Find out what chips are gluten-free, which brands to buy, and find out if your favorites are safe for your gluten-free diet.

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If you love chips and are looking for what options are available to you on your gluten-free diet, you’ll love this post.

We’re going to do a deep dive into what gluten is, where it’s most likely to be found in chips of all kinds, and gluten-free labeling, and what brands to look for.

We’ll also discuss some popular types of chips and I’ll share which flavors and options are gluten-free. I’m sure you have questions about enjoying chips on your gluten-free diet, so let’s get you the answers you’re looking for!

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.

When you think of squishing a piece of bread in your hands, it will form a ball, then will bounce back. That bouncing back is often indicative of gluten. The gluten is the naturally sticky glue that is part of many whole grains.

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

Read on: What is gluten in food? The basics of a gluten-free diet

Where is gluten most likely to be found in chips?

Gluten can hide in the most unlikely places, including snack foods and chips. In chips, you might find gluten in the chips themselves if they contain wheat flour, wheat derivatives, or in some of the flavorings added to the chips to create unique flavors.

Many chips don’t contain any gluten-containing ingredients at all, but are not considered gluten-free, because they are processed on the same equipment as other snack foods with gluten. 

In this case, you’d have to do what you feel is best to determine whether or not a brand or flavor of chips is right for you, based on how sensitive and reactive your body is to gluten. 

Some people with gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance can tolerate trace amounts of gluten, while others can’t handle any at all.

What do I need to know about gluten-free labeling when it comes to chips?

If you’re looking for a gluten-free chip brand, flavor, or variety, you’ll need to know what it means when you find a package with a gluten-free label.

As per the FDA regulations, a packaged food cannot contain more than 20ppm of gluten in order to have the “gluten-free” label on it. 

This is helpful if you are gluten sensitive or intolerant when it comes to choosing chips that aren’t going to give you a reaction when you eat them.

On the other hand, there are plenty of chips that are available that contain no gluten-containing ingredients at all and still don’t have a gluten-free label. 

This is because the chips are processed and manufactured in the same facility or on the same processing equipment as products that do have gluten. 

The companies cannot guarantee that there isn’t cross contamination or they haven’t tested for trace amounts of gluten in order to meet the 20ppm threshold. 

The bottom line is that if you see a gluten-free label, you can feel confident that the product is gluten-free. If you don’t see it, it might still be okay for your diet if there are no gluten-containing ingredients and you aren’t sensitive to trace amounts of gluten from cross contamination.

How to find out if the brand of chips you’re looking at are gluten-free

The best way to determine if the chips you’re buying are gluten-free is to look for two (or three) things:

1. The ingredients list. Look for obvious and not-so-obvious wheat sources, gluten, or wheat derivatives. You can find out by looking for these names of gluten.
2. A gluten-free label. As required by the FDA, any package that contains less than 20ppm of gluten can have a gluten-free label. It doesn’t have to be “certified gluten-free” (although that’s great too), any gluten-free label must meet these requirements.
3. If you are Celiac, look for a gluten-free label AND a “processed in a gluten-free facility” note on the packaging. This will ensure that there is no risk of cross contamination in the product.

Which chips are gluten-free?

There are a number of chips that are gluten-free and safe for a gluten-free diet.

Some brands offer a complete line of gluten-free chips, like Kettle Brand potato chips or Late July tortilla chips. Others offer only specific flavors of their chip lines that are gluten-free.

I’ve done a lot of research around which chips and which brands are gluten-free to compile this information for you. 

There are a million (okay, I have no idea what the real number is) different chip brands, flavors, and varieties out there, but I’ve rounded up some of the most popular types to get you started and on the right track when determining what’s right for your gluten-free diet.

Potato Chips

Many brands of potato chips are gluten-free, while others contain gluten. The brands that opt to keep their processing and ingredients simple are more likely to be gluten-free than those that use a laundry list of ingredients in their products.

Even some brands that have gluten-free potato chips may offer some flavors that are not gluten-free, so you’ll always want to check ingredients lists for any hidden sources of gluten.

There are some brands that are better than others about identifying gluten in their products or having a gluten-free label. For example, Frito Lay products and Kettle Brand chips are excellent about disclosing which flavors of their chips contain gluten.

Be aware of the potential for cross contamination in potato chips when companies use the same processing equipment for potato chips that contain gluten as well as those that don’t. 

A potato chip might not contain any gluten-containing ingredients, but still have the possibility of coming into contact with gluten if it’s made on the same processing lines.

There is always a risk of gluten being added as a flavoring or from cross contamination as well. Depending on the level of sensitivity you have to gluten, you may want to look for a gluten-free label on the bag of potato chips before buying.

As required by the FDA, a packaged food can have 20ppm or less of gluten in order for it to have the gluten-free label on the product. If you can’t risk even the potential for cross contamination, be sure to look for that gluten-free label.

These are some potato chip brands that you can look for that offer gluten-free flavors:

• 365 by Whole Foods Market
• Better Made
• Cape Cod
• Good Health
• Kettle Brand
• Lay’s
• Luke’s Organic
• Maui Style Potato Chips
• One Potato Two Potato
• POPchips
• Route 11
• Ruffles
• Saratoga Chips
• Terra
• Utz

Read on: Are Ruffles gluten-free?

Read on: Are Lay’s chips gluten-free?

Note that just because these brands offer some gluten-free options, this doesn’t mean that ALL flavors of their chips are gluten-free. It’s best to read ingredients lists and look for a gluten-free label before purchasing.

For a larger list of brands and specific gluten-free flavors, read: Are Potato Chips Gluten-free?

Tortilla Chips

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.

However, 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 just to be sure.

Unfortunately, some tortilla chips do contain gluten, meaning you can’t just grab a bag of chips off the shelf of the grocery store and assume they are gluten-free.

Some brands use both corn and wheat flour in their tortilla chip recipes, meaning they aren’t safe for a gluten-free diet.

For more details on gluten-free tortilla chips, be sure to check out this blog post with brands and more information.

Read on: Do corn tortillas have gluten?

Read on: Are Takis gluten-free?

Fritos

According to the Frito Lay website, some of their Fritos chips are gluten-free, while others are noted as not containing gluten ingredients.

While none of their products contain actual gluten ingredients, they make the distinction between the two because a few flavors are made on the same lines as gluten-containing products for other brands. 

While they know their products don’t contain gluten, they don’t want to give consumers the false assumption that their facilities are dedicated gluten-free if there were in fact traces of gluten found in their products, or if someone were to get sick from eating them.

All the flavors of Fritos don’t contain gluten-containing ingredients, however only four of them are considered to be gluten-free.

The gluten-free flavors of Fritos are:

• Fritos Lightly Salted Corn Chips
• Fritos Original Corn Chips
• Fritos Reduced Fat Original Corn Chips
• Fritos Scoops! Corn Chips

These flavors do not contain gluten-containing ingredients, however aren’t made on a dedicated gluten-free line and may come into cross contact with gluten.

The flavors “not containing gluten ingredients” are:

• Fritos Chili Cheese Flavored Corn Chips
• Fritos Flamin’ Hot Flavored Corn Chips
• Fritos Flavor Twists Honey BBQ Flavored Corn Chips
• Fritos Scoops! Spicy Jalapeno Flavored Corn Chips

Read on for more detailed information in this post: Are Fritos Gluten-free?

Read on: Are Bugles gluten-free?

Cheetos

According to the Frito Lay company, some flavors or their Cheetos are gluten-free, and others contain no gluten-containing ingredients. 

The difference here is that those labeled gluten-free have been confirmed to contain less than 20ppm of gluten, the amount required by the FDA to have this label on their packaging.

These are the Cheetos flavors that are considered gluten-free by Frito Lay:

• Cheetos Crunchy Cheddar Jalapeño Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Crunchy Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Limón Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Crunchy XXtra Flamin’ Hot Flavored Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Fantastix! Chili Cheese Flavored Corn and Potato Snacks
• Cheetos Fantastix! Flamin’ Hot Flavored Corn and Potato Snacks
• Cheetos Paws Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Puffs Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Puffs Flamin’ Hot Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Simply Crunchy White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Simply Puffs White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Simply Puffs White Cheddar Jalapeño Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Reduced Fat Puffs Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Reduced Fat Puffs Flamin’ Hot Cheese Flavored Snacks

Frito Lay also states that while some of their products do not fit the qualifications of the 20ppm of gluten in the product, that some of their other flavors contain no gluten.

This means that these might be safe for a gluten-free diet if you are satisfied with the idea that there may or may not be the potential for cross contamination with gluten ingredients.

These are the Cheetos flavors that are considered to have no gluten-containing ingredients by Frito Lay:

• Cheetos Cheddar Flavored Popcorn
• Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix Cheese Popcorn and Snack Mix
• Cheetos Double Cheddar Eggs Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos Flamin’ Hot® Flavored Popcorn
• Cheetos Flavor Shots Flamin’ Hot Asteroids Flavored Corn Puffs
• Cheetos Sweetos™ Cinnamon Eggs Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos White Cheddar Bites Cheese Flavored Snacks
• Cheetos White Cheddar Snowflakes® Cheese Flavored Snacks

All Cheetos products contain dairy.

Read all the details about Cheetos and a gluten-free diet here: Are Cheetos gluten-free?

Corn Nuts

While these aren’t exactly chips, they’re in the snack food category and folks tend to eat them like chips.

Corn Nuts are considered gluten-free as there are no gluten ingredients added to any of the flavors of this snack food. When looking around online, I found that many retailers market Corn Nuts as gluten-free and they say they are labeled gluten-free, though I wasn’t able to find that myself.

Here are the flavors of Corn Nuts that they list on their website:

• Corn Nuts Original Crunchy Corn Kernels
• Corn Nuts BBQ Crunchy Corn Kernels
• Corn Nuts Chile Picante Con Limon Crunchy Corn Kernels
• Corn Nuts Ranch Crunchy Corn Kernels

Read on: Are Corn Nuts gluten-free?

Doritos

Only one flavor of Doritos are considered to be gluten-free: DORITOS® Simply Organic White Cheddar Flavored Tortilla Chips

Even though only one flavor is considered gluten-free, many other flavors of Doritos have no gluten-containing ingredients.

Here is a list of the non-gluten-containing Doritos products (source):

• DORITOS® Cool Ranch® Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Dinamita® Chile Limón Flavored Rolled Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Flamas™ Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Flamin’ Hot® Limon Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Flamin’ Hot® Nacho Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Flavor Shots Fiery Habanero Triangles
• DORITOS® Nacho Cheese Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Poppin’ Jalapeño Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Salsa Verde Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Simply Organic Spicy White Cheddar Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Spicy Nacho Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Taco Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Tangy Pickle Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Tapatio® Flavored Tortilla Chips
• DORITOS® Twisted Lime Flavored Tortilla Chips

This is a “proceed with caution” food. If you know that you can tolerate trace amounts of gluten, you may be able to eat Doritos without any issues.

However, since this brand uses the same lines in manufacturing, it is likely there will be some cross contamination from other products that do contain gluten.

Read more about eating Doritos on a gluten-free diet here: Are Doritos gluten-free?

Are chips dairy-free?

If you also avoid dairy products and are on a dairy-free diet like I am, you’ll want to look for chip brands and flavors that don’t have dairy or dairy derivatives in them in addition to gluten.

Some chips are dairy-free, while others aren’t. For the most part, most brands of chips are made with potatoes, corn, or other grains, which don’t contain dairy.

However, the places you’re most likely to find dairy and dairy derivatives are in the flavorings that are added to the chips to give them unique flavors.

For example, the tortilla chips used for Doritos are dairy-free, but most of the flavor options contain cheese and dairy. The powdered cheese, sour cream, or ranch flavorings added to chips are what often contain dairy in chips.

You’ll always want to check ingredients lists before buying if you are avoiding any food for a food intolerance, and this is definitely the case with dairy too. 

Look for hidden sources of dairy and any notes that say “Contains milk” under the ingredients list. This will help you find out if this food is safe for your dairy-free diet.

Be aware of any chip flavors that have names of cheese, cream, or ranch in them, like blue cheese, cheese, nacho, or butter. I’ve even seen dairy added to jalapeno flavored chips before, so it’s worth it to review the ingredients before you buy.

Gluten-free Chip Brands

While this list isn’t exhaustive, be on the lookout for some of these chip brands that are exclusively gluten-free to help you make a choice next time you’re perusing the chip aisle at the grocery store.

Gluten-free Potato Chip Brands

• Cape Cod
• Kettle Brand
• Luke’s Organic
• One Potato Two Potato
• POPchips
• Route 11
• Saratoga Chips

Gluten-free Tortilla Chip Brands

• Calidad
• Food Should Taste Good
• Late July
• The Better Chip 
• Way Better

There are likely a number of different brands of gluten-free chips available on the market, but with this short list to get started, you’re bound to find something good at your local grocery store.

If you’ve been on the hunt for answers about gluten-free chips, I hope this information has been helpful for you. 

With any packaged food, do your due diligence before buying and look for gluten-free labels and read ingredients lists when in doubt.

It’s better to take a minute to review for hidden sources of gluten than deal with a gluten reaction that could have been avoided.

What questions do you have about gluten-free chips? Pop them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them! Happy snacking!

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