Is Brown Sugar Gluten-free? (And What Brands To Buy)

Is brown sugar gluten-free? Yes, it is! There’s only one issue you might need to worry about. Read on if you have celiac disease or are very sensitive to gluten.

What Are The Ingredients Of Brown Sugar?

Brown sugar consists of granulated sugar and molasses. Those two ingredients are naturally gluten-free, meaning the product – brown sugar – is also gluten-free.

It could be that there’s some odd brand out there with flavorings or fillers that contain gluten, but I’m not aware of them.

I once bought something that looked and smelled like brown sugar in the Netherlands. That did have some caramel flavoring/coloring in it and other ingredients. Whether or not that was gluten-free, I don’t know. So… non-gluten-free brown sugar could exist out there!

Gluten-free Brown Sugar Brands

The following brands are labeled as gluten-free. So what does that mean?

For products to legally be labeled gluten-free in the US, they must meet the requirements of the FDA of being less than 20ppm gluten. When products are tested to be less than 20ppm gluten, then they may be labeled as such.

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If brown sugar doesn’t contain any gluten ingredients, then why do they need to be tested to be labeled as gluten-free? Because of cross-contamination.

Although brown sugar doesn’t contain any gluten ingredients, it could be manufactured and packed in a facility that produces gluten-containing products. Or it could even be processed using the same equipment as gluten products.

The problem is that that equipment may or may not be cleaned when they switch from product to product. This could possibly lead to cross-contamination.

So here are some brands that are tested and labeled as gluten-free. You can find at least some of these in grocery stores and on Amazon

• Big Tree Farms
• Domino
• Natural Earth Products
• NOW Natural Foods
• Relative Foods
• Trader Joe’s
• Wholesome
• Great Value (that’s Wal-mart’s brand)

Imperial Sugar, one of the most popular brands of brown sugar states on their website that:

“None of the eight FDA listed major food allergens are stored, processed or used on-site at Imperial Sugar Company facilities: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans. In addition, none of these allergens are present either on or near any of the production areas. To the best of our knowledge, all Imperial Sugar products do not contain any gluten from wheat, rye, barley or oats.”

So that sounds super safe. Maybe they figure that brown sugar is naturally gluten-free, so why bother with getting it tested in order to be allowed to put that on their label? I’m not quite sure.

How To Make Brown Sugar

You just need granulated sugar and molasses. To make light brown sugar, mix 1 tablespoon of molasses with 1 cup of granulated sugar. To make dark brown sugar, double the molasses.

Use an electric or hand mixer and mix at medium until molasses is completely incorporated. You can also use a fork, but it takes patience, and you’ll probably resort to using your hands towards the end. 😉

Store it in an airtight container for as long as your molasses is good. If the bottle of molasses you used expires in June 2023, then your sugar will be good until then. Maybe even longer, but that’s the minimum.

Gluten-free Recipes with Brown Sugar

I have 430 gluten-free recipes, with most of them being sweets. Here are some of my favorites with brown sugar!

• Gluten-free Brown Sugar Shortbread
• Gluten-free Apple Crisp
• Rainbow Carrots
• Gluten-free Pudding

I hope I’ve answered your question on whether brown sugar is gluten-free or not! If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them below and I’ll be happy to help answer them. 🙂