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Review: Gluten-Free Cheese Crackers

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Cheez-It crackers were one of my favorite crackers when I was growing up. As an adult, I tended to buy gourmet type cheese straws, but if someone was serving Cheez-It crackers, I’d definitely nosh on them. After an extensive two year search, I found the best gluten-free version of a Cheez-It I’ve had to date, but the bakery that made them discontinued them. They were really fabulous and still rank number one in my book.

There are several gluten-free cheese crackers worth trying. Only two of them are items I’ve bought more than once, but everyone has different tastes. Aside from the discontinued crackers, The Grainless Baker has the best cheese crackers around. At least that’s true of the brands I’ve tried. Their Cheddar Snackers are delicious! The old version was more like a cheese straw (except for the shape) and the new version is more like a gourmet crispy cheese cracker.

Glutino makes cheese crackers which to me don’t have a very cheesy flavor. I’m a cheese snob of sorts and I think that I’m a cheese cracker snob too. Many people love the Glutino Cheese Crackers and when I tasted them, I thought I’d purchased the plain version by mistake. By contrast, the Glutino Vegetable Crackers are divine. Interestingly, they look like a cheese cracker due to the tomatoes in them.

Recently, when heading into town to meet a friend for lunch, I realized I would drive right by Return to Eden so I popped in quickly to pick up the Schar Cheese Bites. I’d heard good things about them and I enjoy many items from the Italian company. Their gluten-free pasta is divine! The small bag of Schar cheese crackers was kind of pricey, but right in line with other gluten-free cracker prices.

When I opened the Schar crackers, I noticed there were different shapes of them. I thought about how nice they would look in a serving dish for a party. If only the snack tasted as good as it looked. It was the fourth best gluten-free cheese cracker I’ve had, though it runs circles around the Glutino version. However, it was not good enough for me to buy again. There is an unpleasant aftertaste that I can’t quite finger. I’m hoping to use up the rest of the bag in a recipe that calls for cheese cracker crumbs. Otherwise, I’ll have to give them away because my husband doesn’t like crackers of any kind.

I’ve made these cheese straws before with the all-purpose flour from gluten-free Pantry and they were phenomenal. They’re a great option for a party. When only one person in the house eats crackers they are not a reasonable option to make as they do not freeze well. The Kitchen Table Bakers Cheese Crisps are absolutely superb and I’m looking forward to trying the smaller size crisps they recently released.

It’s wonderful to have so many gluten-free cheese cracker options, but for now, the gluten-free Cheez-It still eludes me. If anyone knows of another gluten-free cheese cracker (that I don’t have to make myself), I’d love to hear about it!

Review: Trader Joe’s Baked Cheese Crunchies

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When I was growing up, Cheetos were my favorite snack. We had those value packs that included various Frito-Lay products in the house at all times. As an adult, I was more likely to indulge in potato chips and onion dip than Cheetos, but when I was diagnosed with celiac I was relieved to find out that Cheetos were indeed gluten-free.

Shortly after I started eating gluten-free, I figured out (with the help of a gluten-eating friend) that MSG didn’t like me anymore. I’m sure I ate more than my fair share of the additive without issue for years. However, it’s common for people who start eating clean (consuming mostly whole foods and items made with real ingredients) to react to additives that didn’t bother them before. It was unfortunate when I found out that Cheetos had MSG in them. Eventually, a healthier version of Cheetos came out, but they were not the same as the original version for obvious reasons.

Frito-Lay Cheetos are still gluten-free and there are many Cheetos-type products on the market that are labeled gluten-free that don’t contain MSG. I’ve tried most of them and haven’t been blown away enough to purchase any of the products again. So, naturally, when I noticed the gluten-free (or ‘g’ symbol) on something that looked like Cheetos at Trader Joes, I threw the bag in the cart. It wasn’t until after I got home that I found out that the product was marked as reduced fat or something to that effect.

Not surprisingly, the Baked Cheese Crunchies were not very good. They tasted a little like low-fat Cheetos. The snack was dry and not very cheesy, despite the very Cheetos-like color. It’s a good thing that overall the snack is fairly healthy, but if something doesn’t taste good, it’s not for me. Life is too short to eat food you don’t like whether you can eat gluten or not.

I’m actually glad that the Trader Joe’s snack didn’t appeal to me. After a previous shopping trip where I’d picked up multiple bags of chip-type snacks, my husband asked if I was planning on opening a 7-Eleven store. Yes, I need another snack food like I need a hole in the head. Gluten-free chips and snacks are not hard to come by these days. Some are labeled gluten-free and some are not but either way, there is definitely something to appeal to everyone.

Review: Glutino Gluten-Free Donuts

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 5 Comments

Glutino has joined Kinnikinnick in making gluten-free donuts recently. I hadn’t seen them in any local store until the other day when I was in Whole Foods. I had a hard time deciding between the original glazed & the chocolate glazed, but ended up leaving with the chocolate glazed variety.

The donuts were just over $5 for 6 donuts, which is comparable to the Kinnikinnick donuts. You can imagine Jon’s surprise when I came home with donuts for him. His teeth were really sore from getting his braces tightened, so a warm, soft donut was just the thing to make him feel better.

Jon ooohed & aaahed his way through the donut & promptly asked for another one. That, I had to deny. He said the donuts were awesome, but not as good as the Kinnikinnick donuts. The Glutino variety don’t seem to be as dense as the Kinnikinnick donuts, so perhaps he just prefers them more dense? The taste & texture were good and not crumbly at all. They still have a cake-like appearance, but seem to be more airy, if that makes sense. Of course now we must buy the original variety the next time we make a trip to Whole Foods.

Glutino has been around since 1983 and has been providing gluten-free foods to those with celiac disease, gluten intolerance, wheat allergies and those who follow a gluten-free or wheat-free diet ever since. They currently offer more than 80 gluten-free products!

Glutino products can be purchase in stores across the US or online from various sources. Some of those sources include Gluten Solutions, Glutenfree.com, and Amazon.com. Some of the past reviews that have been shared here at Celiac-Disease.com are Glutino Bars, Glutino Chocolate & Yogurt Covered Pretzels, and Glutino Cookies & Candy Bars.

Have you had a chance to sample the new Glutino Donuts yet? How did they rate in your book?

Review: Glutino Gluten-Free Bars

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 3 Comments

When I opened the breakfast bars, I saw the marking on the box top that states “GLUTEN/WHEAT FREE, EGG, CASEIN, MILK FREE, CHOLESTEROL FREE, LOW FAT”. After reading that, I’ll admit I was a little worried that maybe the bars would not taste very good. I tried the same item several years ago and wasn’t impressed at all. The bars have been reformulated since then and have been getting rave reviews since the change occurred. I really wanted to like the bars because there they contain 12% of the RDA of fiber and 3 grams of protein. As bars go, these are pretty decent from a nutritional standpoint.

My favorite flavor of the four bars we tried was strawberry with apple following close behind. At one point, we started talking about trying to fry the apple bar to see if we could make a fried apple turnover, but we decided against it. It’s highly likely that the thing would fall apart if I dropped it in hot oil, but it sure would be nice to have an (almost) ready-made gluten-free apple turnover. If anyone knows that such a product exists, please tell us about it!

If you look at the photo on the box of Glutino Breakfast Bars, it looks like a lot of fruit filling is inside the pastry shell. When you open a bar and bite into it, you won’t find that much filling. I remarked that the photo was not true to what the actual product is like and my husband reminded me that the same thing can be said of Nutrigrain gluten bars. He’s right, of course. The good news is that even though there is not nearly enough fruit filling for my personal taste, both the outside and inside of the bar are quite tasty. The difference between the new bars and the ones I tried long ago is like night and day. It’s that dramatic a difference.

Glutino products are made in a dedicated gluten-free facility. The only allergen disclaimer on the box of bars is “may contain traces of soy”. These bars would be great for travel or to keep in an “emergency food kit” in the car. Since the filling might seep out of the end of the bars in extreme heat, it might be best not to store the bars in the car during the hot summer months.

When ‘May Contain Wheat’ Means Gluten-Free

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

For some reason, I was in the mood for white acre field peas recently so I put them on the grocery list. My husband does the basic (not specialty gluten-free) shopping at our house and he’s usually really good about avoiding gluten-containing products. He reads labels as well as any gluten-free expert. I’m usually the one who comes home with something that has wheat in it by mistake – not my husband.

As I was putting away the groceries, I quickly glanced at the back of the white acre pea can because I was not familiar with the brand Margaret Holmes. Imagine my surprise to see the words “MAY CONTAIN ALLERGENS: WHEAT (WHEAT GLUTEN)” under the ingredients which included only “fresh white acre peas, water, salt”. How in the heck would they get wheat into this product? My husband actually said he’d return the cans to the store, but I told him to hold off on that because I was pretty sure the peas were gluten-free.

The next morning I called the company that distributes the Margaret Holmes brand, McCall Farms, and was quickly put through to the quality assurance manager. This rarely happens so I was pretty impressed that the company had such a person on hand to address a consumer’s allergen concerns. The manager was not only very knowledgeable about gluten, but he also explained the whole process of how “may contain wheat” made its way onto a can of peas (that don’t even contain seasoning except for salt).

The FDA law regarding labeling all forms of wheat on labels of items sold in the U.S. went into effect in January 2006. When that happened, many companies went a bit overboard and started adding disclaimers to anything that was produced in a gluten-containing plant. McCall Farms planned to make a final decision about those types of disclaimers when the FDA finally ruled on what gluten-free labeling actually means. Like most of us, the companies thought the ruling was being finalized in August 2008, but that never happened.

As we all know, over two years later there is still no permanent decision by the FDA on this matter. Margaret Holmes white acre field peas are gluten-free and have been from day one. The company has sent them out for testing even though the product is not even labeled gluten-free in the first place. Due to the lack of a ruling by the FDA regarding gluten-free labels, the company might revamp its labels again, removing disclaimers that don’t actually belong on the products.

So, the next time you see something crazy on a label like “ingredients: pineapple, water” and the words may contain wheat underneath, you might want to think twice before passing the product up. Seriously, this is getting a bit ridiculous and if the FDA would just get off the fence and determine what gluten-free actually means in the U.S., many of these overly-zealous disclaimers would disappear.