<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

>I recently discovered that Old El Paso's enchilada sauce has wheat
>flour in it.  Does this mean that *most* enchilada sauces ARE made
>with wheat flour, kinda like gravy?

You must have missed my post the other day about salsa versus sauce.
I went to the store and read the labels on every Mexican salsa or
sauce carried by this store.  In all products called 'salsa', the
only offending additive I could find was vinegar, which is suspect
because it is probably distilled vinegar made from grain.  On all
products labeled 'sauce' (taco sauce, enchilada sauce, mole sauce,
etc.), the ingredients labels included modified food starch.

We all know, if we've been reading this line for more than a week, that
modified food starch CAN contain wheat (but might not).  In Mexican
cooking, most sauces are cooked down and thickened, like a gravy.
Some of the recipes I've seen use cornmeal or even a corn tortilla as
the thickener but, if you're buying some canned product, you simply
can't be sure what goes into their modified food starch.  Salsa, on
the other hand, is typically made from fresh tomatoes, chilis, onions,
garlic and cilantro and is never cooked or thickened.  Homemade salsas
usually do not require vinegar; I think that commercial salsas have
vinegar in order to increase the acidity of the product.

>Also, I noticed someone mentioned canned peas as not being glutenfree -
>what in the world is wrong with canned peas???

Here again, I think the offending ingredient is modified food starch.
I've seen modified food starch on labels of canned peas as well as corn
(particularly creamed corn) and chili beans.  The starch is used to make
the canning juice a little thicker.  As always, read the labels.

                                BJ