Reading Labels: What the heck is triticale?

Food shopping is an adventure for the celiac, reading labels and trying to figure out the definition all those words that look like they jumped out of a chemistry textbook is a challenge. Unfortunately, the FDA has not taken it upon themselves to make our lives any easier. Currently, the FDA encourages manufacturers of foods that contain common allergens (generally soy, milk, eggs, fish, nuts and wheat) to label their products, but this labeling is entirely voluntary. So is the labeling of gluten-free products (if you enjoy reading documents with absurd amounts of quotation marks check this out). Ugh. Gotta love bureaucracy. So the lesson is: always read your labels!

In our modern society, successfully reading food labels nearly requires a Ph.D. in Chemistry (my History degrees are generally unhelpful). It's a good idea for every celiac to familiarize themselves with common food label terms and whether they're dangerous or benign. In the early days you might consider bringing a cheat sheet along with you to the grocery store - better safe than sorry!

Today's confusing label term is triticale. What the heck is it? Celiac beware, triticale is a grain cross between wheat and rye. Double bad. The grain was first bred in Scottish and Swedish laboratories in the 19th century. It has a higher protein content than wheat, but current milling techniques designed for wheat do not work with triticale. Triticale is grown mostly in Western European countries for animal feed, but developers have high hopes for it as a replacement for wheat crops in developing countries for it's high protein content and, also, as a biofuel. Trekkies may recognize this grain from the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles."