Gluten Free Soy Sauce
UPDATED7/11/07 
Most soy sauce is prepared with wheat, thus making it off-limits to those of us who are gluten intolerant. The only exception I could discover is the San-J brand which can be found at natural food stores or ordered on-line from The Gluten Free Pantry. This same link will enable you to order gluten free soy sauce in single-serving packets.
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I also read the ingredients list on a bottle of LaChoy Soy Sauce. It contained the mandatory allergens list which listed soy as an allergen but not wheat. There were no sign of other gluten toxic ingredients. That sounds like good news to me but I have no documentary evidence so this is not an official recommendation. Also, I am not sure that this is true for all varieties of LaChoy sauce.
I found a recipe for a soy sauce substitute (8 parts molasses and 3 parts balsamic vinegar). Click here for more details. Let me know how it tastes.
Most LaChoy products list caramel color as an ingredient, which contains gluten.
Does Caramel color really contain gluten? The E-number for caramel color is E150 and the manufacturing process does not require any components that has gluten.
Caramel, even though made from wheat, as an end product, tests negative to gluten.
Reputable brands of Soy Sauce, such as Kikkoman, because they are fermentated for such a long period, test negative to gluten as a finished product.
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (available at any health food store, and even many mainstream grocers) is a great gluten free alternative to soy sauce. San-J tamari is also available at many mainstream grocers now, I know that kroger and safeway stores both carry these products.
On another site I saw the hydrolyzed protein in the ingredients might contain gluten, the company wouldn’t say for sure.
It’s really funny (or scary depending on your point-of-view) when the company itself doesn’t know or care about the answer. Good Luck, Thanks for sharing.
Paul Colligan , The Gluten Free Guy
Have a look at http://www.classicasian.com/products.html Their dark and light soy sauces are certified (ie. labelled) gluten free, and they are all as good as “normal” soy sauces – I’m Chinese and grew up with soy sauces so I know what a good soy sauce should taste like … and these are really quite good … much. much better than Tamari styles, wheat-free substitutes !!
PS.
My wife is the coeliac .. I’m the Chinese cook in the family !!
is soy bean oil the same as soy ?
I was glutened by La Choy soy sauce. I called the company and they say it’s gluten free. But my reaction says it is not. I trust my reaction, not them. I’m very sensitive to gluten.
Kimlan I-Jen Soy Sauce is rice based (I-Jen is roasted rice).
San-J Tamari sauce is made without wheat. However, the last time i asked, they would not commit to it being gluten-free because they do not test for gluten.
I am suspicious of the comment that soy sauce made with wheat can gluten-free because of the processing. Personal experience speaks otherwise. In fact, my impression is that soy sauce made with wheat is actually highly concentrated in gluten.