Are Tostitos Gluten-free?

Find out if your favorite brand of tortilla chips, Tostitos, is safe for a gluten-free diet. Plus which flavors and varieties are gluten-free.

If you’ve been finding yourself grabbing a bag of chips for watching the big game on the weekend, for Taco Tuesday during the week, or as a quick option to bring to a friend’s house when they ask you to bring something to share, you’re not alone.

We eat plenty of tortilla chips in my house for all these reasons and more!

If you’re like me and avoid gluten and are following a gluten-free diet, you may be wondering if this brand of tortilla chips contains gluten.

After all, gluten can hide in a lot of different foods – particularly processed foods.

That’s why in this post, we’re going to discuss Tostitos and find out what this name brand of tortilla chips are made of, what varieties they come in, and if they are safe for folks who are following a gluten-free diet.

If you have a preference for Tostitos tortilla chips over other brands and want to know how it will fit into a gluten-free diet, this post is for you!

What are Tostitos?

Tostitos are a name brand of tortilla chips. They are made by the Frito-Lay company and are available at most grocery stores and convenience stores that sell chips.

Tostitos come in a variety of different flavors and options, including their Scoops line, various flavors of tortilla chips, and some “healthy” options, like their Baked and Simply Organic lines.

Tostitos also makes a variety of dips for their chips, including different flavors of salsa, spinach dip, and cheese dips.

What are the ingredients in Tostitos chips?

According to the Tostitos website, the ingredients found in their Tostitos Original Restaurant Style chips are “corn, vegetable oil (corn, canola and/or sunflower oil), and salt.”

Other varieties of Tostitos may contain other ingredients, but these are the basic ingredients in most varieties of this brand of chips.

What is gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in most wheat products, and acts as the “glue” that helps to hold wheat, barley, kamut, spelt, farro, durum, bulgur, rye, and semolina together to maintain their shape.

You can find gluten in whole grains, but also in many processed foods as well. If you purchase wheat bread, there will be gluten in it, because wheat by nature has gluten.

Many processed foods have hidden gluten in them in the form of gluten or wheat derivatives. These are also in the form of flavorings, binders to keep ingredients together, or other additives.

What flavors and varieties do Tostitos come in?

Tostitos brand of tortilla chips come a variety of flavors and options. Here are their current offerings as found on their website.

Tostitos Baked Scoops Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Bite Size Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Cantina Thin & Crispy Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Cantina Traditional Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Crispy Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Original Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Reduced Fat Crispy Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Scoops! Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Simply Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Simply Organic Scoops!® Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Simply Organic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Strips Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Hearty Dippers
Tostitos Thick & Hearty Rounds Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Football Shaped Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Hint of Guacamole Flavored Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Hint of Lime Flavored Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Multigrain Scoops!® Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Salsa Verde Flavored Tortilla Chips

Are tortilla chips gluten-free?

Since tortilla chips are made from corn tortillas, and these are most always gluten-free, we can confidently say that most tortilla chips are gluten-free.

Depending on what other flavorings are added or other ingredients are added to the chips, they may not be gluten-free.

You’ll want to look for a gluten-free label, which indicates there is less than 20ppm of gluten in the product as required by the FDA, before purchasing.

Read on: Gluten-free tortilla chips

According to the Frito-Lay website, most of the chips from Tostitos are considered gluten-free. The rest are considered to “not contain gluten.”

The difference between the two is that when tested, Tostitos products that have a gluten-free label on their packaging have come back with less than 20ppm of gluten.

This 20ppm is a limit set by the FDA’s Gluten-free Food Labeling Final Rule, which Frito-Lay abides by.

The Tostitos products that you find without a gluten-free label have not been made with any gluten-containing ingredients, however when tested, they did not pass this 20ppm threshold.

If you’re allergic to or extremely sensitive to even small amounts of gluten, you’ll want to be sure to look for a Tostitos product with a gluten-free label. These are listed in the next section.

Read on: Is Tostitos’s salsa gluten-free?

Which flavors and varieties of Tostitos are gluten-free?

According to their website, these varieties are considered gluten-free and have a gluten-free label on the packaging.

Since I also follow a dairy-free diet and you may too, I’ve included an asterisk (*) for the items that are also considered dairy-free by the Frito-Lay company.

Tostitos Baked Scoops Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Bite Size Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Cantina Thin & Crispy Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Cantina Traditional Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Crispy Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Original Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Reduced Fat Crispy Rounds Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Scoops!® Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Simply Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Simply Organic Scoops!® Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Simply Organic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Strips Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Thick & Hearty Rounds Tortilla Chips

Other flavors are not considered gluten-free, but do not contain any gluten-containing ingredients.

These have the potential for cross contamination, so be sure to decide what level of gluten you are okay with having in your diet (if at all), before buying these flavors.

Tostitos Football Shaped Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Hint of Guacamole Flavored Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Hint of Lime Flavored Tortilla Chips
Tostitos Multigrain Scoops!® Tortilla Chips*
Tostitos Salsa Verde Flavored Tortilla Chips

If you’ve been wondering if Tostitos or other tortilla chips are safe for folks on a gluten-free diet, I hope this post has given you the information you’ve been looking for.

Most varieties of Tostitos are gluten-free, but not all. Look for a gluten-free label on the Tostitos packaging to know for certain that what you’re buying contains less than 20ppm of gluten.

Remember, without that gluten-free label, the product may not contain gluten ingredients, but there is a chance for cross contamination in the facility. Keep that in mind before you buy!

If you loved this post, I hope that you’ll share it with your friends on Facebook and pin it for future reference on Pinterest.

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Get tons of snack ideas from this list of gluten and dairy-free posts all about snacks!