I like to chew Sugar-free chewing gum. What brands are safe? Any that are definitely not?

thanks in advance,
Geoff

I can't remember ever finding a gum that isn't safe, except maybe Aloids (??). I know Wrigley's has always said of their gums are gluten-free.

richard

ditto on the altoids being not safe, but other than that i haven' found one yet, if anyone else has, please let us know!!

Are all the Altoid products unsafe?

Thanks, Stephanie

From the Wrigley's website:

Do your products contain gluten?
The following is a list of U.S. Wrigley products that are free of any wheat, oat, rye or barley gluten:

Wrigley's Spearmint® gum, Freedent® gum, Doublemint® gum, Extra® gum, Big Red® gum, Eclipse® gum, Juicy Fruit® gum, Winterfresh® gum, Orbit® gum, Orbit® White gum, Hubba Bubba® gum, Altoids® Sours, Altoids® Mints, Altoids® Gum, Lifesavers® and Cremesavers®.

I chew trident sugar free all the time. Here is what their website says

Is Trident® gluten-free?
Trident®does not contain Gluten.



Hez

I don't know if they have changed their ingredients, but the last time I looked altoids gum had gluten in it. They may have changed the ingredients since I looked.

haha! I found a new one that isn't!
it's... some sort of cube thing, and has a endothermic reaction to make the first few chews make your mouth cold...
Oh, here it is: Hershey's Ice Breakers Ice Cubes, at least the Dragon Fruit Flavor. The wheat is listed right on the ingredients, and yes, I did get bitten by not checking first!

i am sure wrigleys contains gum arabic or thickener which is not allowed for a gluten free diet?

i am sure wrigleys contains gum arabic or thickener which is not allowed for a gluten free diet?

Gum arabic is ok. Thickener I guess would depend on what it's made out of.

so is wrigley gum ok to eat for a gluten free diet as they say in this post that wrigleys r saying its gluten free,but does contain thickener anyone know what this thickener is made out of?

they say they use cornstarch i believe, i talked to them a while back maybe in 07. They are very friendly and helpful.

The safest would be a certified gluten-free brand such as Verve Glee. However, here is some info I snagged from Bette Hagges guide to help you recognize hiddeng gluten ingredients.

Grains are used in the processing of many ingredients, so it will be necessary to seek out hidden gluten. The following terms found in food labels may mean that there is gluten in the product.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), unless made from soy or corn
Flour or Cereal products, unless made with pure rice flour, corn flour, potato flour, or soy flour
Vegetable Protein unless made from soy or corn
Malt or Malt Flavoring unless derived from corn
Modified Starch or Modified Food Starch unless arrowroot, corn, potato, tapioca, waxy maize, or maize is used
Vegetable Gum unless vegetable gums are carob bean gum, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, guar gum, gum arabic, gum aracia, gum tragacanth, xanthan gum, or vegetable starch
Soy Sauce or Soy Sauce Solids unless you know they do not contain wheat
Any of the following words on food labels usually means that a grain containing gluten has been used

stabilizer
starch
flavoring
emulsifier
hydrolyzed plant protein

Altoids mints (reglaur) are safe and gluten-free. Their mini- sugar free Altoids have "wheat malto-dextrin", some say it doesnt matter the source of the maltodextrin because of all of the processing...but i just stay away.

Not sure if the Altoids gum is gluten-free.

I haven't read all this thread sorry, but i found this today so wanted to post to the original question on gum....not sure about the sugar free tho.

Gluten Free Wrigley and Orbit Gum
By Kyle Eslick
Gum is one of those foods that most people really don’t think about whether it is gluten free or not, because most of them are naturally gluten free. Recently Erin of Gluten Free Fun took the time to contact Wrigley gum and confirm ...
Celiac-Disease.com - http://celiac-disease.com/

judy in philly

My brother works for Farley-Sathers which owns the rainblo gum factory in Canada as well as the Mexican company canelas which makes the little chiclets type gum in wrappers of 5.

They buy raw materials from a number of different countries and suppliers. And sometimes the candy is made in one place but packaged for sale in a place that just does packaging and therefore does many different products at any one time.

My brother says they follow legal labelling practices, but truly cannot guarantee gluten free (or other allergen free) products because there are way too many places in the production and processing procedures where something can cross contaminate.

Gum base is a good example. They get it from many suppliers. Some has gluten and some doesn't but they are not required by law to specify the ingredients in the gum base itself. Partly because it is not meant to be "ingested." Tricky. Chewing their gum is a crap-shoot for us :-)

In a similar vein, gumball from penny machines are not a guaranteed safe thing either.

Sorry bro.

I called wrigley's regarding eclipse and she assured me that eclipse was gluten-free

Some sugar free products contain certain alcohols (like sorbitol) that when consumed in large quantities can cause stomach unhappiness.

Here is a list that has snacks that are gluten free..



*Absolutely everything on this list must be checked (as usual), because ingredients can (and do) change frequently and without notice!*

SNACKS
(Also see snack list)
Lays STAXX (All flavors)
Ruffles Regular potato chips
Dorito Rollitos
Mission Tortilla chips
Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn
Act II popcorn (except extreme butter)
Jiffy Pop Popcorn
Crunch ‘n Munch
Jell-O Brand gelatin and pudding snacks
Del Monte Pudding Cups
French’s Potato Sticks
Oscar Mayer Beef Hot Dogs
Oreida French Fries
Old Wisconsin Beef sticks
Hormel Pepperoni

FRUIT SNACKS
Kroger’s Fruit snacks
Nabisco Fruit snacks
General Mills Fruit Snacks
Farley’s Brand gummy bears
Favorite Brand gummy and fruit
Fruit to Go (SunRype)
Trolli Gummi Candies—all
Fruit by the foot
Sunkist Fruit Rolls
Sun-Maid Raisins
Welches Fruit snacks

JUICE BOXES
Mott’s — all
Minute Maid — all
Del Monte
Juicy Juice — all
Capri Sun
Hawaiian Punch
KoolAid — all
Northland 100% Juice
Welches juices — all
Libby’s — all

DRINKS
Coke, Sprite, Minute Maid
Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist
7-Up, A&W Root Beer, Country Time
Big K brand soft drinks
Snapple — all
Crystal Lite

ICE CREAM NOVELTIES
Flintstones Push-ups
Dole Fruit N Juice Bars
Edy’s/Dreyers Fruit Bars
Koolaid Freezer pops
Nestle’s Popsicles
Starburst Fruit Juice Bars
Minute Maid Fruit juice bar
Good Humor Popsicles
Fla-Vor-Ice

ICE CREAM
Vanilla, Chocolate & Chocolate chip are usually safe - avoid obvious ingredients
Baskin Robbins
Edy’s Grand
Edy’s Homemade
Ben & Jerry’s
Blue Bell
Blue Bunny
TCBY
Cool Whip
Dairy Queen
Dreyers

CHOCOLATE CANDY
Hershey’s Kisses & Hugs
Hershey’s milk chocolate bars (except crispy or cookie)
Hershey’s Nuggets (except cookie)
M&M’s (except crispy)
Nestle Butterfinger BB’s
Nestle Chunky
Raisinets
Reese’s Peanut Butter cups
3 Musketteers
Baby Ruth
Butterfinger
Snickers
Clark Bars
Dove
York Peppermint Patties

CHEWY CANDY
Flavor Rolls—all
Jellybelly jellybeans
Tootsie Rolls—all
Starburst Fruit Chews
Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews
Double Bubble — all
Wrigley’s chewing gum — all
Trident gum — all
Skittles
Milk Duds
Airheads
Big League Chewing Gum
Bubble Yum — all
Chicklets
Dentyne Gum — all
Haribo Gummies
Sharie’s Candies Gummies
Trolli Gummies
Gold Medal Cotton Candy

HARD CANDY & SUCKERS
Charms—all
Farley’s hard candies
SweeTarts
Spree
BitOHoney
Spangler DumDum Pops
Tootsie Pops
Extreme Pops
LifeSaver’s—all
Jolly Rancher Hard Candy & Lollipops
Topps Ring Pops
Pez
Smarties
Wonka: Bottlecaps, Gobstoppers, Pixie Stix, Shock Tarts, Tart ‘N Tiny, Fun Dip (Lik-M-Aid), Laffy taffy, Nerds, Runts, Tangy Taffy, Nips
Haviland (Necco) Candy Stix

SEASONAL CANDY

Christmas
Spangler candy canes

Valentine
Spangler DumDum pops
Spangler Picture Pops
Necco Conversation Hearts
Elmers Small Talk Conversation Hearts
Luv Pops

Easter
Spangler picture pops
JustBorn Marshmallow peeps
JustBorn Jelly Beans
Halloween
Farley’s candy corn
Spangler picture pops
Jelly Belly candy corn