General Mills’ Rice Chex

Growing up we had basically three kinds of cereal in the house: Cheerios, Kix, and Raisin Bran. All the rest – the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, etc. – were all “candy,” according to my mom. As I grew older, I expanded my taste in cereals, though I never strayed far from my upbringing. I added Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Crispix to my list of regulars. All pretty tame selections, and fairly healthy too, as cereals go.

When I went gluten-free, those cereals all became off limits. As corn- and rice-based cereals, you’d think they’d be gluten-free, but most cereal companies use barley malt extract in their recipes, thus adding gluten to a cereal that otherwise would be okay to eat. I heard that General Mills had recently modified their recipe to make their Rice Chex gluten-free. On a whim, last night Kelli and I strolled down the regular cereal aisle of our grocery store – something we only do these days if she has a craving for frosted mini wheats or another treat – to see if the new and improved Rice Chex had hit the shelves.

Sure enough, there it was – Rice Chex, with “gluten-free” labeled prominently on the front of the package. I read the ingredients to double-check, and sure enough, barley malt extract was conspicuously absent from the list. Hooray for General Mills! I immediately threw a box into our shopping cart, and gobbled down a bowl of Rice Chex as part of my breakfast this morning. Keep in mind, the remainder of the Chex line of cereals, including Corn Chex, are NOT gluten-free. They still contain barley malt extract. But you can now enjoy Rice Chex to your heart’s content, and the company has even added a list of gluten-free recipes to its website.

– Pete