Is Miso Gluten-Free?

Nutty, savory and brimming with umami, miso is a great way to add a lot of flavor to your cooking with minimal effort. But is it gluten-free? 

The answer? It depends.

Miso is traditionally made by fermenting cooked soybeans with salt and koji, a starter culture that helps ferment the proteins and starches in the beans. The issue is that koji can be inoculated onto a wide variety of grains and legumes like rice, barley, wheat, and soybeans. 

While soybeans and rice are naturally gluten-free, some miso pastes are made with barley or wheat koji, which do contain gluten. A simple check of the ingredient label will tell you whether the miso includes these grains, but we’ve made it even easier to find gluten-free miso in our lineup. Just look for the GFCO Certified Glute-Free logo on the label so you can confidently incorporate miso into your cooking.