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  Ice cream is naturally gluten free and is — in my opinion — absolutely essential to good living. But, as so often happens, hidden glutens creep in and try to spoil our fun.

  I recently had the privilege of reviewing the gluten free ice cones manufacturered by Barkat and available at The Gluten Free Mall. Click here if you would like to read my review and/or purchase these taste treats.

  Baskin and Robbins includes this statement on their website. It seems to apply to almost any ice cream purchases that you may be considering: “Ice cream itself is gluten free but may contain baked inclusions which contain gluten. Anyone looking for a gluten free product should avoid ice cream sandwiches, cone products, cookie and ice cream flavours such as Oreo, and flavours which contain inclusions like brownie pieces, cookie dough and cheese cake. Often the product name indicates the presence of these types of inclusions…” At the Baskin and Robbins site, you can get information about wheat but not about barley or rye. You must look at each entry individually. I’m a regular patron of Baskin and Robbins, and have noticed that the list of allergens is posted in front of the ice cream containers.

The Unilever Corporation — which includes the Klondike, Good Humor, Breyers, and Popsicle — makes a similar statement: “We recommend consumers read the label each time they buy our product. If gluten is present. it is clearly listed in plain language on the ingredient label.”  Again, this is common sense.

  Both the Dreyers and the Edy’s website says nothing relevant about our concerns. TCBY also ignores us.

Wendy’s provides a complete list of items with gluten ingredients and those without.

Trader Joe’s includes double rainbow ice cream on its gluten free list. The double rainbow site says nothing about it.

Coldstone Creamery lists almost all the ice creams and most of the mix-in as gluten free However, all the mixing is done on the same stone, it seems to me that cross-contamination is almost inevitable.

As a celiac who must also watch his weight, I heartily endorse Skinny Cow and its products. Consider this statement from their site: “Gluten free products are noted in the nutritional information for each item. Current items in The Skinny Cow® line which do not have gluten are the Fat Free Fudge Bar and the No Sugar Added Fat Free Fudge Bar.”

Dairy Queen provides a complete list of items prepared without gluten and adds this cautionary note: “When in doubt whether a product may contain a particular allergen, we recommend you purchase a pre-packaged manufactured novelty treat, which contains an ingredient listing and nutrition facts panel on the package."