Safe Gluten-Free Bean Options

Why should you worry about gluten in beans—they're a naturally gluten-free food, right? Well, yes, but they're also a food that's subject to significant gluten cross-contamination... and that can be a problem for people with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

This contamination with gluten mostly happens in farmers' fields. It's common for farmers to grow beans and gluten grain crops in rotation, and they use the same planting, harvesting, and storage equipment for both.

For example, lentil crops frequently are rotated with barley. In some areas, farmers alternate between wheat and chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or wheat and green peas. (Soybeans have their own issues.)

When farmers use the same harvest and storage equipment for beans and gluten grains, then some cross-contamination is inevitable. The amount of gluten grain residue on beans processed in this way isn't high, but it's high enough to potentially make you sick, especially if you're more sensitive to trace gluten than average.

How to Get Truly Gluten-Free Beans

Beans are a great source of vegetable protein and fiber, and just make a nice addition to many dishes. If you're following a gluten-free vegetarian or vegan diet, you'll want to be able to eat beans for the protein (not to mention the variety). But what does this cross-contamination issue mean for the gluten-free community?

First, know that not all bean crops are badly cross-contaminated. However, it's a big enough problem that some companies call out the risk on the labels of their dried beans with the statement "May Contain Wheat" (this is a voluntary statement, by the way, and they don't have to add it). It's possible to find barley kernels in bags of dried lentils, or wheat or barley in other packaged beans.

However, you won't be able to tell whether your bag of mung beans (or kidney beans, or green peas, or adzuki beans) is cross-contaminated without eating them and then waiting to see if you experience symptoms—not a great way to find out.

Anyone with celiac or gluten sensitivity—especially those who are particularly sensitive to trace gluten—should purchase only beans that are sold by a company that does its due diligence to keep them gluten-free. There's no guarantee that you won't still react to those beans, but the odds are considerably less.

Gluten-Free Bean Sources

Fortunately, there are two companies selling dried beans that take care to make sure they're safe.

Edison Grainery

Edison Grainery sells gluten grains, but it reserves a separate "allergen-free" warehouse building that's free of the top eight allergens (milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, and soybeans), along with gluten and sesame. Edison sells numerous types of beans along with bean flour.

To back up its commitment to gluten-free products, Edison sends a sample of every lot of its beans to an independent lab to test for gluten to less than 5 parts per million. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (along with Canada and most of Europe) legally defines "gluten-free" as less than 20 parts per million of gluten. Edison also tests for other contaminants, such as bacteria, yeast, and mold.

Nuts.com

Despite its name, Nuts.com offers beans and other food products. The company has been certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), which requires testing to ensure that products contain less than 10 parts per million of gluten.

Dried bean options at Nuts.com include cranberry beans, fava beans, garbanzo beans, great Northern beans, and cannellini beans. The company also offers five or six bean flours you can use in baking.

A Word from Verywell

Be aware that some people react even to beans that are certified gluten-free. If that's the case for you, learn about beans for those sensitive to trace gluten. However, most people with celiac or gluten sensitivity should do fine with one of these two bean options, since the companies have taken steps to make certain their beans exceed legal gluten-free standards.