Gluten Free Fast Food: What the Chains Actually Declare

Not a list of what somebody thinks is safe. This is what each chain publishes about gluten in its own food, item by item — 968 items that declare it, and the 213 that are declared free of it. The difference between those two numbers is the whole story of this page.

Declared free of gluten

Each of these carries an explicit statement from the chain that gluten is not present. That is a statement about ingredients, not about the kitchen — see the note at the bottom, which matters more here than anywhere else on this site.

What declares gluten or wheat

968 items across 4 chains, which is the more useful list: these are the ones the chain itself says contain it. 672 Burger King, 139 Chick-fil-A, 108 McDonald's, 49 Taco Bell

The first 60 of 968, alphabetically by chain.

Why the other two chains cannot tell you

McDonald’s publishes allergens against individual ingredients rather than finished items, and only for some of them: a Big Mac is made of seven things and three of them carry an allergen line. That is enough to know the bun has wheat in it. It is not enough to say anything about the four that stay silent.

Burger King codes each allergen per item, and its code for “no” is the same as its code for “nothing recorded” — a Chocolate Chip Cookie reads zero for wheat, which is true of no cookie anywhere. So its zeros are not published here as absences.

Both are read for what they do declare. Neither is read for what they leave out.

What declares milk

979 items say they contain milk: 588 Burger King, 211 Chick-fil-A, 124 McDonald's, 56 Taco Bell. As above, this is what the chains declare rather than what they rule out, so it is a list to avoid from and not a list to choose from.

The first 30 of 979.

What declares eggs

657 items say they contain eggs: 419 Burger King, 145 Chick-fil-A, 57 McDonald's, 36 Taco Bell. As above, this is what the chains declare rather than what they rule out, so it is a list to avoid from and not a list to choose from.

The first 30 of 657.

Why there is no vegan list here

Allergen statements describe milk, eggs, fish and shellfish. They say nothing whatsoever about beef, chicken or pork, so an item with no milk declared against it is not thereby vegan — it may be a hamburger. Taco Bell publishes a meatless flag as well, and it is the only chain here where the two can be combined at all: doing so leaves exactly one item that is flagged meatless and declared free of both milk and eggs. One item is not a page, so there is not one.