On my continued persuit for safe foods. Lindt Excellence range claims to be gluten free owing to no gluten ingredients. It is in a range of 70%, 85%, 90% and 99% dark. Dairy free. Lindt's own website states the 70% and 85% are produced on same production line as chocolate containing barley malt, but that the 90% and 99% are not on a contamination risk production line. Would you chance the 90% and 99% or do you have experience of the Lindt Excellence range of chocolate? It's not labelled as 'gluten free' but the Lindt website is quite transparent with its information in respect of gluten, including stating the products containing barley malt fall within codex mainly. I can not tolerate the codex level, so keen to know if anyone has tried the 90% and 99% that Lindt assert are free of contamination risk.
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UPDATE:
The 90% on a gluten free line is apparently (according to different website) not a UK standard. I ate this and made ill. I'm very sensitive to gluten, so may just be for those who can handle codex.
Well that is good news! Many thanks for updating on that. Are you ok with the codex of 20ppm, are or you on the more sensitive end of the scale? It would be great to have this as an options for safe gluten limits/no gluten.
Hi, I used to be ok with 20ppm, however in more recent times, I’ve begun to suspect that I’ve become significantly more sensitive (due to a couple of issues when handling other people’s gluten containing food 😐).
I like the 90% Lindt because it’s also dairy free and soya free - it’s made without using any lecithin at all.
However, it’s an acquired taste if you’re more used to eating dairy chocolate - but I wouldn’t go back to ‘normal’ chocolate now, because I appreciate the dark richness of it. x
I’ve used a brand called ‘Pink Sun’ and been fine - no problems with glutening so far and I’ve bought several kilos from them over the last couple of years. I find that I get a good result if I use icing sugar as my sweetener, although I suspect that something such as agave syrup would work as well too. I spoon the melted chocolate mix into a silicone mould to set for convenience.
I try to make less than 100g at a time and cool in the freezer because I’m impatient and greedy - once set, they never last! 😊
Yes I have the 90% Lindt chocolate occasionally. It’s strong bitter chocolate though so you don’t need to eat much and only problem if do as very high in fiber and fodmaps which can setoff some peoples gut symptoms.
Thank you Researchfan. That's excellent you tolerate it for coeliac, but not so good for it's other impacts. Seems we never get to find the 'perfect' chocolate. It does look very dark, as you say, so I'm thinking I can try to incorporate it into coconut cream based dessert or similar. Thank you.
Re-visited the site, and the claim that 90% is on gluten free line was for their Nordic site, not UK.
I hate these companies. Why can't they just be transparent and just test their bloody products every now and again? They make a fortune, so surely testing not going to break bank.
You must have a more robust constitution for gluten than me.
Thanks Benjamin123. Sorry to hear you got a coeliac reaction! That’s not good. Hope you recover quick.I find I can tolerate a bit but it varies, over a square can give me gut pain and feeling sick!? Usually the next day not right away, I thought it must be the FODMAPS or high histamine reaction for me but who knows! Frustrating. 🤗
Have you tried Green and Blacks? No mention of gluten although may contain milk and nuts?? I like the 70% and 85% dark chocolate occasionally. But similar to the Lindt so rarely have it. Recently had some and had the gut pain but again thought fodmaps so I don’t know!
There’s also Aldi version dark chocolate bars?? I’ve not tried for ages but remember being nice chocolate. The 70% dark choc mini bars and dark choc hazelnut bar listed on their Gluten Free “special diets” document online.
Green & Blacks I had years ago, made me ill. I think food manufacturers do so much switching and additions on their production line, that what was safe last year, may not be now, and so on. Just a bit of tranparency on labelling would be fab. Dark chocolate is low fodmap from what I've read (I did wonder was it fodmaps causing issue) and also low histamine, depending on where info is taken from. I'm sure I've seen other resource state it's high histamine. It's dicing with death with these products half the time. Genuinely and truly, I believe a lot of the additional illness we experience is simply gluten hidden and undeclared. I have had a company recently sent me a load to test results for gluten testing on their products. I only queried one product, and they sent a tonne of info on all their products. Testing conducted in east european country. Product made me very ill. I firmly believe we are constantly lied to.
Yeah, food manufacturers keep changing ingredients and production methods is tough to navigate and rather annoying!
You’re correct, dark chocolate low fodmap in small portions. But honestly who only eats 20g or less?
I checked again and according to Monash Uni Fodmap app, 85% dark chocolate low fodmap at 20grams. Over this high in fructans.
Also varies on manufacturing re 70%, 85%, 90% cocoa solids.
I read an article it’s best to look at fiber content re cocoa solids as the higher fiber the higher FODMAP as higher in cocoa.
Monash app: cocoa powder 8g (2 tsp) low fodmap.
20g (5 tsp) high fodmap fructans and GOS.
And then there’s individual sensitivity threshold again.
Yeah chocolate a big no no for low histamine diet. According to the SIGHI food list it’s an histamine liberator; and Dr Joneja histamine intolerance/diet info has chocolate listed to avoid - though cocoa powder is fine.
Sometimes I'm tempted to just say 'f it' and go on a chocolate/pie/beer bender. I'm not sure I could feel any worse than I do the majority of the time in trying to be gluten free. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb!! Live fast, die young(ish).
You're great for the research, all things aside. I've learnt an awful lot from your posts alone. Brilliant insight.
Thanks Benjamin123 😊 . So glad my posts have given some insight.
Oh no! Though I know what you mean sometimes I feel like sod it! Hence my gluten challenge last year 😳 . Was feeling worse and getting ibs symptoms prior even though gluten free.
I've been reading up a lot now on the gluten sensitivity, and it would just be great to have a 'coeliac safe' level of labelling for those of us who can't tolerate codex. I think if i just reverted to eating all the 'gluten free' foods and beers in the FreeFrom section it would be pretty much the same as doing the gluten challenge. Well done for giving the challenge a go - not an easy one.
Thanks.Yes agree re labelling and true coeliac safe products. I posted recently a link to a review article published 2021? on ‘gluten free’ and cross contamination. It didn’t include UK products but Europe, the US and Ireland. I’d say comparable to Ireland, which showed something like 10% products over the codex level on testing! (The researchers tested ‘gluten free’ products and naturally gluten free products like rice.)
Basically there doesn’t seem to be any true gluten free products I.e. 0ppm. Only way for true gluten free diet is to cook from scratch and avoid all grains (opinion). Paleo autoimmune protocol springs to mind.
I like your comment, “I think if i just reverted to eating all the 'gluten free' foods and beers in the FreeFrom section it would be pretty much the same as doing the gluten challenge.”
Makes me wonder to be honest. I’m allergic to some gluten free staple ingredients - even psyllium husk. It’s related to the environmental allergen English Plantain so cross reacts. Then there’s soya flour in seemingly everything! I’m allergic to rice mildly. Eggs is the big one for me unfortunately. It’s hard to bake gluten free anyway without egg grrr. Then there’s mold sensitivity - bakers yeast can be a problem. (Never mind that yeast can cross react with gluten, so the body treats it like gluten.) And then histamine intolerance my personal issue too.
I just have to accept I’m allergic to grains, or put up with not optimal health and various symptoms!
Sorry for the rant!
Back to your comment. Made me think, because when I was getting a lot of symptoms even though following gluten free diet (following for about 15yrs), before I knew properly about allergies and sensitivities; I had let ‘gluten free goodies’ creep into my diet. Like biscuits, cookies, bread and cakes. Occasional gf beer. All in attempt to gain needed healthy weight. Never felt well. So wanted to test once and for all whether gluten the culprit.
Gluten/gliadin is one protein that causes coeliac disease and implicated in other autoimmune diseases. Wheat for instance has many other potential allergens packaged in it. My thinking was validated when I heard Dr Robert Lustig talk about his latest book Metabolical. He’s sensitive to wheat not gluten. There’s 998 potential allergens in wheat to quote him (if I recall correctly) and gluten is just one of them. Gluten has got all the research and focus and great for coeliacs as the therapy to get well is a gluten free diet - as difficult and hard as it can be!
Anyway, might be going down the rabbit hole so I will stop this long reply there and climb back out.
This is brilliant information Researchfan. I just wish there was a central location for you to compile all this so it would be accessible to everyone. I'm learning so much. I feel the standard line on coeliac/gluten is packaged for a primary school audience of 'just eat all these lovely processed foods, and life will be fine'. It's not. It's complex, it's harsh, and the reality is, as you state, that gluten is only one of the issues. I've arrived at the no-grains at all camp, and occasionally chance the Freee range of flour for the odd pancake. I'm also observing that I get some reactions when I have my morning coffee (Lavassa, served black) and wondering can the last bastion of my sanity, coffee, now be a cross contamination culprit or is it a cross-reaction to something in coffee. Things like the paleo diet do make a lot of sense for coeliacs. We need to go back in time and smack the first person who came up with the bright idea that eating grass seeds (essentially what wheat/rye/barley) are would be a really good idea. The course of all our histories could have been changed!
Re coffee. Interesting. Hopefully not. There’s research that showed instant coffee can definitely be a cause of cross contamination. Fresh ground and filter supposed to be ok though.
Coffee can be a gut irritant anyway in sensitive people??
Personally I find too strong or too much doesn’t agree with me. Could be a histamine reaction as coffee can cause mild symptoms if histamine intolerance and should be limited.
I think the Lindor chocolates have Barley Malt Extract in them, I think they say it's below the old 20ppm limit, but they don't label it as GF to leave it up to you whether 20ppm is tolerable for you.
I'm thinking that's where the potential cross contamination risk stems from for their regular chocolate, so it's really whether that's too high a risk for you or not? I know you're exceptionally sensitive.
This is very interesting as I’ve been avoiding Lindt for 10 years now and have just started eating it again!
So far I’ve had the 70% once, as I didn’t realise it had cross-contamination potential – it’s not entirely clear from its page: lindt.co.uk/lindt-excellenc... –the Dark Sea Salt and the Orange Intense (which I seem to have had rather a lot of recently) with no ill effects.
I’m not diagnosed coeliac, so never feel I can offer advice, but had to give up all gluten about a decade ago as I could no longer tolerate it at all. Since then I’ve always been sensitive and still always avoid dextrose/yeast extract/cross contamination etc. I seem to have had fewer problems recently though, which I think is because I’ve always been more sensitive in periods after I’ve been glutened – and since the pandemic that happens less frequently as I cook more of my own food from scratch. I can also eat dairy now in moderation, which I couldn’t for ages.
I carried on eating Lindt (probably the 70%) after I first went gluten free and always had reactions until I identified what was causing them and stopped.
I don’t know if it’s any use but during my Lindt-free years I ate quite a lot of Willie’s Cacao dark chocolate, which is great (no emulsifiers etc) but costs about twice as much as Lindt…
Hi, that's interesting. I've now tried the Lindt 90% and it made me ill. I use to be ok with Lindt, then wasn't, but saw the 90% is on safe production line, but now that doesn't seem to apply to UK. I will not be having this again, and the labelling and wording on the website is 100% conflicting and confusing. Tread carefully with this one as I'm sure it's not as safe as they imply. Did you have the coeliac test before you went gluten free? Similarly to you, not diagnosed (blood test was negative), but gluten making me very ill and have the coeliac gene, so I assume coeliac but false negative on blood test.
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