By Ben Popple, founder of Mr Popple’s Chocolate · Updated June 2026 · 7 min read

🍫 The 60-second answer

Looking for gluten free chocolate bars you can trust? Pure chocolate carries no gluten on its own, but added ingredients like malt and contaminated oats sneak it in. Every Mr Popple’s Chocolate bar is made in a dedicated gluten free unit from ingredients we buy in without gluten, right down to our oat and rice flour.

There is a particular little ritual that anyone living without gluten knows by heart. You pick up a chocolate bar, turn it over, and start reading the ingredients like a crime-scene detective, hunting for the words that mean “not today”: malt, wheat starch, those innocent-looking crispy cereal pieces. For something that should be a simple pleasure, chocolate can be surprisingly cagey about what it is hiding.

So let me clear it up, because you deserve a straight answer rather than a maze. Bars that genuinely leave gluten out do exist, and you do not have to settle for the one sad option pushed to the back of the free from aisle.

Want to skip straight to the good part?

Every bar we make is made without gluten, vegan, and built on raw Peruvian cacao.

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Is chocolate gluten free?

On its own, pure chocolate has no gluten at all, because its building blocks – cacao, cocoa butter and a little sweetener – contain none. The problem is the extras. Many bars carry added ingredients that do contain gluten, which is why “is chocolate gluten free” has no single yes-or-no answer.

Cacao has no gluten the day it is picked. The trouble climbs in afterwards, once a bar starts collecting fillers, flavourings and binding agents. The usual suspects are malt extract and malt flavourings made from barley, wheat flour or wheat-based glucose syrups, and brewer’s yeast, which is a by-product of beer and so can carry gluten from barley.

Where gluten hides in chocolate	Why it contains gluten	Often found in
Barley malt extract	Made from barley	Milk chocolate, flavoured bars
Malt flavouring	Derived from barley	Cereal and crisped chocolate
Wheat flour or starch	From wheat	Filled and biscuit chocolate
Brewer’s yeast	Barley by-product	Some flavoured chocolate
Standard oats or oat flour	Cross-contamination	Oaty and cereal bars

This is why, with most supermarket chocolate, it genuinely pays to check the ingredients before you buy. The gluten is almost never the chocolate itself – it is the company it keeps.

Can coeliacs eat chocolate?

Yes, as long as the chocolate doesn’t contain any gluten. Coeliac disease is a serious autoimmune condition, not a fad or a preference, and it affects around 1 in 100 people in the UK. Chocolate with no gluten in it is perfectly fine to enjoy; chocolate carrying gluten ingredients is the thing to leave on the shelf.

The NHS describes the condition as one where “the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them”, which damages the small intestine and the body’s ability to absorb nutrients (you can read more on the NHS coeliac disease page). It is the reason a single crumb of the wrong thing can cause real harm, and why “probably fine” is never good enough.

Not everyone who reacts to gluten is coeliac. Some people have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, where the symptoms feel similar but there is no autoimmune damage to the gut. Either way, the answer on the plate is the same: chocolate without gluten that does not ask you to give up on flavour.

What does “gluten free” actually mean?

It is a legal term, not a vague marketing word. In the UK, a food can only be labelled gluten free if it contains no more than 20 parts per million of gluten. That threshold is set deliberately low, low enough to be suitable for coeliacs.

🔍 Decoder: “20 ppm”

Parts per million is just a way of measuring tiny traces. 20 ppm means no more than 20 milligrams of gluten in a whole kilogram of food – the legal ceiling for calling anything gluten-free.

Coeliac UK, the UK’s national coeliac charity, puts it plainly: “Only foods that contain 20 parts per million (ppm) or less can be labelled as ‘gluten free’.” You can read the detail on their guide to gluten and the law. You will sometimes see this shortened to GF on menus and labels, which is handy shorthand and means exactly the same regulated thing.

The oat problem, and why we buy ours without gluten

Oats have no gluten of their own, yet most oats and oat flour are not sold without gluten. They are easily contaminated with wheat, barley and rye while being grown, harvested and milled. Only oats grown and processed separately can carry the gluten free label.

This is the bit that trips up a lot of otherwise-careful chocolate. As Coeliac UK explains, “many standard oats are produced in the same place as wheat, barley and rye, which makes them unsafe because they can be contaminated” (more on their page on oats).

Our mylk bars use oat flour for their creamy texture, so this matters to us a great deal. Most makers who reach for oats never give it a second thought. We are not most makers, and we buy our oat flour and our rice flour in without gluten, so the flour in the bar carries none rather than being left as a hidden risk.

If a creamy, dairy-free bar made with gluten free oat flour sounds like your sort of thing, our Creamy Mylk bar is a lovely place to start.

Our gluten free chocolate bars: the full range

Every single bar we make is made without gluten and suitable for coeliacs, from intense dark chocolate to creamy vegan mylk. We buy all our ingredients in without gluten, and our unit is kept strictly free from gluten and the rest of the top 14 allergens. No token gesture, and no single lonely option at the back of the shelf.

“Gluten free should never mean joy-free. Everyone deserves a bar that tastes like a treat, not a compromise.”

• Ben Popple, founder of Mr Popple’s Chocolate

For dark chocolate lovers, our Signature Seventy 70% is sweetened with yacon syrup, while the Pure Peruvian 100% is pure stone-ground Criollo cacao and nothing else. If you fancy a little adventure, the Amarillo Chilli brings a gentle, fruity heat. Prefer something softer? Our vegan mylk bars get their creaminess from rice and oat milks instead of dairy, which makes them a rare vegan chocolate that also skips gluten and still tastes properly indulgent.

For the fuller story on how we keep things dairy-free as well, our piece on dairy free chocolate is worth a read, and if sugar is on your mind too, here is how our yacon-sweetened sugar free chocolate does its work. They also make a thoughtful present for anyone juggling dietary needs, and our letterbox chocolate gifts drop straight through the door.

Do you need to go gluten free if you are not coeliac?

Probably not. A gluten free diet is essential for people with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, but for everyone else the health case is thin. There is no strong evidence that cutting it out helps people who do not actually react to it.

Avoiding gluten has become a bit of a wellness badge, and I understand the appeal of a tidy rule. Honestly? For most people who are not coeliac, the science just is not there. One review published on the National Library of Medicine found that “high-quality evidence supporting gluten avoidance for physical symptoms or diseases other than those specifically known to be caused by immune-mediated responses to gluten is neither robust nor convincing.”

So if you do not need to steer clear of gluten, you do not have to. But if you choose our bars anyway, you get raw cacao, natural sweeteners and a properly plastic-free conscience alongside the flavour, which is not a bad way to enjoy your favourite treat.

Who these bars are for

• People with coeliac disease who want real chocolate, not a consolation prize
• Anyone with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity
• Vegans and dairy free eaters after a genuine vegan chocolate that leaves gluten out
• Refined-sugar avoiders, since many of our bars are naturally low in sugar
• Gift buyers shopping for someone with dietary needs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is all chocolate gluten free?
No. Pure chocolate, made from cacao, cocoa butter and sugar, naturally has none, but plenty of bars are not. Gluten sneaks in through added gluten ingredients like malt extract, malt flavourings, wheat-based syrups or biscuit pieces. With supermarket chocolate it always pays to check the label, because the gluten is rarely the chocolate itself.

Are all Mr Popple’s Chocolate bars gluten free?
Yes, every single bar. Mr Popple’s Chocolate buys all our ingredients in without gluten, including our oat and rice flour, and our unit is kept strictly free from gluten and the rest of the top 14 allergens. No malt, no wheat, no hidden gluten anywhere in the range.

Are your chocolate bars safe for a coeliac?
Yes. Because our bars are made without gluten, in a dedicated unit kept strictly free from it, using ingredients bought in without gluten, they are suitable for anyone who is coeliac. That includes our dark bars, our vegan mylks and our seasonal flavours, so you are not stuck with a single token option.

Are your chocolate bars vegan and dairy free too?
Yes. Mr Popple’s Chocolate is entirely vegan, dairy free and plant-based, so our bars are free from milk as well as gluten. Our mylk bars get their creamy texture from rice and oat milks rather than dairy, which makes them a rare vegan chocolate that leaves gluten out and still tastes properly indulgent.

I have a nut allergy. Can I eat your chocolate?
Our ingredients are bought in as nut-free from suppliers who do not handle nuts, and our unit is kept strictly nut-free. The one exception is our seasonal Pumpkin Spice bar, whose spice blend comes from a supplier that also handles nuts. If you have a severe nut allergy, please contact us before ordering.

Do you use oats, and aren’t oats off-limits for coeliacs?
Oats have no gluten of their own, but most oats and oat flour are not sold without gluten because they are easily contaminated with wheat, barley and rye during growing and milling. That is exactly why we buy our oat flour in without gluten, so the oat flour in our mylk bars carries none rather than being a hidden risk.

Are your bars sugar free as well?
Several are. Our dark bars are sweetened with yacon syrup, which has a glycaemic index of just 1, and our Pure Peruvian 100% bar has no sweetener at all. The mylks and Amarillo Chilli use coconut blossom sugar instead of refined sugar. So you can enjoy a low-sugar bar with no gluten in the same bite.

Real chocolate, minus the gluten

Every bar is free of gluten, vegan and made with raw Peruvian cacao, so you can finally stop reading the wrapper like a contract and simply enjoy your chocolate.

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Last updated: June 2026