Ritz Goes Gluten-Free After 92 Years, Rebuilding the Cracker From Corn and Beans

A Ritz cracker is one of the most familiar objects in an American kitchen: round, golden, a little buttery, sitting next to the cheese at every party since 1934. On Monday it got its first serious rebuild for people who cannot eat wheat. We read the launch announcement, the ingredient list on the first retail listing, the label of the original box and the federal rule that governs the words “gluten free,” and put them side by side.

The short version: the new cracker drops wheat entirely and rebuilds the dough from corn, tapioca and faba bean, carries a certified gluten-free claim, and costs $4.49 for an 8 oz box. Here is what changed in the recipe, what the label promises your small intestine, and where you can find a box this week.

The launch: Ritz Gluten Free is at Walmart and Albertsons now, everywhere else in February

Mondelēz International announced RITZ Gluten Free Crackers in Original Flavor on October 19, 2026, in a release dated from East Hanover, New Jersey, at 11 a.m. Eastern. The release calls it “the certified gluten free version that fans have been asking for” and says the crackers will be available “starting October 2026 at Walmart and Albertsons,” with nationwide retail expansion planned for February 2027. The 8 oz package carries a suggested retail price of $4.49 (Mondelēz release, Oct 19, 2026).

Olympia Portale, senior director for core crackers at Mondelēz, said in the same release that fans “have been asking for a gluten free version for years” and that the new crackers “contain no artificial colors or flavors.” The release says the brand has been “America’s go-to cracker for snacking and entertaining since 1934,” which makes Monday’s launch 92 years into the cracker’s life (our arithmetic).

Search interest moved with the news. “Gluten free ritz crackers” appeared on Google’s US daily trending list on Monday, and the autocomplete for “gluten free ritz” already offers “walmart,” “albertsons” and “cracker launch.” The question people type next is the one the store pages do not really answer: what is it made of?

The label: What replaced the wheat in Ritz Gluten Free

The ingredient list shown on the Instacart listing for the 8 oz RITZ Gluten Free Original box reads, in order: cornstarch, canola oil, sugar, yellow corn flour, faba bean protein, tapioca flour, and, at less than 2 percent, salt, oat fiber, invert sugar, leavening (calcium phosphate, baking soda), guar gum, soy lecithin and natural flavor. The allergen line reads “Contains: Soy. May Contain: Milk, Tree Nuts” (Instacart product listing). Mondelēz had not posted its own product page for the new box when we checked on Monday, so read your box when you buy it.

Compare that with the original. The RITZ Original box sold on SnackWorks, Mondelēz’s own shop, lists enriched wheat flour first, then soybean and/or canola oil, palm oil, sugar, salt, leavening, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin and natural flavor, with the allergen line “Contains: Wheat, Soy” (SnackWorks, RITZ Original).

Our reading of the two lists: four things carry the new cracker. Cornstarch and tapioca flour give the light, crisp snap that wheat starch gave the original. Yellow corn flour supplies the golden colour and a toasted flavour. Faba bean protein, from the broad bean, stands in for the structure that wheat gluten used to provide, and guar gum, a soluble fiber from the guar bean, helps hold the dough together the way gluten’s stretch did. Palm oil and high fructose corn syrup, both on the original list, do not appear on the gluten-free one; invert sugar does.

One ingredient will catch the eye of anyone who reads labels closely: oat fiber. Oats are not on the federal list of gluten-containing grains. The FDA rule names three: wheat, rye and barley, plus their crossbred hybrids such as triticale (21 CFR 101.91). A product that uses an oat ingredient can still say gluten-free, as long as the finished food stays under the gluten limit below.

The gut: Why the gluten-free line on Ritz matters to the small intestine

For most people, swapping a wheat cracker for a corn one changes little beyond taste. For people with celiac disease it is the whole point. The FDA explains that in celiac disease, “foods that contain gluten trigger production of antibodies that attack and damage the lining of the small intestine,” and that the damage “limits the ability of people with celiac disease to absorb nutrients.” The agency estimates about 3 million people in the United States have the condition (FDA, Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods). The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases describes it as “a chronic digestive and immune disorder that damages the small intestine” (NIDDK).

The small intestine is where most of what you eat is absorbed into the body. That is why damage to its lining shows up as trouble absorbing nutrients rather than only as a stomach ache. NIDDK says doctors treat celiac disease “by helping people to follow a gluten-free diet” (NIDDK, treatment), which is why the label claim on a box carries real weight.

That claim has a number behind it. Under the federal rule, which the FDA finalized on August 2, 2013, a food labelled “gluten-free” must contain no wheat, rye or barley ingredient that has not been processed to remove gluten, and any unavoidable presence of gluten must be “below 20 ppm gluten (i.e., below 20 mg gluten per kg of food)” (21 CFR 101.91). Twenty parts per million is 0.002 percent of the food by weight (our arithmetic). Mondelēz goes a step further and calls the cracker “certified” gluten free, which in our reading points to an outside certification program on top of the federal rule; the release does not name the certifier.

The allergen line matters too. “May contain: milk, tree nuts” on the retail listing means the cracker is not made with those ingredients but may share equipment or facilities with products that are. For someone avoiding gluten only, that line does not change anything; for someone who also avoids dairy or nuts, it is worth reading before the box goes into the cart.

The everyday version: What Ritz Gluten Free changes at the snack table

The everyday version of this launch is the party platter. A cracker that a gluten-free guest can eat without asking about the brand is a small thing that removes a familiar awkward moment. The release suggests cucumber and hummus or brie and fig jam on top, and crumbling the crackers into a casserole topping, the job Ritz has done on holiday tables for decades.

Price is the trade-off. At a suggested $4.49 for 8 oz, the gluten-free box works out to about 56 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). If you are buying for a crowd, check the shelf tag against the regular box; the release gives no price for the original to compare.

If you live with celiac disease, the practical steps are the ones you already know: look for the gluten-free claim on the package itself, read the allergen line, and keep the cracker away from shared knives and boards on the platter. If you are cutting gluten without a diagnosis to see whether it helps your stomach, talk to a clinician first: NIDDK notes that doctors “don’t recommend starting a gluten-free diet before diagnostic testing,” because the diet can change test results (NIDDK, diagnosis).

How we checked this: Sources and method

We read the Mondelēz International launch release of October 19, 2026, as distributed by GlobeNewswire (release), for the date, retailers, rollout, size, price and every quote. The ingredient and allergen list for the new box comes from the Instacart product listing for the 8 oz RITZ Gluten Free Original box, read on October 19; no nutrition panel was published there or on a Mondelēz page when we checked, so this page prints no calorie, fiber or sodium figure for the new cracker. The original recipe comes from the RITZ Original listing on SnackWorks. The definition of gluten-free and the 20 ppm limit come from 21 CFR 101.91 and the FDA’s Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods page; the celiac figures come from the FDA and NIDDK. Search interest comes from Google Trends and Google autocomplete on October 19. Calculations are ours and labelled. Gut Health Times has no commercial relationship with Mondelēz. This article is educational, describes what the cited sources say, and is not medical advice.