Q & A: Gluten Free Turducken?

We receive many consumer inquiries about our turduckens and turducken burger patties at Echelon Foods. In this series of blog posts we’ll look into some of the most common (and less common) questions. For our first post we’ll discuss gluten free.

Q & A: Gluten Free Turducken?

Are Echelon Foods turduckens gluten free?

We receive this question periodically. The short answer is – no. The gluten in our turduckens comes from our sausage stuffing where we combine bread cubes (the source of the gluten) with our quality butcher grade sausage to make the stuffing.

The longer answer is we are actively developing some gluten free products.

What is a gluten free product?

From Wikipedia gluten is “a protein complex found in wheat, barley, rye and triticale”. A product that does not contain any gluten (so no wheat, barley, rye or triticale) is gluten free. It is critical for people with celiac disease who cannot eat any gluten products.

How prevalent are gluten free diets?

It is estimated that while 1 in 133 people in North America have celiac disease and follow a strict gluten free diet, up to 6% of people may have a gluten intolerance or are gluten sensitive and also eat gluten free products. Others prefer to eat gluten free because they want less gluten in their diets. According to Dr. Alessio Fasano gluten sensitivity is on the rise and has doubled every 15 years in North America:

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/R-D/The-lowdown-on-celiac-disease-gluten-sensitivity-and-celebrity-wheat-bashing-In-conversation-with-Dr-Alessio-Fasano

Do you sacrifice taste for gluten free?

Not necessarily. We are developing some amazing tasting gluten free products – details to come out later this spring so check back here for details. Some great tasting, nutritious and gluten free ingredients can make a great compliment to the protein rich ingredients found in turducken or other poultry products.