What is ‘cross-contamination,’ and why does it matter to you?

“Cross contamination,” as it pertains to gluten-free living, is the inadvertent tainting of a gluten-free item with gluten. It is the proverbial devil in the details, and someone avoiding gluten must be hypervigilant! Potential for cross contamination is everywhere: your kitchen, a restaurant or cafeteria, and processing, packaging and manufacturing facilities.

In your kitchen…

Cross contamination in your home kitchen is inevitable. If you’re spending money on gluten-free items, then bringing them into your gluten-filled kitchen, you’re cross-contaminating everything and what’s the point?

In my experience, having a dual kitchen is possible, but not practical or easy for a family. Essentially having to maintain two kitchens, two grocery lists and two daily menus was time consuming and tiring for me. And worse? My food-allergy son was still getting sick! No matter how much I cleaned or separated foods, he was miserable. It wasn’t until our house went allergy free (wheat, barley, rye, oats, eggs, peanuts) that his problems stopped.

Gluten sticks to EVERYTHING, so all porous items must go! Basic kitchen items including wooden items (utensils, cutting boards, etc.), plastic items (cooking utensils, baking utensils, cutting boards, etc.), punched metal items (colanders, graters), serrated knives, Tephlon anything. Keep non-porous items including all stainless steel items (utensils, pots, pans), glass items and ceramic items.

In a restaurant or cafeteria…

Talk to the manager. Talk to the chef. Ask for their Gluten-Free Menu, read it over, ask questions. Corporate restaurant chains offer gluten-free protocol training to their employees, so simply alerting your waitress puts it into action. One employee will be responsible for the gluten-free order, and will follow it through the kitchen alerting every station along the way; it will come out separately (sometimes earlier, sometimes later) from everyone else’s.

The risk for cross contamination is extremely high in restaurants. Be leery of any gluten-free offering in an otherwise gluten-filled place – like a gluten-free pizza crust at a Chicago-style pizzeria, or gluten-free pasta at an Italian restaurant, or a gluten-free pita at a Greek restaurant. Specifically ask the management about food handling practices and cross contamination, because typically all of the pizzas are baked on the same pans, all of the pasta is reheated in the same water, and all of the pitas are grilled together…

Salads are not always a safe alternative! Sure you can forego the Ranch for a Balsamic Vinaigrette and skip the croutons to avoid gluten, but specifically ask how the salads are prepared, stored, dished up and served.

In processing, manufacturing and packaging facilities…

Read the entire label three times: first in the store, second as you’re putting it away in the cabinet, and third before using it. Three times, every time. Sounds like overkill, right? Yeah, I thought so too until my mother-in-law bought a very expensive gluten-free gourmet cookie at a natural foods store. The front of the package advertised “GLUTEN-FREE” in huge letters, but on the back, at the bottom, in very fine print it said, “processed and packaged in a facility that also processes and packages wheat products.” Right under that declaration was “MAY CONTAIN: WHEAT.” Unfortunately, it’s perfectly legal to falsely advertise in this manner. The government allows a parts-per-million – the old “CYA” rule (Cover Your Ass) – so manufacturing, processing and packaging facilities have a loop hole. So again. I say to you: Read the entire label three times.