Food Safety Tips: Italy Gluten Awareness and Labeling
- celiacbythebay
- Mar 13
- 6 min read
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Sharing a meal together is a huge part of Italian culture, with so much pride being taken in the food they make and serve. It’s one of the primary ways Italians show they care, and that includes taking care of those with food allergies and dietary restrictions. It is also one of the most knowledgeable countries we’ve visited in terms of celiac awareness and cross contact prevention — even small restaurants typically know what Celiac is and are able to confidently confirm whether or not they can safely accommodate someone with celiac and/or other allergies.
Now, that’s not to say you can blindly eat anywhere safely, and like any country, it’s going to be harder to find options off the beaten path. But we’ve found most major cities to have a plethora of delicious food options, including a dedicated gluten-free grocery store (or two!), and even smaller areas usually have an option or two as long as you plan ahead and choose your base towns wisely. So without further ado, here are some important gluten safety tips to help you stay safe in Italy:
Grocery Shopping Tips: Food Labeling
Italy falls under European Union laws and regulations, which require obvious labeling (highlighted, underlined or bolded) of the 14 top allergens. The 14 allergens are:
Cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats)
Crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs, and lobsters)
Eggs
Fish
Peanuts
Soy
Dairy
Tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts)
Celery
Mustard
Sesame
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
Lupin
Mollusks (such as mussels, oysters, and clams)
Besides checking the ingredient list, the front or back of the packaging may include the phrase “Senza Glutine,” i.e. gluten-free. If a product says this, that means the product must have sub-20 ppm gluten content. You will also often see this red label with a line through a stalk of wheat, which is used across the EU and means the product is certified gluten-free below 20 ppm. Italy is very strict with its food regulations, so you should be safe with or without the certification.
We found gluten-free snacks, drinks, and other products to be in decent supply at regular grocery stores, and there are also dedicated gluten-free grocery stores in major cities (Rome, Florence, Venice, etc.) that have an even larger variety of options (we always stock up on dried pastas and other goodies to bring back home). Definitely check one out if you're able to!
Furthermore, gluten-free food is considered a medical necessity in Italy, so pharmacies often have a selection of gluten-free snacks, just-add-water meals, and more. In our experience, pharmacists have also been knowledgeable on gluten and able to point us to gluten-free versions of OTC medications like allergy meds, which is a big plus.
Lindt Lindor Milk Chocolate Truffle Sample
In each country's Food Safety Tips guide, we include a LINDOR truffle test to illustrate how allergen labeling differs country to country (you can read more about this test and compare additional countries here; we've also included some great gluten-free truffle replacements there, such as Italy’s Venchi brand!). Below is an example of the ingredient labeling on an Italian Lindt LINDOR milk chocolate truffle box:
Now if you look closely, you’ll see where things get a bit dicey in terms of gluten labeling, despite how much we love EU labeling generally. Starting with the good, you can see the clear, bolded allergen labeling of latte (milk), lattosio (lactose), burro (butter), soia (soy) and orzo (barley). Down in the “Può contenere" (may contain) section, you’ll see nocciole (hazelnuts) and frutta a guscio (other nuts), which is warning you of potential cross contact with these allergens — this is where you would find the warning for gluten cross contact (if there wasn’t a gluten containing ingredient but there was still cross contact risk for it). All fantastic, common sense labeling that puts our home country to shame, quite frankly. BUT, it’s not perfect: despite containing barley in the ingredient list, you’ll see these truffles are still labeled “Senza glutine” (gluten free). That is because in the EU, they consider foods to be gluten-free as long as they test below 20 ppm, even if they do contain gluten ingredients like barley malt. In comparison, the U.S. doesn't allow any products with gluten-containing ingredients to be labeled gluten-free, even if the end result does test below 20 ppm, as no gluten-containing ingredient is considered safe for celiacs in the U.S. Given this, and considering that some forms of gluten are better at evading detection on gluten tests than others, we still steer clear of Lindt truffles in Italy despite the gluten-free labeling. We would also recommend doing the same for other products that fall under the same type of situation, such as merely gluten-reduced beers that are labeled gluten-free.
Restaurant Safety Tips: Advocating For Your Needs
Italian restaurants (especially the ones we recommend in our guides) are typically familiar with celiac disease and will understand the phrase “sono celiaca/o” (pronounced so-no chee-lee-ack-uh/oh), but as with all travel, we still recommend doing your research, asking clarifying questions, and never assuming you can just walk into any restaurant and eat safely.
We found most restaurants to be very friendly and open to accommodating allergies when at all possible, and they were happy to let us know the precautions they would take. They were very upfront and matter of fact about what dishes would be safe from cross contact or whether they didn’t believe their kitchen would be able to safely accommodate us and recommended we try elsewhere, which I much prefer to the alternative of being glutened. And unless they had a completely separate kitchen for their gluten-free meals (which many places did!), they almost always let us know that our meal would take longer to come out due to them needing to carefully clean all tools, surfaces, etc. to make it safe — we always love to hear that, as what better proof can you get that they’re taking your medical needs seriously?
The EU’s allergen labeling laws also apply in restaurants, so typically each dish will be labeled with multiple numbers that correspond to each allergen type contained within the dish. The key that tells you what each number stands for should be either at the bottom of each page, at the front or back of the menu, or on a separate allergen menu (the allergen list we included above in the grocery tips section is also numbered to match the key you’d see in a restaurant menu). This can help you confirm the gluten-free status of the dish you’re ordering, and whether modifications will need to be made to make it safe for you.
In addition, Italy has its own celiac association — Associazione Italiana Celiachia (AIC) — that has done incredible work advocating for celiacs and training many restaurants and caterers on celiac-safe food practices. From different colored plates and flags for gluten-free dishes to completely separate gluten-free kitchens within the same restaurants (not a given for all AIC-accredited restaurants, but has been the case in many we visited), it’s truly impressive how AIC-trained restaurants handle gluten-free prep.
To know if the restaurant you’re at has been trained and accredited by the AIC, look for the AIC logo on either the door/windows or printed on the menus themselves. To see a full list of AIC-accredited restaurants in the area you’re traveling, you can purchase tourist access to their app (Apple App Store, Google Play), which gives you 15 days’ access. We chose to purchase our access just before our trip to double check our chosen restaurants and see if we needed any last minute changes based on recent reviews, but others may prefer to get it sooner for planning purposes or wait until arriving so as to have access during the trip itself.
Given all of this, Italy is a lot easier than most countries to be a bit carefree as a celiac. But nonetheless, we still recommend thoroughly researching each restaurant’s celiac awareness and cross-contact prevention precautions before eating anywhere, because no country is foolproof across the board. This includes pre-visit research through AIC, this website, and/or an app like Find Me Gluten Free (get $5 off FMGF Premium here); asking the right questions of servers; and considering using an allergy translation card like those from EqualEats (get 10% off with coupon code CELIACBYTHEBAY) to ensure you’re safe (especially helpful to ease language barriers in smaller towns, though we found many Italians speak very good English).
If at any time within these steps you don’t trust that a restaurant has the knowledge to keep you safe, don’t be afraid to leave and find somewhere else to eat. Trust your (sensitive) gut — better to be safe than risk ruining your trip and health!
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