Have you noticed a McDonald’s on every street corner in your area? Most people seem to take McDonalds for granted, but for someone with celiac disease, if you are traveling or stuck out in public for whatever reason, having a McDonald’s nearby can be very beneficial.
In my experience, they are probably one of the best gluten-free restaurants because they are everywhere and they are great about disclosing ingredients on their official website. This allows you to have options if you are stuck in situation where you don’t have any gluten-free foods with you.
Although this is subject to change, here is a current list of McDonald’s gluten-free items for your reference:
Update: Due to the large number of questions regarding McDonald’s french fries and hashbrowns, we removed them from our list and addressed these questions in this post: Are french fries gluten-free? For McDonald’s specifically, make sure to read the comments for answers to your questions!
McDonald’s Gluten-Free Menu Items
- Apple Juice
- Coffee
- Hot Chocolate
- 1% Low Fat Milk, White or Chocolate
- Orange Juice
- Soft Drinks
- Chocolate Triple Thick® Shake
- Strawberry Triple Thick® Shake
- Vanilla Triple Thick® Shake
- Condiments/Sauces
- Butter
- Chicken McNugget® Honey
- Chicken McNugget® Hot Mustard Sauce
- Hotcake Syrup
- Jam
- Ketchup
- Lettuce
- Margarine
- Mayonnaise
- Mustard
- Onions
- Pickles
- Tartar Sauce
- Tomato
- Apple Dippers and Low Fat Caramel Dip
- American Cheese
- Beef Patty (no bun)
- Breakfast Beef Steak
- Canadian Bacon
- Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait (no granola)
- Ice Cream Sundaes including nuts
- McFlurry® with M&M’S® Candies
- Sausage
- Scrambled Egg
- Caesar Salad w/o Chicken
- Side Salad
- Newman’s Own® Creamy Caesar Dressing
- Newman’s Own® Cobb Dressing
- Newman’s Own® Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Newman’s Own® Ranch Dressing
- Newman’s Own® Salsa
As always, remember to check McDonald’s official website for changes in ingredients before dining out.
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McDonald’s hashbrowns are not gluten free. Careful.
Your right Teya. It is listed right on their website ingredient list.
Yes, that is true, however I don’t believe Hashbrowns were included in the above list.
People also need to be careful and avoid french fries as they used to be gluten-free, but aren’t any longer.
Yes, but condiments don’t make a meal…you can’t get full on that inadequte ingredient list. I just avoid places that don’t have a real ‘gluten-free menu’
mcdonalds sausage is NOT gluten free! i went on the mcdonalds website and it has MSG!!!!
Yeah I get real sic k on MSG like product so often these gluten free lists mean nothing to me.
Jill, monosodium glutamate is NOT gluten. MSG is simply just bad for you, but it is okay for celiacs to eat food with it.
MSG is not bad for you. Those claims have never been backed up by any real science.
That is why when I eat it I feel like I ate rat poison. It has gluten in it as is in it’s name.
MSG stands for mono sodium glutamate (sp?), so in Jill’s defense, it could contain gluten
MSG has nothing to do with gluten. Glutamate is another name for glutamic acid, which is a non-essential amino acid, and has nothing to do with gluten. It is, however, a neurotransmitter, and especially when complexed with sodium (ie monosodium glutamate=MSG) it can cause bad reactions in some people when consumed.
Bottom line: MSG does not contain any gluten, but you may have a bad reaction to it for different reasons.
The more you know
However…
Some of the same words used to conceal MSG also contain gluten. Hydrolyzed soy protein, for example.
I have a booklet that i brought from HY-Vee. It a pocket dictionary “Acceptability of Foods & Food Ingredients for the Gluten-Free Diet”- Canadian Celiac Association. Its says here, ” A flavor enhancer produced through fermentation of molasses from sugar cane or suger beets. A small precentage of the general population may have a reaction to MSG which is unrelated to gluten.” I do not remember which book i have that i study about sausage. We do need to be caution about eating sausage because some sausage do have gluten in it.
Chicken mcnuggets contain wheat. What the..?
Hi Blair!
Nowhere does the above list include Chicken McNuggets. It does include “Chicken McNuggets Honey”, etc.
In the”Ask GFQ” section, Tiffany says that the fries and hash browns are indeed gluten-free, that when tested there is no gluten detected. How do we know which one is correct?
My daughter was eating them the other day, and wow they smelled good, but I have been too scared to have one. Can I??
Anne,
Fries are a tricky subject. From my understanding, the fries are gluten-free, but many McDonald’s locations don’t maintain a dedicated fryer exclusively for fries/hashbrowns. I have had a problem at one location in our area, but the other two have always been fine, so you’ll want to talk to your local McDonald’s to confirm they maintain a dedicated fryer for their hashbrowns/fries.
Actually McDonald’s official web site has ingredient list, and it says their fries contains WHEAT and MILK. Same as their Chicken Nuggets/
Is your soft ice cream gluten free and toppings?
Yes, their french fries have gluten but they have tested them after being cooked and they test as gluten free. My daughter has never had a problem eating their french fries.
I have Celiac and there is gluten in the grilled chicken breast due to the breast being injected with preservatives that contained gluten. After the reaction I had to eating one of these grilled chicken salads at McDonald’s ,I’ll never do it again…not worth the pain, etc. I was told by the corporate office that there is gluten in the chicken breast so this is not for someone with Celiac disease!!!
My son has a wheat and peanut allergy. It is severe enough that it has caused neurological problems. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best guide for eating out.
Hi Angela,
We recommend the Triumph Dining Restaurant Guide for successful gluten-free dining. I personally use this guide and it has been a great help!
is the french fries gluten free?????? Iam gluten free and have eaten the fries and havent had a problem.
Hi Angela, You had comment: My son has a wheat and peanut allergy. It is severe enough that it has caused neurological problems. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best guide for eating out.
Last year I was dignoisis Celiac Disease. My most difficult year to know what i can eat out. I would like to add more suggestion besides recommending the Triumph Dining Restaurant Guide as Kyle Eslick suggest you. Let the waitress know your son allergic to wheat and peanuts and what food dont contain these. I know some places have food allergy guide like Arby’s will tell you all food cantains what. Another tip ask for plain grilled, steamed, or boiled meat, vegetables or raw Vegetable and freah Fruit. If going to have salad, best bit bring your own salad dressing.
so, just out of curiosity- i thought that as someone with celiacs- we were supposed to avoid regular vinegar as it is made from grain. how can Mc.Ds say that their mustard and ketchup are gluten free, or Newman’s dressing for that reason?
They might be using apple cider or wine vinegar.
That’s pathetic… I can’t feed my family a bunch of condiments!!!
My son is allergic to eggs and nuts as are most that have the TOP 8 Allergies: Tree Nuts, Eggs, Milk, Wheat, Peanuts, Fish, Soybeans and Crustacia (Shell Fish).
McDonalds is huge, I am really disappointed they are not making more strives toward heathier foods. They need to start doing more research and learn about the masses of people who are getting diagnosed Celiac or Gluten Intolerant.
Your kid is going to have a hard time through his whole life. He should get used to eating natural foods which as all of us know are not a priority of fast food.
You should skip McD’s and not get him used to eating fast food to begin with.
MSG is gluten-free but many people don’t tolerate it well if they eat mostly clean (real, not fake foods) once they start the gf diet. That’s what happened to me. I thought I was having issues with corn because I could not eat gf Doritos. Someone told me to eat plain Frito’s and after a few other similar tests, I found out the culprit was MSG. It is gf, by the way.
Only malt vinegar contains gluten. The others are made from grains but are distilled which renders them gluten-free. The details about this (very old news) is in Shelley Cases must have book http://www.glutenfreediet.ca
MSG is Poison to me. It is never ever safe. It is an exiotoxin.