It all starts with oats.
Cheerios have always been made of oats, which are naturally gluten free.
First, the oats are harvested.
Many farmers who grow oats rotate their crops.
That means they also grow grains that have gluten (like wheat, barley, and rye). These grains get mixed in with the oats during harvesting and transport. To make Cheerios gluten‑free, we have to separate them from the oats. All the oats are sifted. Our sifter sorts out the grains of barley, wheat, and rye, which are different sizes and shapes than oats.
Every batch of oats is tested to make sure it has less than 20 parts per million of other grains.
That means, on average, for every 15,000 grains of oats, there can be no more than 1 grain of wheat, barley, or rye.
Did you know?
To make gluten‑free Cheerios, our sifter has to sort 3.5 million pounds of oats every day.
Then, the oats are milled into flour.
The oats go to a mill that’s dedicated to making gluten‑free flour. Once the oats are milled, the flour is checked to make sure it’s still gluten‑free.
The oat flour gets shipped to the plant.
The flour travels in our dedicated gluten‑free trucks and rail cars on its way to becoming Cheerios.
And then it’s made into Cheerios.
Using the same recipe as always, we puff and toast the oat flour into Cheerios. The finished Cheerios are checked once more to ensure they’re gluten‑free.
The Cheerios you’ve always loved. Now gluten‑free.
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