Has anyone had a person with a true wheat allergy or celiac disease on a trip? Some one who gets extremely ill with any wheat or gluten? I know some of the mountain house meals say they are gluten free, but it would be hard to plan all meals with those. Also has anyone with a gluten allergy had a problem with backpacking meals that claim to be gluten free? We have a relative we'd love to take, but would hate for her to get sick long way from anywhere.

I have several food allergies (gluten/wheat, dairy, eggs, plus more), so I steer away from most prepackaged meals. Jerky & other dried meats, dried fruits, nuts, along with bannock and a fruit cake I make myself round out most of my meals. Frozen/vacuum-sealed meats the first couple days if I have room.

I'll be watching to see any responses. I hope you have good luck finding a menu that works for your relative.

It's really kind of you to inquire on behalf of this person's safety. As a person diagnosed with Celiac disease just last summer, what I would advise is to find out what the person is used to eating. It may be a situation where it's safest that they prepare, pack and use their own food pack / food system, with a separate meal when the group eats. With the fire ban, it's not like you'll be doing a lot of big, involved meals anyway.

PM me if you want some ideas, but I just do at-home dehydration, and also have had good luck with a few brands that are certified GF. I prepare, pack my own meals if going with a group, and just do simple rehydration cooking. I can't eat most of they're eating, and it would be unfair to expect them to be as rigorous with their diets just for my sake.

It's surprising just how many foods use wheat, barley or rye. Costco has a decent selection of certified GF baking mixes, pancake mixes, and grains / bars / snacks etc. But like I said, for a full trip, I just resort to home-prepared dehydration.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been thinking we'd either try to go all gluten free for all meals or have her bring her own. You're right that she'd probably be more comfortable packing her own packets. There's so many ways to get cross contamination. I admit I was skeptical in the past until I saw how little it takes to make someone really sick. We've ordered some gluten free gumbo and jambalaya called Wantsumeaux Gumbeaux. And I could see using rice noodles with homemade dehydrated marinara. It will be a while before we go though and we'll probably try some shorter trips closer to home so hopefully she'll have a group of products she's tested and trusts by then. Thanks for the advice. I admire you for not letting restrictions keep you from getting out and doing what you enjoy.

Scottc60 is your bannock a commercial product? Or do either of you have a GF flat bread recipe?

I use 1/2c commercial gluten -free all purpose flour, add some dried fruit, 1/2tsp baking soda and then enough warm water for a stiff dough (about 1/2c). If it's hot I'll add some salt too.

I cook it like regular bannock in a skillet. Great with peanut butter or a plant or soy butter. It is a heavy flat bread that is filling.

I have been Gluten Free since 2005, and make my own meals for BWCA trips. I have found a large array of freeze dried foods on Amazon which I use. My favorite dinners are the Good-to-Go dinners. They are expensive so I stretch a 2 serving dinner into 3 servings by adding freeze dried chicken, a variety of vegetables, and boil-in-the-bag rice. This also avoids a lot of excess salt. Now the gross part: I put all of this in a ziplock freezer bag, add boiling water to the bag, and eat out of the bag. My breakfasts are all a GF hot cereal to which I add different freeze dried fruits. Again, I mix this up at home, add boiling water, etc. If the whole group wants pancakes, you can all eat Pamela’s GF pancake mix with freeze dried blueberries. Lunch is easy: GF crackers with cheese or nut butter. I also use coconut wraps to hold fillings. I use corn meal for fish batter. This is all do-able. All of the hot meals can be prepped ahead of time in the ziplocks, so they don’t require special prep at your site. GO and enjoy!

Camp Chow (based on the Gunflint Trail) has a whole line of GF meals. They make all their items in house. Your trip partner could contact them and be able to speak with a real person easily and ask the pertinent questions needed to figure out if they meet their requirements. Then just pack a soaking jar that is dedicated to them so no cross contamination. They can just boil the indicated amount of water to pour into the jar to rehydrate it.



Soaking jar (this says "cold soak" but works really well for hot soak)

Camp Chow

Freeleo, I'll just reiterate before you go buy some ($$) dehydrated food labeled gluten free, maybe consider checking with the family member and see how they are (hopefully successfully) managing their celiac disease. They may have tried "gluten-free" foods and found that the cross-contamination risk was too much for them - or they may be tolerating that risk depending on what they eat. Just because something is labeled gluten-free doesn't it mean it comes from a facility that manages the non-gluten prep in a way that doesn't pose a risk of contamination. My son worked at a pizza joint for a summer and told me how they did their "GF pizza" - different crust and that was it. Same same flopping out on a floured surface, same pizza cutters, same oven rack.
If you want some ideas for (easy!) home prep and dehydration of some tasty, gluten-free meals, PM me. As others have said, there is an abundance of certified GF crackers and so forth for lunch and GF oats for breakfast. I also do a dehydrated rice pudding posted by MN_Lindsey in the dessert and breakfast board that is amazing (Thank you MN_Lindsey!). Be careful about offering to share any sausages, chocolates, etc. Lindt truffles have barley for example, soy sauces typically contain wheat, and Wild Turkey rye whiskey would not cut it. :) But there are a lot of other options that are easy, delicious, nutritious and won't cause her any problems.