Campbell’s and Banza launch gluten-free chicken noodle soup

Campbell’s put its most familiar pantry staple into a new lane by making Chicken Noodle Soup gluten free for the first time in the company’s 150-year history, pairing the classic with Banza chickpea pasta. The new Campbell’s Condensed Gluten Free Banza Chickpea Pasta and Chicken Soup is available now on Amazon, will roll out to retailers nationwide, and carries a suggested retail price of $1.99 a can. Campbell’s said the soup uses No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat from USDA-approved U.S. suppliers and was developed for quick lunches and busy weeknights.

The bigger story is not just the gluten-free claim. Campbell’s and Banza said they worked together on a special chickpea pasta designed to hold its shape in broth and keep its texture in the finished soup, a technical hurdle that matters because gluten-free products are judged against the feel of the original as much as the ingredient panel. That is where this launch starts to look like a mainstreaming of pulse protein through comfort food: Banza’s chickpea base brings a legume-led protein angle to a legacy soup, while Campbell’s gets a product that speaks to shoppers looking for cleaner labels, more nutrition and a familiar bowl.

Campbell’s framed the move around consumer demand, citing research that about 30% of the U.S. population actively seeks gluten-free options and that the U.S. gluten-free market is projected to grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate from 2026 to 2033. Grand View Research projects the U.S. gluten-free products market at about $5.25 billion by 2033. The regulatory bar is also part of the equation: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says foods labeled gluten-free must contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten, and it estimates about 3 million people in the United States have celiac disease, a chronic immune disorder that damages the small intestine.

The launch also leans on Campbell’s own history. The company says Chicken Noodle Soup has been a staple for more than 125 years, and its history page traces the recipe back to “Noodle with Chicken,” a name that later shifted after a radio announcer misread an ad. Campbell’s marked the soup’s 80th birthday in 2014 as one of the most recognizable shelf-stable products in the country, which is why this gluten-free version reads as a brand first, not a routine line extension. For Campbell’s senior vice president of soup, Benjamin Crook, and Banza co-founder and CEO Brian Rudolph, whose company started in his Detroit kitchen in 2013, the partnership signals a bigger shift: protein enrichment and gluten-free credibility are no longer separate tracks, but increasingly the same innovation story.