Tortillas are a staple food in Mexico. The staple crop in Mexico is corn (maize). Put two and two together, and you might assume that if you have a wheat allergy, then you can eat tortillas, right?<\/p>\n

It isn’t quite that straight forward.<\/p>\n

The traditional recipe for tortillas uses pure corn, and there are still a lot of pure corn tortillas to be had in Mexico. Mostly that is what you will find in local restaurants. If you buy frozen tortillas in a North American supermarket though, it is much more likely to be made of (or with) wheat. <\/p>\n

Even in Mexico, not all tortillas are pure corn. Firstly, there is the wheat tortilla, identified by its colour. It is nearly white, where as a corn tortilla is yellowish, and usually has more texture. Large, hand-made tortillas are generally safe. Everyone I spoke to in Mexico was very sure that a hand-made tortilla is pure corn, and that’s the end of it. This may not be true in northern Mexico, I have not had the chance to look into this. <\/p>\n

Tortillas bought in Mexican supermarkets may be wheat-free, but they are just as likely to have wheat in the ingredients. You must check every time. If you eat at a food stall, ask where they get their tortillas from. For this, you must know some Spanish, so if you don’t know any Spanish, look for a food stall that uses large tortillas that do not look machine made. If you see the owner making their own (they squeeze a ball of maize dough in a big press, then slap it on a hot grill) then you are safe (at least in central and southern Mexico, again, I have not had the chance to verify northern Mexico).<\/p>\n

Of course “tacos” bough in the USA or Canada are pure corn. These are hard discs formed into a U-shape, which can be stuffed with meat and vegetables. They are not Mexican at all, but they are wheat-free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tortillas are a staple food in Mexico. The staple crop in Mexico is corn (maize). Put two and two together, and you might assume that if you have a wheat allergy, then you can eat tortillas, right? It isn’t quite that straight forward. The traditional recipe for tortillas uses pure corn, and there are still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[16],"tags":[30,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}