Is blue cheese gluten-free?
There are many stories about how blue cheese came to be. They all involve cheese, bread and a cave. The basic tale is this: someone left a piece of bread in a cave where the cheese was being aged. The bread became moldy and the mold spread to the cheese. Someone came back to the cave days or weeks later, and yum yum yum - moldy blue cheese! An industry was born. They began to purposely inject cheese with bread mold during processing, leading to the creation of blue or green-veined cheeses such as Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Cambozola, and Stilton.
Do veined cheeses contain gluten? This question comes up a lot when people have to change their diet due to celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or a wheat allergy. After conducting my own blue cheese investigation, I have the answer: some blue cheeses do contain gluten, but most do not.
Some blue cheese is still made the old-fashioned way using bread mold. However, most cheeses produced in the U.S. today are not started with a bread mold because it’s not efficient or economical. Cheesemakers can now buy liquid blue mold that is made in a laboratory (as one blue cheese manufacturer explained to me). These do not contain gluten.
Yup, that’s right. You can eat blue cheese. Just make sure it is one of the gluten-free ones listed below. I will update this list as I get more information.
Gluten-free blue cheeses:
- BelGioso gorgonzola - verified via website that all their cheeses are gluten-free
- Marin French Cheese Factory blue cheese - verified via phone
- Maytag blue cheese - verified via phone (it used to contain gluten, but now does not)
- Montforte blue cheese and gorgonzola - verified via phone
- Pt. Reyes blue cheese - verified via phone and website
- Rosenborg blue cheese - verified via web
- Paladin MonSalvat blue cheese - verified via email
Gluten-free blue cheese stuffed olives:
- Armstrong Olives - verified via phone
Gluten-free blue cheese dressing:
- no info yet
NOT gluten-free:
- Saga blue cheese - verified via email that it contains wheat
Filed under: Products, Celiac Disease, Gluten Intolerance
oh that is awesome news. Do you perhaps have any info on some goatmilk blue cheeses for those of us that can’t handle cow? thanks!
I believe Lighthouse Blue Cheese salad dressing is Gluten Free… mfr. in Sandpoint, Idaho and delicious. Most of their dressings are GF. Thank Goodness. They are sold in the refrigerated section with dressings like Maries.
Hi Alison
I read with interest (and appreciation, and gratitude for your hard work) your writing on the blue cheese saga–pun intended! However, while I know that some blue cheese does get its veining from a mold that was started on wheat bread, science tells me that does not mean that the mold that grows on the bread (and then is spread via growth throughout the cheese as it
develops) also has wheat as a constituent, or even contaminant. The mold is a living organism that happened to get its original start in life by eating
bread so to speak, but that doesn’t transform it into bread or bread’s constituents any more than I am made of Brussels sprouts because I eat them (well,
sometimes!). I have actually called Saga and spoken to the cheese expert in the dairy (not the person on the phone in front) who confirmed my thoughts. She also says that, as with many companies now, they would rather say that something is NOT gluten free than have to certify that it IS GF etc– big problem with the pending legislation. I have noted several companies actually changing their formulas, I think, to avoid the whole issue (and of course a lawsuit!) Leaves us all back in the boat we have been in–reading the label but understanding how things are made as well. Think vinegar, alcohol and so forth.
Just some thoughts, and thanks again for all your hard work to make things easier.
Best Regards,
Lyn
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I sadly put aside bleu cheese 5 years ago, and have lately been craving it. I’m going to the store immediately to buy gorgonzola and asparagus!
Just wanted to say thanks for this. I took your list to Whole Foods to get some bleu today, and the people at the cheese counter told me no bleus were GF. I said, um, not according to several cheesemakers’ websites! I grabbed some Pt. Reyes, and then I gave them my copy of the list so they could do some research, and they seemed pretty excited by it.