We live in an era of abundant plant-based alternatives to milk. Soy, almond, rice, and oats are all popular sources of non-dairy milk, catering to a much larger customer base than just vegans. Many have acquired a taste for plant-based milk, and once you switch, you often don’t even remember how you ever lived without it. Oat milk, in particular, is incredibly popular among those who love dairy milk’s creamy texture, fullness of flavor, and the way it behaves when steamed for coffee. One of the mistakes to avoid when using oat milk, however, is assuming that this plant milk is automatically gluten-free. The reality is a bit more complicated and depends on individual brands, their labeling, and third-party certifications.
People with celiac disease have to be wary of potential cross-contamination that can happen with oat milk. While oats don’t contain any gluten, they can get contaminated with wheat during the harvest, transport, or production process. Without a specific label or certificate, there’s no guarantee that the oats used to produce a certain oat milk were completely gluten-free; even if nothing glutenous is listed among the ingredients. The FDA does regulate what a gluten-free label means, but it is voluntary for companies to decide whether or not to use it. So it’s best to look for a certified gluten-free oat milk if you need a greater degree of safety.
How is the gluten-free label different from gluten-free certification?
As mentioned, the gluten-free label (not to be mistaken with “gluten friendly”) is regulated by the FDA — according to the agency’s standard, products with the gluten-free label need to contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten. But that doesn’t mean those products are tested before they’re put on the market. In fact, they’re not. If the FDA were to realize that a certain gluten-free-labeled product isn’t complying with the standard, this would happen after the product was already on the store shelves and in consumers’ homes. To be completely fair, in most cases the gluten-free label can be trusted. When the FDA looked at 250 gluten-free-labeled products in 2017, it only found one that didn’t meet the standard. That said, some people’s gluten intolerance is so severe that they need an extra layer of protection, which can be found in the “certified gluten-free” label.
When something is certified gluten-free, it means it was tested by an independent third party before the product hit the market. That’s why the product carries a little stamp from whichever independent organization did the testing. For example, the brands Oatly Original Oat Milk (which you can buy online here) and Chobani Oat Milk Plain Barista Edition (available on Amazon here) are both certified gluten-free in the U.S. Chobani’s third-party certification comes from the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. Oatly’s certification comes from using certified gluten-free oats, but it only applies to the products sold in the U.S., not the ones sold in Europe and Asia.
