Happy October! I'm Bri, founder of Purely Gluten Free — and if you've been around here a while, you know Halloween is basically our Super Bowl. It's the one month a year where gluten-free label-reading goes from "occasional annoyance" to "full-time job," so I wanted to kick things off this month with a few facts that genuinely surprised me the first few Halloweens I navigated as a celiac mom.
Did you know a candy's regular version and its "seasonal shape" version aren't always made the same way? A classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup can be gluten-free while a Halloween-shaped Reese's pumpkin isn't guaranteed to follow the same recipe or production line. Shape matters more than people think.
Did you know "gluten-free" and "made in a dedicated gluten-free facility" are two different promises? A product can honestly be free of gluten ingredients without being made somewhere that guarantees zero cross-contact. Both can be safe — but they're not the same level of safe, and it matters more for some of us than others.
Did you know the Teal Pumpkin Project is a real, nationally recognized thing? A teal pumpkin on a porch means that house also has non-food treats available for trick-or-treaters with allergies. We'll do a full post on this later in the month because it's honestly one of my favorite Halloween initiatives.
Did you know some of the most popular Halloween candies — Skittles, Starburst, Smarties, Jolly Ranchers — are naturally gluten-free? It's not all bad news out there. You've got more safe options than you might think; you just have to know where to look (that's kind of our whole thing at Purely Gluten Free, honestly).
This month, I'm walking through everything I've learned over years of doing this — what's safe, what to avoid, how to talk to your kids about it, and how to make this season feel exciting instead of stressful. Follow along, and if you're newer to this journey, welcome — you're going to be just fine by Halloween night.
What's one Halloween candy fact that surprised you the most when you went gluten-free? Tell me in the comments — I read every one.
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