Wendy's new "Menu Items Without Gluten" guide

Today I discovered that Wendy's has a new "Menu Items Without Gluten Guide", released in December 2007. Was I ever surprised to see this on their website:

I've eaten at Wendy's plenty of times in the past, and their nutrition guide was decent. (You could look at all the individual ingredients, and determine what was gluten-free - manually.)

But this just seems like a new "ray of light" for Celiacs. A guide specifically targeted towards eating gluten-free is something I wish all restaurants would have. So kudos to Wendys!

I actually somewhat wonder if a Celiac created the guide. Or they've just really done their research. They even have little symbols beside some of the menu items, indicating that a given item contains maltodextrin. That's interesting because currently maltodextrin for Celiacs is allowed, though even only a few years ago it was questionable. (The production of maltodextrin in Canada is apparently corn or tapioca based in 99% of the cases. Personally I like to see "corn maltodextrin", but this is not required by Canadian labels.)

So the special maltodextrin symbol is probably someone being very thorough and ensuring you (as a Celiac) are comfortable with it.

Check out the guide for yourself on Wendy's website:
http://www.wendys.com/food/NutritionLanding.jsp

Finally, interestingly enough their burger patties are indeed gluten-free. Their old guide specified the burgers had gluten, but I was never sure if the reasoning was the bun. So, today I had my first Wendy's burger in a long time, without the bun. I enjoyed it, but perhaps it's not for everyone:

Yeah, this Big Bacon Classic looks nasty but was actually was tasty. Maybe it's because I haven't had a Wendy's hamburger in ages. Next time...bring on the 3/4 pounder with three patties! (ok, my stomach can handle it, but probably not the rest of my body. Well, that's probably not true...my stomach could barely handle the above, even if it was gluten-free.)

More fast food another day! (maybe)