Here's How To Know If Your Miso Soup Is Gluten-Free

If you're new to gluten-free food, the details can get confusing. Lunch meats can contain gluten in disguise. Rice? Gluten-free, but Kellogg's Rice Krispies? Sweetened with malt syrup, which is made from barley and does contain gluten.

Beer is a no-go since it's made with wheat. But vodka is often made from wheat, and it's usually fine because of the distillation process. Soy-based products can throw you off, too.



Not all soy-based products are gluten-free even though soy itself is safe. Despite its name, most soy sauce contains wheat. So, if you know about the gluten lurking in soy sauce, you might assume that miso soup also contains gluten.

Many types of miso (which are also made from fermented soybeans) don't have gluten. In addition to the soybeans, miso almost always contains some type of grain because it's a key part of the fermentation process. Rice is the most popular grain, but you'll also find miso paste made from barley, buckwheat, millet, wheat, or rye.

Rice, millet, and buckwheat are all gluten-free — but barley, wheat, and rye are not. , so don't miss out if you're on a gluten-free diet; you can safely enjoy many types of this flavorful fermented paste. The type of miso matters Miso paste is made from salt, soybeans, and koji, a particular fungus that grows on grains.

Grains containing koji get mashed into a salt and soybean mixture, which is then left to ferment. The length of time that miso ferments, the amount of koji, and the kind of grain it comes from all play a role in the final flavor. These factors, along with geographical region, help differentiate types of miso, too.

Regions that produce a lot of rice, like northern Japan, favor gluten-free, rice-based miso paste. You'll find more barley-based miso in southern Japan, where barley is a popular crop. Red miso, which can be made with either rice or barley, is quite popular in restaurants.

It has a darker color and a deeper, funkier flavor. White miso paste, or shiro miso, is also very widely used in the United States and it is usually made with rice. Mugi miso will always contain gluten, as it is made with barley.

Mame miso, which is made from soybeans inoculated with koji, should be a safe bet, though. Still, people on strict gluten-free diets need to stay vigilant, as koji isn't the only potential source of gluten. Even if your miso uses gluten-free grains as a base, it might contain other ingredients for added flavor.

Ready-made miso soups or powdered mixes could contain ingredients with gluten for flavor and texture as well. How to find gluten-free miso If you're on a strict gluten-free diet, you're probably very familiar with ingredient lists. But if you're new to the gluten-free world — or cooking miso soup for someone who can't have gluten — you should know your facts.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that manufacturers disclose common allergens (like wheat) on food packaging, but the product may contain trace amounts or other ingredients that do have gluten. Companies must abide by FDA regulations if they do decide to add a gluten-free label, which indicates that the product has less than 20 parts per million of gluten. Until August 2020, many fermented foods, like miso, fell through labeling loopholes.

Now, the FDA has sufficient regulations for labeling fermented foods — so you should be able to trust the gluten-free labels on popular miso brands like Marukome, Hikari, Yuho, and Smart Miso. If the paste doesn't have a clearly marked label, check the ingredient list and proceed with caution. Remember that wheat isn't the only grain with gluten, so wheat-free doesn't necessarily mean gluten-free.

Restaurants are extra tricky. You don't always know what miso you're getting, and many restaurants add soy sauce to miso soup. Even if you ask your server to skip the soy or see a gluten-free label on the menu, watch out.

Restaurant don't have to meet the same FDA standards as pre-packaged food and cross-contamination is common, so it can be challenging to . If you're apprehensive, stick to store-bought miso paste. We promise you can at home.

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