Preventing Gluten Cross-Contamination
Gluten cross-contamination happens when gluten free (GF) food comes in contact with food containing gluten and/or cooking utensils that have been used to process it. Short of growing their own GF food, preparing all their meals at home, and never eating out, there’s no guarantee that your patients’ food is free of cross-contamination
The restaurant business is notorious for lack of education and preparation to prevent gluten cross-contamination.
In order to minimize gluten cross-contamination your patients must start at home. If their household is not completely GF, advise them to make sure they have a dedicated area where they only prepare GF meals. All their cooking and serving tools and equipment should be used to prep GF food only. They should follow the same precautions when storing food. Having storage that’s exclusively dedicated to GF food would be optimal. If the storage space doesn’t allow for it, advise them to pick a top shelf that they utilize solely for GF foods. They should make sure to either wrap or store all GF food in clean containers dedicated exclusively to this purpose. Finally, they should follow the same precautions when cleaning and washing after a meal—keeping separate cleaning tools for all their “GF” ware.
Once your patients’ household is gluten safe, they can concentrate their efforts on selecting foods that are most likely to be free of cross-contamination. Any food that is naturally GF, e.g. produce, raw meat/seafood/eggs, should be bagged separately at the store and thoroughly washed at home. Processed food should not only be GF certified, but preferably also manufactured in a facility that only processes GF food such as Schär plant in South Jersey. We work closely with farmers growing GF grains, and test for gluten every ingredient before it’s allowed into our facilities and every batch of finished product.
Preventing gluten cross-contamination when traveling should also be on your patients’ radar, especially during the holiday season. For more information on traveling GF, please click here.
In order to minimize gluten cross-contamination your patients must start at home. If their household is not completely GF, advise them to make sure they have a dedicated area where they only prepare GF meals. All their cooking and serving tools and equipment should be used to prep GF food only. They should follow the same precautions when storing food. Having storage that’s exclusively dedicated to GF food would be optimal. If the storage space doesn’t allow for it, advise them to pick a top shelf that they utilize solely for GF foods. They should make sure to either wrap or store all GF food in clean containers dedicated exclusively to this purpose. Finally, they should follow the same precautions when cleaning and washing after a meal—keeping separate cleaning tools for all their “GF” ware.
Once your patients’ household is gluten safe, they can concentrate their efforts on selecting foods that are most likely to be free of cross-contamination. Any food that is naturally GF, e.g. produce, raw meat/seafood/eggs, should be bagged separately at the store and thoroughly washed at home. Processed food should not only be GF certified, but preferably also manufactured in a facility that only processes GF food such as Schär plant in South Jersey. We work closely with farmers growing GF grains, and test for gluten every ingredient before it’s allowed into our facilities and every batch of finished product.
Preventing gluten cross-contamination when traveling should also be on your patients’ radar, especially during the holiday season. For more information on traveling GF, please click here.
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