Kikkoman claims soy sauce is OK
Posted on May 1st, 2007 by alison
I was in Miami in April and ate at the famous Nobu Japanese restaurant. I told the waiter about my intolerance to gluten, and therefore my inability to eat soy sauce, as it contains wheat. He replied, “We have something for people like you,” and produced a letter from Kikkoman soy sauce company that said, in a nutshell, that there are no wheat or soy proteins in their soy sauce that could cause allergic reactions. I sat there, stunned / confused / excited – could it be true? If so, why have I been avoiding soy sauce and therefore Asian restaurants in general for the last 5 years?? Could I actually eat family style with my gluten-eating friends? At that moment I had a decision to make – eat the appetizers my friends had ordered, or eat my own sushi with my wheat-free soy sauce I had stashed in my purse. What would YOU do?
Well, I decided to do it – eat the appetizers, I mean! I ate a few pieces of saucy fish and some salad with a soy sauce dressing. A few minutes later, I had an intense itching in my throat, which I used to have all the time before going gluten-free and which I get sometimes with seasonal allergies. Was this my reaction to the small amount of soy sauce I had consumed? I stopped sharing right then and there and pulled out my soy sauce stash. I felt like a deflated balloon.
Once home I decided that I needed to get to the bottom of this Kikkoman claim, so I sent an email inquiry. Here is the letter that they sent to me (note that it is dated February 4, 2005): kikkomangluten_statement_2_4_05.pdf. I don’t think I will be using the Lazy Susan in any Chinese restaurants anytime soon, but decide for yourself!
Kikkoman’s response is absolutely accurate. We can be very poor judges of our body’s actual responses to drugs and diets because our expectations can so strongly alter our perceptions. That’s why the placebo effect tends to run on the order of 30% in most studies.
I trust these claims about as much as I trust McDonald’s assertion that the part of the wheat used in their fries didn’t have glutens in it. I just don’t think companies fully understand in all cases how sensitive this disorder can be. I see many companies now selling products that are 20ppm gluten or less, and saying they are “gluten-free”. Even 8 years ago, when I started this diet, some doctors were saying the safe level is 3ppm or less. Still others claimed there was no safe level at all. Well, in my experience, I get a lot less sick less often when I err on the side of caution.
That is complete BS. I have only just recently discovered my problem is a gluten intolerance. I’m not a master at reading labels but I read it and truly thought it would be ok since I heard most soy sauces are ok. I had some last night and woke up miserable from eating rice with a little kikkoman soy sauce. There was nothing else in it. Boiled rice. So what do you think caused my reaction? How could it be a placebo affect if I went into it thinking I was safe? And if wheat is the 2nd main ingredient how can they say there’s no gluten in it? Eeeeeeeeeesh. I hope laws get stricter. If Kikkoman can dance around it, so can others. I’ll never get better unless I just start eating plain rice and potatoes. Yay! Gotta do whatcha gotta do! I don’t think i’ll ever use kikkoman products. i take my health serious even if they don’t.
The only safe level of gluten is 0. I’m still trying to eliminate it but i guess it’s legal to call it “natural flavoring” so… what do we pay the FDA for anyway?
In Australia the limit for gluten is .02%
My guess would be that premium soy sauce, such as Kikomman, process their product in a way that changes the protein in the wheat, so that the end product does not have gluten.
For example: when you cook a piece of red meat, it turns brown, you have changed the proteins and they cannot be changed back (to red again).
Note that the letter refers to their “Japanese-brewed” product, which is different from the USA-made sauce. I’ve written to Kikkoman’s US office asking for clarification.
I got the same letter from Kikkoman and fully believe it. Why would they lie about the safety of their product? Seems pretty stupid to me. Plus they didn’t run the study themselves — an independent 3rd party did it.
Quality soy sauce is distilled, just like whiskey and other spirits. Supposedly the distilling process breaks down the gluten and leaves something different behind. The end result is 5ppm or less of gluten. The FDA considers anything less than 20ppm “gluten free”. I know that some people scoff at this, but there needs to be a standard set as no food can be guaranteed 100% gluten-free with no cross contamination. Even before getting to the manufacturing facility, many grains used in “gluten free” food, including corn, are harvested with the same farm implements that harvest barley and wheat, so there will ALWAYS be a small amount of cross-contamination in gluten-free products. That is why the FDA has to set a standard other than 0.
Regardless, I am a Celiac and have been eating Kikkoman soy sauce without any side effects. I am a newly diagnosed Celiac, so maybe I don’t have my brain programmed with the incorrect notion that “soy sauce is made with wheat, therefore soy sauce is bad”…and don’t get a self-induced placebo affect that some of you might get with the level of programming you have. I’m sure if I lived for 8 years in fear of regular soy sauce…and then had some…my brain would fool my body into getting sick too.
Pretty obvious which posters here work for Kikkoman. Anyone who knows any applied kinesiology or motility testing knows that Kikkoman soy sauces test poorly, especially to celiacs.
I just checked the bottle of Kikkoman’s in my fridge, and the first ingredient listed after water is “wheat”. I am just suspecting CD, but this is more evidence. Sushi is generally CD safe (rice, fish and veggies) so why is it that my bowels always seem to get into a knot after eating sushi?
No Anthony, I don’t work for Kikkoman .
I have been a diagnosed Coeliac for 15 years and have been consuming Kikkoman products all that time.
I have regular bowel biopsies, as I consume oats. Which is the recommended requirement by our Coeliac Society.
I came across Kikkoman products all those years back too.
I did have the Australian Government analytical report once.
Kikkoman products test to below the level gluten level of 0.02% by the Elisa test, which is the most accurate way to test the gluten levels in food.
Chris you may have a problem with Sushi, as the seaweed is very high in fibre. Quite often this is a problem with a sensitive gut, because of the fibre content
By the way…..
It’s the long slow fermentation process that break down the gluten in the wheat.
I am presuming that many of you here don’t use glucose either then, as that to is wheat based.
Again as an end product the gluten is minimal, as it too is broken down.
We are far more knowledgeable here about CD in general as our Coeliac Society is known as hte best in the world. Canada has taken a great deal from us.
Our ingredients book for one
Two weeks ago I dinned at a local Japanese place here in town called Kyotos. I thought the soy sauce was safe. I ate plain rice and vegtables flavored with Kikoman soy sauce. I was ill and weak for two weeks. Had diarhea for most of the two weeks. I am sure it was the kikoman soy sauce as I had no other products that day that would have done that. so no more kikoman for me.
I’m not saying it isn’t possible the soy sauce caused an adverse reaction (I use it sometimes and generally get away with it but I wouldn’t feed it to another celiac) but please keep in mind if you go out for sushi that imitation crab is most often made with wheat flour and/or pure wheat gluten. Very few sushi restaurants in the US use real unadulterated crab meat in their California rolls and other items. Fish roe also often includes wheat, as part of the processing.
So, if you do go out to sushi keep in mind the soy sauce, yes, but also stay away from roe and crab. Nigiri sushi with identifiable types of real fish are a better option.
Hi Jennifer,
Yes, the fake crab contains gluten — thanks for pointing it out! I am still unsure if roe contains wheat flour or soy sauce.
I have reads this debate, other claims that soy sauce is alright from other manufacturers, and the placebo affect. For me, Soy Sauce is the worst culprit except for Tamari that is gluten-free. Be careful, some Tamari is not. Even the smallest amount in any form, causes a fast and immediate reaction. This is not just sensitivity as I have experienced the effects of cross contamination, for example, where I had fresh sweet potatoes fries that were fried in the same oil as wheat flour battered onion rings. This is quite different and although disturbing is not the same as a even a little amount of soy sauce which means an entire afternoon off with extreme stomach distress, fatigue and depression. I am not allergic to soy as I sometimes drink soy milk, and it has no effect.
I recently had a similar experience at a thai restaurant. The waiter claimed some people can do soy {sauce}. I didn’t buy it. I told them I categorically do not do soy sauce unless it is specifically wheat free. They said they had wheat free, but they still didn’t swap out the soy sauce in my food and I got the worst glutenation I’ve had in YEARS. I have had some of the WORST responses from gluten in soy sauce. I think Kikoman is being really irresponsible in trying to market their products as gluten free. I don’t think they truly appreciate what the consequences really are. I’d like to think they wouldn’t risk marketing their product in a way that is unsafe, but I certainly don’t trust this at all. My experience thus far has clearly pointed to otherwise.