It's everywhere from bagels to cheesecakes, but not only that! Cream cheese is a useful, fresh and delicious ingredient that is always a pleasure to consume. Adding this ingredient to the list of ingredients that can be used is a real advantage for a person following a gluten-free diet, so it is normal to wonder if it contains gluten.
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Do Cream Cheese have gluten?
No, if we stick to the original recipe of this product and assume that cream cheese is produced from acid lactic bacteria and a mixture of cream and milk. However, it is not impossible that some brands use additives for a better texture and preservation or ingredients to flavor this cheese for example. In this case, you have to be careful and make sure by reading the label that the product is gluten free.
What is Cream Cheese made of?
First of all, the name cream cheese corresponds to very specific criteria.
According to USDA Specifications for Cream Cheese, a cream cheese must have:
- Moisture -> Not more than 55 percent
- Milkfat -> Not less than 33 percent total fat
- pH -> Range - 4.4 to 4.9
- Salt -> Not more than 1.4 percent
Then, the recipe is quite simple. Lactic acid is added to pasteurized milk and/or cream and the whole is mixed until the milk curdles. The whey and the curd are separated. The curd is recovered and heated. All this process allows the decrease of the pH and the humidity level of our final product, which will be the much coveted cream cheese.
What are the best gluten-free Cream Cheese substitutes?
If you want to be 100% sure that you can safely consume a cream cheese, there are hundreds of quick and easy recipes to make at home! Make sure you use the best quality ingredients to get the perfect cheese you'll love.
Gluten-free Cream Cheese in restaurants
In restaurants, cream cheese is used in many recipes, to be sure that it is natural and does not contain flavors that could be linked to ingredients containing gluten, ask the waiter if the recipe is gluten free, restaurants generally like to highlight this detail.
Keep in mind it is often the elements of the recipe that accompany the cream cheese that can cause problems, I think for example of bagels, the flour to make them must be gluten free.
Cream Cheese brands that are guaranteed gluten free
Here is a short list of brands that can be consumed by people following a gluten free diet. You can find these brands in stores or online.
- Crystal Farms
- Daiya
- Great Value
- Kite Hill
- Philadelphia (Original Cream Cheese)
- Tofutti
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