Is Baking Soda Gluten-free?

When you follow a gluten-free diet, even your baking essentials need to be gluten-free. Find out if baking soda is gluten-free and which brands to look for to stick with your diet.

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Baking soda is an essential ingredient in helping breads and cakes rise, and all your other favorite baked goods create a light texture that we all look for.

If you follow a gluten-free diet, you need to be on the lookout for hidden gluten – and believe it or not, it can hide in the most unlikely of places. That’s why we need to do our due diligence in looking at ingredients lists and brands before we purchase.

In this post, we’re going to talk about baking soda, if it’s gluten-free, and which brands to look for at the store next time you have some baking to do.

Let’s get into the details of this essential ingredient and find out just how safe it is for a gluten-free diet.

What is baking soda?

Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is a salt and leavening agent that’s a common ingredient in baking to help batters rise.

What is baking soda used for?

Baking soda is used as a leavening agent to help breads and baked goods rise. When combined with an acid, it releases carbon dioxide that causes batters to raise and expand, creating a light and fluffy texture in your bread, cakes, or other baked goods.

Baking powder vs baking soda

Baking powder and baking soda are often confused as being the same ingredient, as they both provide leavening in baking.

Though they are used for the same purpose in recipes, baking soda and baking powder need different ingredients to cause a leavening reaction.

Baking soda needs an acid (like lemon juice or vinegar) to react, expand, and release carbon dioxide.

According to MadeHow.com, baking powder usually contains baking soda, cream of tartar, and cornstarch. They also explain this is a base, an acid, and a filler. 

Unlike baking soda that needs an acid to react, baking powder already contains an acid from the cream of tartar and only needs a liquid to “activate” the chemical reaction. 

Read on: Is baking powder gluten-free?

Read on: Is cream of tartar gluten-free?

Is baking soda gluten-free?

Baking soda is naturally gluten-free. There shouldn’t be any possibility for cross contamination with gluten in baking soda, but if this is a concern, you can always look for a gluten-free label on the packaging before purchasing.

Gluten-free baking soda brands

While most brands of baking soda contain no gluten-containing ingredients, if it helps you feel at ease to know which brands make statement about gluten, here is a list of a few brands that are committed to creating gluten-free products.

• Arm & Hammer
• Clabber Girl
• Bob’s Red Mill
• Thrive Market

Where to buy gluten-free baking soda

You can buy gluten-free baking soda at most grocery stores. Arm & Hammer and Bob’s Red Mill will be the easiest to find at grocery stores nationwide, but if you have a hard time finding them, look on Amazon or Thrive Market.

If you’ve been wondering if baking soda is a gluten-free ingredient, I hope this post has helped you determine where this ingredient can fit into your gluten-free diet. Use baking soda with gluten-free labels without concern for gluten cross contamination in all your favorite baking recipes.

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