About our GLUTEN-FREE Vitamin E (d-alpha Tocopherol)

We receive many questions about Vitamin E in our products especially from people that are worried about gluten allergies. Since most of our products contain Vitamin E we want to provide some clarifications and assure consumers that our products ARE GLUTEN-FREE even though they contain Vitamin E.

Vitamin E (INCI: Tocopherol) used in our personal care products and cosmetics is produced from Soy bean oil and it has the following constituents: 67% - 87% D-Alpha-Tocopherol and 13% - 33% refined GMO-free soybean oil.

Vitamin E can be synthetic or naturally derived. Synthetic vitamin E has a “dl” in front of the name, such as dl-alpha tocopherol. Natural forms of vitamin E have a “d” in front of them, such as d-alpha tocopherol, d-alpha tocopherol acid succinate, and d-alpha tocopherol acetate.

Most Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) in North America is derived from soybean oil even though d-alpha tocopherol can be derived from other oils, including wheat germ oil. This has caused many of those concerned about gluten allergies to be concerned that d-alpha tocopherol may contain gluten.

We have to understand how vegetable oils are produced and remember that in modern world all oils are mass-manufactured, meaning they’re highly processed through use of solvents, extraction, distillative neutralization, purification and separation to ensure that no protein remains in the final product. So even if vitamin E was extracted from wheat germ oil the possibility of having any wheat protein left in the oil and carried over into making of d-alpha tocopherol is likely non-existent.

Even if we would assume that unrefined wheat germ oil is the source of vitamin E, the amount of protein in an ingredient that is extracted from oil is very low. Furthermore, the amount of vitamin E added to a personal care product is likely low and the amount of a non-food item (e.g. facial cream) you are likely to ingest even lower.

European Food Safety Authority has permanently exempted d-alpha tocopherol derived from soy bean oil (which is what we use) from allergen labeling.