with gravy packets that contain gluten. The ingredients for the turkey and the ingredients for the gravy would both be on the label. Gluten gravy packets can be just thrown out – unless you find one of the newly reformulated gravy packets from Butterball. Read the exciting news about that here!

If you want to read more about the USDA guidelines, here is a Q&A article about ‘natural ingredients’. As you’ll see, in the case of meats, there will never be any form of hidden gluten. If gluten is in the product it is a flavor of any kind, it will be listed in the ingredient label as whatever form of gluten it is.

Have a question about the gluten-free diet which we haven’t covered yet?  You can now submit your questions here! (Note: All medical questions should be directed to your physician)