The wintery days are still here and the temptation to drink hot chocolate is strong.
Have you been cautioned that hot chocolate drink powders may contain gluten? The powder may not just turn up in your hot chocolate drink, but drinking chocolate powders are also sprinkled over the top of your cappuccino foam, albeit in very small amounts.
There are a variety of reasons to avoid gluten. The best known medical reasons for this are to manage the symptoms of non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, and the symptoms and gut or skin damage, that occurs in those with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.
The majority of drinking chocolates contain coco powder, milk/dairy ingredients and sugar — and are therefore gluten free. This review below indicates it is unlikely to be in your cappuccino topping, but you can ask to read the label or ask your barrister, when you are ordering out, as there are a small number that do contain gluten, usually in the form of malt from barley.
The following information summarizes a number of the drinking chocolate powders on the Australian market.
Let’s start with those that CONTAIN GLUTEN & DAIRY:-
MILO an Australian favourite, (in all of its different tins), contains gluten in the form of Malt Barley or Extract of Malt barley.
OVALTINE chocolate powdered drink, originating in Switzerland, also contains gluten in the form of Barley and Malt Extract.
These hot chocolate flakes by Lindt contain gluten in the form of Barley Malt Extract.
These were the only 3 hot chocolate products I found in my (local) search that contained gluten.
Milo and Ovaltine may be on offer as a hot chocolate, but they are chunky powders, so are less likely to be found in a shaker that is sprinkling powder over your cappuccino. This is re-assuring news. Like-wise, the Lindt product is flakes of milk chocolate that you stir into hot water or milk. You should not find these in a shaker poised over your cappuccino.
Hot Chocolate powders that are GLUTEN FREE and CONTAIN DAIRY include:-
Most hot chocolate powders do contain dairy. The products that follow could all be possibilities for sprinkling on your cappuccino at the coffee shop. When I checked them, they were gluten free by ingredient. You can always check with your barrister if concerned.
GLUTEN FREE AND DAIRY FREE drinking chocolate powders include:-
Some declare a ‘May Contain’ statement for dairy and soy, so please always read the labels when you purchase a product, as they may have changed from when this article was compiled. Avoid or not, according to your tolerances or allergies.
