Allergens in the paella

Paella, the spearhead of Spanish gastronomy and the Mediterranean diet, is a recipe that is universally recognized not only for its flavor, tradition or unique way of cooking in paella, it is also recognized for its wide variety of different recipes and ingredients, from the traditional Valencian paella to other combinations of seafood and vegetables and other more unusual ingredients, the wide range of ingredients compatible with paella is growing every day, which is undoubtedly beneficial for the creation of thousands of different recipes, but not so much for a certain select group of people.

Many people suffer from allergies, among the common ones are usually those that affect food intake, from lactose intolerance, to celiac people who cannot consume gluten, it is painful not being able to try certain recipes or foods because we suffer a food allergy to the components that make it up. This is no exception in paella, although I bring good news about the latter.

In our desire to be able to serve a paella for all our diners, we have already investigated the most frequent allergens that we can find during its preparation in its most recognized recipes, and we are happy to announce that, among these recipes, the Valencian paella, also referred to as the traditional paella, it turns out to be one of the recipes that we could call the paella for celiacs.

This is because none of its ingredients have gluten, except for the possible exception of coloring, depending on which brand we use, since the powder that makes it up is usually based on wheat.

Of course, I don't think anyone likes to eat only Valencian paella when we have so many possible recipes, which is why we have prepared two tables where we inform you of the allergens that we can find in some of the most popular paella recipes. This way you will be able to know the allergens of the paella, logically, the allergens that are in each dish will depend on the ingredients used, so this table is simply intended to be an orientation and the actual presence of allergens will always depend on the ingredients used in each dish.

In this first table, we inform you of the allergens that you can find if you have obtained the ingredients used in that paella on your own, that is, they are natural, unprocessed products, without industrial treatments and in general without any type of additive of any kind. nature:

Meanwhile, in the second table we offer you the possible allergens that you can find in the ingredients if you buy them in any store, that is, it contains processed products, with industrial treatments and in general with a high probability of having additives of any kind, in which we can find the presence of certain possible allergens as, in this case, we have considered the use of funds or processed fumets of a well-known brand and access in many supermarkets.

The information in these tables has been calculated based on some of the many broths that we can find in supermarkets, but these can vary considerably between brands, since it depends on their composition and ingredients and the presence of traces of allergens, which They can be vital for some population groups. The important thing is that you have the information or request the technical data sheet from the manufacturer, where you can find the list of the most frequent allergens that cause the majority of food intolerances and that are listed according to Annex II. of regulation (EU) number 1169/2011 on food information provided to the consumer.

With this in mind, we offer you some general advice whether you are preparing or planning to savor paella in a restaurant:

Not all of us have the time to prepare the stock for our paella, if you buy one already prepared from the supermarket, check the ingredients, some of them may have traces of allergens even if it doesn't seem so at first glance.

Keep an eye out for your paella coloring, as many of them have their powder composition based on wheat, which contains gluten. To avoid this, we recommend that you use the Carmencita coloring, since its composition is different from the rest, which makes it gluten-free.