Corona Extra appears to be gluten-free

I recently ordered some more Gluten-in-Food home testing kits, and since I'd read that Corona Extra beer had tested negative for gluten (here, here and here), I wanted to see for myself.  I wanted to see whether I could duplicate those results.

I bought a bottle of Corona Extra from Yamaya (they seem to have some of the best prices, as well as free shipping on orders over 3000 yen).  As soon as I got home, I opened the bottle with great enthusiasm and proceeded with the test. 

When reading the results with Imutest's gluten testing kits, there is a steady pink control spot on the right (C), and a variable pink test spot on the left (T). The gluten content of the substance can be estimated based on the intensity of the test spot.

In this case, this glorious case, no test spot is visible, which indicates that gluten is not present in the test sample.  Hooray!

As a layman, I don't know why Corona consistently tests negative for gluten.  I have read that it contains small amounts of the enzyme papain.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

Disclaimer: although I have used this testing kit many times, and am quite confident that I conducted the test properly, I must point out that this is a non-scientific test, performed in my kitchen, and the results in no way constitute any form of medical advice.

That being said, although Corona has never been among my favorites, it's safe to say that I'll be ordering it a lot more often in the future!

If you're interested in the gluten content of Japanese beer, please check out some of my other posts.  I've tested and posted about Asahi Super Dry, Kirin Nodogoshi and Asahi Dry Zero, and will be posting many more.

Kanpai!