The Ultimate Guide to Gluten Free Backpacking Food

There are tons of gluten-free backpacking food options out there, but the trick is knowing where to look! In this guide, we’ve collected options as we could find to build a comprehensive resource for gluten-free backpacking meals!

Man cooking a backpacking meal with mountains in the background.

Whether you have Celiac, are gluten intolerant, or just trying to cut down your gluten consumption, trying to find gluten-free backpacking food often requires an exhaustive amount of “label-reading”. This means parsing through every ingredient list with a magnifying glass to ensure some weirdo wheat-derivative wasn’t slipped into an otherwise benign-looking product.

Thankfully the backpacking food industry has realized the growing demand for gluten-free products and has not only started producing more options but properly labeling their gluten-free backpacking meals.

So we scoured the internet to find as many gluten-free freeze-dried and dehydrated meals as we could, and we’re sharing them all in one place. So if you are a gluten-free backpacker — this is your one-stop-shop!

Disclaimer

The list below contains meals that are described as Gluten Free by their manufacturer and/or the linked retailer website. We haven’t independently verified this information nor can we speak to their manufacturing practices regarding cross-contamination. When in doubt, you should contact the companies themselves for more information.

What Makes For Good Backpacking Food?

There are a few factors to keep in mind when determining whether a food is good for backpacking: shelf-stable, weight, calorie density, and cook speed.

Shelf-Stable: It’s important to use ingredients that can be stored at room temperature. You can get away with bringing some things like cheese or salami if you eat them in the first few days, but for the most part, you want to skip anything perishable.

Lightweight: Since you have to carry it every step of the way, backpacking food should be as lightweight as possible. Dehydrated and freeze-dried foods tend to be lightest, though there are plenty of grocery store options we’ll review as well.

Calorie Dense: Backpacking takes a lot of energy, so you need food that can properly refuel you. When we plan our backpacking food, we try to average 115-130+ calories per ounce to keep the weight down.

Cooking Time: Consider how much patience you have to cook your food and how much fuel you will be bringing. Quicker cooking foods tend to be preferred by most backpackers for fuel conservation.

Megan holding a bear barrel standing next to a backpacking tent

How Much Food Should You Pack For Backpacking?

For most backpackers, who plan on hiking all day with a heavier pack, Backpacker.com suggests aiming for 25-30 calories per pound of body weight, per day. For shorter hiking days (less than 2 hours) or if covering less strenuous terrain, you can scale it down to 21-25 calories per pound of body weight, per day.

Instead of eating just three meals per day like you might at home, aim to eat throughout the day and consume 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour (source) to keep your energy high and prevent hitting the wall.

Again, these are just rough estimations. Everyone’s body burns calories at different rates. So if you are preparing for a longer backpacking trip, you will absolutely want to do a few weekend shakedown trips to get a sense of what your appetite will be like.

Megan and Michael eating oatmeal at a backpacking campground

Gluten-free backpacking Breakfasts

One of the best things you can do to ensure you have a good day on the trail is to start with a solid breakfast. If you start with an empty tank, you’ll be playing caloric catch-up all day long. Thankfully there are lots of great gluten-free breakfasts, even for those who usually aren’t crazy about breakfast.

Backpacker’s Pantry

Summit Breakfast Scramble

Heather’s Choice

Food For The Sole

Food For The Sole makes gluten-free oats in a few different flavors:

Mountain House

One of the original freeze-dried brands, Mountain House has worked hard to improve upon some of their many classics. They have two gluten-free breakfast options we would recommend:

Next Mile Meals

Focusing on producing ketogenic (keto) freeze-dried backpacking meals, Next Mile Meals offers two hearty, gluten-free breakfasts that even non-keto hikers will enjoy:

Wild Zora

Offering healthy backpacking meals for a range of diets, Wild Zora has quite a few breakfast options, namely their grain-free instant cereals.

OvaEasy Eggs

If you don’t mind cooking in the morning, OvaEasy’s powdered egg crystals are surprisingly close to the real thing! Enjoy them on their own, with dehydrated hash browns, or as a veggie scramble.

Gluten Free Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal

Oats have always been gluten-free, however, large manufacturers have struggled with the potential of cross-contamination. Thankfully Quaker has got their act together and developed a process to produce a Gluten-Free Instant Oatmeal.

Instant oatmeal is quick, easy, cheap, and totally customizable. Just add hot water. Pro Tip: Use the packet as your bowl. Just tear off the top, pour the water in, and stir. The bag will get hot, but won’t leak. Up the calories by adding coconut or whole milk powder, or stirring in a packet of nut butter.

ProBar Meals

A no-cook “breakfast” bar is a great grab-and-go option for any who want to streamline their morning routine. It can also be nice for people who don’t wake up hungry and like to wait a little bit before eating. ProBar offers a large variety of meal replacement bars, all of which are gluten-free.

Instant Coffee

There has been a huge improvement in the QUALITY of instant coffee in recent years. Our top go-to favorites are Mt. Hagen and Alpine Start.

Instant Tea

Prefer tea over coffee? No worries. There are now a bunch of instant tea options available from brands like Cusa and Wild Zora. These tea packets dissolve entirely into the water, so there’s no soggy tea bag to pack out with you.

Laird InstantFuel Coffee + Creamer

If you are going to make yourself a cup of coffee in the morning, then you might as well add some calories to the mix with Laird Instant Coffee & Creamer. This blend of instant coffee and plant-based creamer is a great way to enjoy a couple of calories with your caffeine.

Gluten-Free Breakfast Recipes

Megan sitting on the side of a trail eating a PB&J granola bar

Gluten-free lunches, snacks, and bars

When we’re backpacking, we like to maintain a steady drip of calories over the course of the day. This keeps our blood sugar up and provides our muscles with a steady source of energy. We accomplish this via constant snacking.

Morning snacks end with a large mid-day snack (aka lunch), which marks the start of our afternoon snacking. The whole hike is just one big movable feast!

Tuna & Chicken Packets

These might not be the most weight-efficient items, but they do a great job of providing protein. Buy them plain and doctor them up with condiments, or buy some of the many flavor options. Our favorites were Buffalo Chicken, Chicken Salad, Deli Style Tuna Salad, and Lemon Pepper Tuna.

*While the products we listed above are gluten-free, Starkist does have other varieties that are not.*

These premium grade, line-caught tuna packets are packed in oil for extra calories. If salmon is more your speed, Patagonia Provisions has some awesome options.

SPAM: It might have 99 ingredients, but gluten ain’t one! We were ere surprised to learn that SPAM comes in backpacking-friendly foil packets. After a nonstop diet of tuna, we were offered some SPAM on the JMT by a fellow hiker and found it to be quite enjoyable.

Greenbelly Bars

With over x3 times the calories of a traditional energy bar, GreenBelly Meals2Go contain a whopping 650 calories per serving. This makes them a complete no-cook lunch that you can enjoy on the trail. They are also gluten-free.

Energy Bars

Our best advice when packing bars is to go for VARIETY. Don’t just load up on your favorite bar for a multi-day hike. Because after your trip, it won’t be your favorite anymore. Find a few you like, mix it up.

The following companies offer an entirely gluten-free line of energy bars:

Jerky And Meat Bars

Jerky and meat bars tend to be a little low on calories, but high in protein – which is critical for muscle repair. On longer multi-day hikes, these are good to eat towards the end of the day to help your body repair muscle tissue.

While some low-end meat products can contain gluten (like Slim Jims) most higher quality jerky and meat bars will be gluten-free. We are big fans of Epic Provisions and Wild Zora.

Vegan Jerky

While some vegan jerkies are made from seitan (vital wheat gluten), many are not. A few of our favorites gluten-free vegan jerky brands are Louisville Vegan Jerky Co and Jack & Friends.

Nut Butters

Nut butter packets are a great source of calories (and protein) on the trail, and they make for excellent grab-and-go snacks.

The following companies are entirely gluten free:

Justin’s Nut Butter
RX Nut Butter
Trail Butter
Yum Butter
88 Acres Seed Butter

Quinn Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels

We have no idea how they do it, but Quinn’s line of peanut butter-filled pretzels is certified gluten-free! They have a variety of flavors worth checking out. Maple Almond Butter, Dark Chocolate-y, and classic peanut butter.

Love Corn

Love Corn is an entire gluten-free product line of crunchy corn that’s perfect for backpacking. Some of their flavors include sea salt, smoked BBQ, salt & vinegar, and habanero chili. Obviously, these are great by the handful, but they can also be added to any freeze-dried or dehydrated meal to give them a little crispy, crunchy texture.

Trail Mix, Nuts, And Dried Fruit

Packing an assortment of trail mix, nuts, and dried fruits is a great way to have some calorie-boosts on hand to eat while hiking. Our favorite places for nuts and dried fruit in bulk are Nuts.com and Trader Joe’s.

Gluten-free crackers

Mush is one of the defining textures of backpacking food, which is why we like to pack along something with a little CRUNCH. There are many hearty gluten-free options that hold up well in a pack like these Deli-Style Rye Pretzel Rods.

Cheese

Hard cheese and cheeses that are individually packaged are great options. We also love Parmesan or Cheddar Whisps.

Honey Stinger Waffles

A quick hit of energy, Honey Stingers Waffles makes a gluten-free line! Perfect for when you’re feeling a little low-energy and need a little extra zip to get you up the next hill. They have a variety of flavors to choose from, and some even have a bit of caffeine for an extra little boost.

Energy Gummies

The solid, chewy form of a gel, there are a variety of energy gummies like Clif Shot Bloks, GU Energy Chews, Honey Stinger Chews, and Scratch Lab Chews These are great to have on hand if you ever start to feel yourself bonking. They contain quick-releasing sugars and easily process calories to stabilize your blood sugar. We think of these as a “Break Glass If In Need of Calories” type of emergency snack.

Wildway Snack Mix

These grain-free snack packs from Wild Way Of Life are a nice change of pace from the standard GORP style trail mix. Their sample pack contains Toasted Coconut Latte, Salted Chocolate Truffle, and Pineapple Mojito. Sounds good to us!

Chewy Banana Bites

We’ve all had dried banana chips before that feel like you’re biting into a poker chip. These are not those. Soft and chewy like a marshmallow, these Banana Bites by Nomad Nutrition offer a much-welcomed change in texture. Add them to your morning oatmeal or enjoy them on their own.

Cold-Soak Lunches

Let’s be honest, there’s no way we’re breaking out our stove and cooking lunch. But…there are a lot of great “cold-soak” lunches that need only cold water and can be rehydrated in 15 minutes. These are our favorite gluten-free options.

Food For The Sole: Zesty Miso Broccoli Slaw, Peanut Super Slaw

Bushka’s Kitchen: Lentil Lunch

Candy

For a quick (and economical) hit of calories, the answer is simple: candy! While some popular backpacking candies contain gluten (Haribo Gummy bears for example) many do not. A few good gluten-free candies include Swedish Fish or Jelly Belly’s Sports Beans. Whatever you pick, make sure it won’t be too melty.

Gluten-Free Snack/Lunch Recipes

Michael sitting on the ground next to a pot on a backpacking stove

Gluten-free backpacking dinners

Dinner, the main event. We spent an inordinate amount of time daydreaming about dinner throughout the day, so it’s really nice when it lives up to expectations! There are a lot more gluten-free options now than ever before. Some from brands you know, but many more from new startups. We hit many of the highlights below.

Bushka’s Kitchen

New to the freeze-dried backpacking meal scene, San Francisco-based Bushka’s Kitchen has some incredible gluten-free options that feature large, easily identifiable whole ingredients. While these meals are gluten-free, they are currently processed in a shared facility that also processes wheat. Meals to check out: