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After reading about wasabi as a possible source of gluten I wrote to S&B
Foods, a popular wasabi manufacturer in Japan. They replied that they do
not use any wheat, rye, barley, oats, malt, etc directly in
manufacturing wasabi products. However, they cannot confirm the same is
true for all suppliers of the ingredients that go into their wasabi.

Therefore, they are unable to say that their wasabi products, including
both powder and paste, are gluten-free. I would forward the email from
them, but the correspondence is in Japanese.

I am living in Japan for a year and have found, as has been mentioned by
others on this list, that eating prepared foods or going to restaurants
is a big challenge. On the plus side, though, the fresh fruits,
vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, etc here are all wonderful. Since I cook
my own meals and bring bento (box lunches) with me when I go out, I am
enjoying being in Japan very much. I thought that eating sushi would be
OK, but -- even though I am careful to avoid the ones with roe, egg,
eel, etc -- I noticed that I did not feel well after going out to eat
sushi and had abandoned doing it. I was wondering what the source of the
problem was. Now I realize that it must have been the wasabi. This is a
big surprise for me -- I would never have suspected it as a source of
gluten.

Other big surprises I have had in Japan so far are that most pickled
foods include wheat among their ingredients and that sweets, including
desserts of fresh fruit in syrup, hard candies, and traditional bean
pastes, very often are made with barley sugar.

Maureen Donovan
Kyoto, Japan

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