Packaged gluten free snacks used to mean specialty-store boxes that cost too much and tasted like disappointment. Now, some of the best GF snacks are sitting right next to the regular crackers, cookies, chips, and mac and cheese.
These are the gluten free snacks that taste good and feel normal. They make it easier to pack a lunch, stock the pantry, or just make a hungry kid smile.
How I chose these snacks
This isn’t a list of every gluten free snack on the market. It’s a curated roundup of the packaged snacks I actually buy regularly and recommend, from the perspective of someone who’s had a gluten free home since 2005.
Like the recipes I develop, this list is built around one goal: making gluten free life as normal as possible. When my son was young, he didn’t want snacks that screamed “gluten free.” He wanted what his friends were eating.
Most of these snacks are mainstream products that are naturally GF, or familiar favorites that now come in a gluten free version. I’m grateful for dedicated gluten free brands for their innovation. But for this list, I leaned into the products you’re more likely to find in regular grocery stores, often at a better price.
As always, check the label before you buy, since ingredients and manufacturing practices can change. If you’re looking for a product locally, try searching for it on Instacart to see which stores carry it near you. Then buy it in person for the best price and fewer broken crackers.
Gluten free crackers
Here are some of our favorite gluten free crackers:
- Gluten Free Original Cheez-Its: Officially available in the U.S. in early 2026, this was huge news in the gluten free community. They do not disappoint, and I find them at most larger grocery stores now.
- Good Thins: Made from rice or corn and rice by food giant Mondelēz International, these crackers come in 8 different gluten free varieties.
- Blue Diamond Almonds Nut Thins: Made from a combination of almonds and rice flour by Blue Diamond, they come in lots of different flavors, including plain, cheese, and even dill pickle.
Gluten free bagged snacks
Chips and popcorn
Here’s where we have a ton of naturally gluten free riches. Most corn chips, most potato chips, and most popcorn are gluten free (except certain flavorings, so read labels carefully). And with most companies like Frito-Lay having reliable “contains” allergen statements, you can read the ingredient list and know what’s safe and what isn’t.
Pretzels
There are so many varieties of gluten free pretzels that I recommend 8 different kinds to try. We love Snyder’s brand, and they’re always coming out with new shapes, like their “snaps” that look like they’d be great in Chex mix. My son’s favorite are the Snack Factory brand gluten free pretzel crisps, though.
Gluten free boxed mac and cheese
If you make it from scratch, gluten free mac and cheese is a meal. If you make it from a box, I’m more likely to consider it a snack. Luckily, lots of mainstream brands now make a gluten free variety. I’ve tried most of them, and here are my favorites:
- Kraft gluten free mac and cheese: The original, with the powdered cheese, is always a winner, and for the boxed kind, I’m partial to the tiny, straight mini hollow shape, probably for nostalgic reasons.
- Velveeta gluten free shells and cheese: My son doesn’t love this kind, but it’s the only one he could make in college even when he didn’t have milk and butter on hand. I’m not 100% sure it’s any different than melting Velveeta cheese and pouring it onto pasta, but either way, I’m a fan.
- Annie’s rice pasta and cheddar: Tastes more like real cheese than the others, if that’s your thing, and comes in a white cheddar variety. Plus, it has that nostalgic shaped pasta for me.
Gluten free rice cakes
Most rice cakes are naturally gluten free, so this almost feels like a cheat. But rice cakes go way beyond the somewhat tasteless disks not everyone loves. Most flavors of the mini cakes (called rice crisps, I guess) are gluten free, but not all, so be sure to check labels.
And I love it when some new popular snack like Drizzilicious mini rice cakes just happen to be gluten free. I’m a huge fan of anything birthday cake flavored, but there are so many flavors. They’re not cheap, but they often go on sale.
Gluten free crispy rice bars
I love homemade gluten free rice krispie treats, but they have one flaw: you can’t pack them to-go very easily. They tend to get squished and sticky. I’m still annoyed that Kellogg’s Rice Krispies make their cereal with barley-derived malt, so they’re not gluten free, and their packaged treats are also off-limits for the same reason.
There are a few brands that just kind of happen to be gluten free, including Annie’s and Made Good, and they aren’t cheap but do often go on sale. They’re not as satisfying as a protein bar, but they do the spot sometimes.
Gluten free Nabisco cookies
Finally, I will always be grateful to Nabisco for creating gluten free varieties of Oreos and, more recently, chewy Chips Ahoy! They did it of course for business reasons, and there were other fake Oreos like Trader Joe’s and Kinnikinnick, but I really wanted your gluten free son to have the real thing.
I love that they make different varieties (golden are my favorite), and my son had his college friends taste his cookies and was happy to report that they said they’re “really close.” And the chewy Chips Ahoy! are absolute packaged cookie perfection.
Source link
