Separate, Metal or Glass Utensils & Containers. Not Plastic.

Another common means of cross contamination is through plastic. Why? It's easy for allergen proteins to get stuck to plastic (and wood!), and harder to wash those proteins out. That includes cutting boards, spoons, spatulas and containers.

The safest way to keep annoying and often dangerous cross contamination out of your Tender Foodie meals, is to keep the allergen out of the house, or to keep separate containers, pans and utensils for everything.  But if this is not possible, opt for glass containers and metal utensils, and store them in a separate cupboard or above allergen containing products. Wash them thoroughly with hot, soapy water if shared, and dry w/ a clean, dedicated cloth (towels trap allergens, too!).

DO keep a separate cutting board for your Tender Foodie, though.  Since cutting boards are made of wood and plastic, typically, this is the one item that should belong to your Tender Foodie alone.

NOTE: If your doctor tells you that you have a high risk of anaphylaxis, keep the allergen out of your home completely.

Don't Forget the Toaster & the Knife

Breakfast & lunch can be two times where cross contamination is high.  Why?  the peanut butter sandwich.  The toaster carries crumbs from regular bread, so for the gluten allergic or those with celiac disease, buy a 2nd, completely gluten-free toaster and store it in a separate cupboard. 

The knife can carry  the gluten crumbs right into the peanut butter, as well as the peanut allergens over to another piece of bread (gluten-free or not).  Using separate ustensils and separate toasters is essential. Also, if gluten is your beast, separate jars of anything, including peanut butter, sun butter, mustard, mayo, marshmallow spread, and jam - anything where the knife can be (double) dipped.

Gluten-free Fries? Maybe. Maybe Not.

French Fries are yummy.   But sometimes a little extra yummy is a wheat or corn flour coating.  Frozen potatoes (at home or in restaurants) can be coated with some kind of flour, and the corn flour they are coated with could have been processed wtih wheat flour.  Sigh. In addition (sign again), most restaurants use the same fryers for wheat coated chicken (etc.), as they do their french fries, so the flour gets on the naked potato. 

But don't be blue about your maize dunked potatoes.  There are several restaurants that have a gluten-free fryers. In Grand Rapids, The Blue Water Grill, some locations of Outback are a couple joints that accommodate french fry loving gluten-free folk. And some frozen products mark their taters as "gluten-free".  Read the labels and contact the company to find out more about their processing.

Do you have a favorite restaurant or brand that has truly gluten-free potato goodness?  Tell us.

Watch Out for Gluten Cross Contamination!

Make sure your gluten-free product is processed in a gluten-free facility or tested to below 20 ppm (preferrably below 10ppm or 5 ppm).  Because there are no real labeling laws in effect, a "gluten-free" label doesn't necessarily mean that it is gluten-free.  Labeling is on the way (we hope), but right now, labeling doesn't mean too much.  Get to know your brands, and look for brands that say, "processed in a gluten-free facility" or "certified gluten-free".  There is a significant amount of cross-contamination can occur simply by running wheat, for instance, on the same machine as a naturally gluten-free item like nut flour or teff flour.  It's enough to make someone with gluten sensitivity, allergy, or celiac disease sick.

Keep Gluten-free foods HIGH, and other foods LOW

Gluten-free tip: If living in a mixed household, great care needs to be taken to avoid cross contamination. Keep any gluten containing item in the pantry, for instance, low, and the gluten-free items high (or better each in completely separate cupboards). Crumbs can fall into food - when you close the pita chip bag for instance, when "real" bread is in the freezer above the ice cube trays, or the toaster is above any utensil drawer.