Gluten Free Cheerios Coming Soon!
My kids eat Cheerios every day, and every day I miss eating them! I’m gluten sensitive, so I haven’t had Cheerios in a very long time. Gluten free oats are available in stores, and there other brands of O-shaped cereal, but I have missed Cheerios. So I was very excited to hear that Big G Cereals will roll out gluten free Cheerios starting in July 2015!
UPDATE: Check out my review of the new gluten-free Cheerios, which includes a summary of all of the controversy, including whether or not they are truly gluten free!
The five flavors going gluten free are Original Cheerios, Honey Nut, Multi-Grain, Apple Cinnamon and Frosted. Sometimes when companies make products gluten free, the formulas change so they are not quite the same. However, Big G does not have to change the formula for four of the five Cheerios flavors. This is because they claim to have developed a way to remove the small amounts of gluten – in the form of wheat, rye and barley – from their whole oats supply. Oats themselves do not contain gluten, but the way they are processed in the U.S. introduces gluten into the supply from cross-contamination through harvesting, storing and transportation of the oats. Gluten can be inadvertently added from the harvesting equipment, storage silos and trucks, which previously handled gluten-containing grains.
With this process, the manufacturer says that their oat supply will be able to meet the FDA’s guidelines for gluten free. Because the formulas will not change for those four flavors, the company claims that the product will taste the same. I certainly hope so! There seems to be some concern in the gluten free community about this new process for removing gluten from the oat supply. I guess we will have to see if gluten-sensitive people have any reactions to the new gluten free Cheerios. The multi-grain formula will be changed to include millet and sorghum, which sounds delicious to me. The gluten free Cheerios will be clearly labeled and will not replace the original Cheerios flavors.
So will you try the gluten free Cheerios when they hit the market? If they don’t contain hidden soy (which they very well may, in the form of mixed tocopherols), I will try them. Someday soy won’t be in EVERYTHING. Years ago, I never imagined that gluten would be removed from major products like Cheerios, but that’s happening a lot now. So I hold out hope that manufacturers will eliminate soy from their products in the future.
Let me know what you think about the gluten free Cheerios. And if you want to try something else for breakfast, give my Allergy Friendly Granola or Quick Breakfast Balls recipes a shot. Thanks for reading!
UPDATE: Check out my review of the new gluten-free Cheerios, which includes a summary of all of the controversy, including whether or not they are truly gluten free!
