How to avoid Cross Contamination in Gluten Free Foods?

For individuals with celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, or wheat allergies, avoiding gluten is critical. Gluten which is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, can trigger severe immune responses in people with celiac disease, damaging the small intestine. Even a tiny amount of gluten, as small as 20 part per million (PPM) or 1/5th of a gram can lead to symptoms like stomach pain, bloating, and fatigue, or long-term complications like malnutrition, intestinal damage, and skin disorders.

For this reason, manufacturers like us produce gluten free food items exclusively in dedicated facilities to make sure their is no “cross contamination”.

What is Gluten Cross-Contamination?

Gluten cross-contamination happens when gluten-free food comes into contact with gluten-containing food, surfaces, or utensils. This can occur just about anywhere, including your home kitchens, restaurants, and food production facilities. Moreover, it can also happen at any stage, be it the initial food preparation, storage in-between, or the last part of service, making it very important to take strict precautions against it.

So how does Cross Contamination happen?

1. Shared Cooking Surfaces: If gluten-containing and gluten-free foods are prepared on the same countertop or cutting board, gluten particles can transfer to the gluten-free foods. For example, if you use the same griddle/tawa at home to cook wheat rotis and gluten-free rotis, contamination is bound to happen.
2. Shared Utensils: Using the same spatula, knife, or spoon for both gluten-containing and gluten-free foods is another common way of cross-contamination.
3. Mobile Phones: Imagine a mother eats her wheat-based food while scrolling on Instagram, then proceeds to wash her hands, and starts to make food for her celiac child. But while making the food, she is also using her phone. Where’s the problem here? You see while eating her own food, she touched the phone with her wheat-based hands and although she washed her own hands later on, the phone wasn’t cleaned. Now when making gluten free food, everytime she touches her phone, she will be touching gluten bringing cross-contamination into the picture.
4. Toasters and Ovens: Toasters and ovens, especially shared ones in homes or restaurants, are notorious for contaminating gluten-free bread. This is because once you bake or toast any gluten-based item, crumbs left behind will contaminate any gluten-free items. This is why you cannot use the same toaster to toast your gluten-free bread.
5. Shared Fryers and Cooking Oil: Fryers used for foods like breaded chicken or onion rings can contaminate oil, which can transfer gluten to other gluten-free foods fried in the same oil. This is why you may not for example consume fries which are mostly gluten free from a fast-food joint since they may be fried in the same oil used for frying other breaded food like zinger pieces.
6. Conveyor Belts: When shopping at a supermarket, the conveyor belts at the checkout counter often contain wheat particles due to wheat-flour and other similar items being put on them. If you take your items and place them on the same counter, it contaminates their outer packaging placing the gluten on the packaging now. Since you’ll take these packaged goods, for example, a box of eggs to your kitchen, you will inadvertently be taking gluten to your kitchen. This is why it is best to wash the outer packaging of items when possible before taking them into a gluten free kitchen or avoid using a conveyor belt at checkout at all.
7. Bulk Bins and Buffets: Scoops and spoons shared between gluten-containing and gluten-free foods can cause contamination in places like supermarkets & restaurant buffets. For example, if you go to a Metro store, you will find open scoops being used to pack things like rice, spices, and other commodities. If one of those items like spices contained gluten, it would be transferred to the spoon, and thereafter everything the spoon touches (even rice) would become contaminated with gluten making it unsafe.
8. Condiments and Spreads: Using the same knife or spoon in a condiment jar (like butter, jam, or peanut butter) after it has been in contact with gluten-containing bread can introduce gluten into the jar.
9. Airborne Contamination: In homes where rotis and gluten-based items are made, wheat flour particles can become airborne (be suspended in the air) for periods of over 24 hours which means that even if you use separate surfaces and equipment in the same kitchen, the food may be contaminated due to the airborne particles settling on the gluten free food. This is why it is absolutely essential to not use the same room for making gluten-free foods.

Now how can we prevent Gluten Cross-Contamination?

1. Separate Preparation Areas: Establish designated areas in the kitchen for preparing gluten-free foods. Use separate cutting boards, countertops, and utensils to prevent cross-contact. For making rotis, you may designate a special area outside your main kitchen to avoid any wheat particles flying into the air while you can continue preparing your gravies without wheat in the same kitchen.
2. Use Separate Equipment: Invest in separate toasters, griddles/tawas, and fryers for gluten-free cooking. For shared appliances, wash thoroughly before use, though it’s safer to keep separate equipment.
3. Wash Hands and Surfaces Thoroughly: Washing hands, surfaces, and utensils with soap and hot water before preparing gluten-free meals can help reduce contamination risk. Furthermore, also clean any electronic devices present in the kitchen such as smartphones.
4. Label Gluten-Free Products: Clearly mark gluten-free items and store them in sealed containers away from gluten-containing foods to avoid accidental contamination.
5. Educate Family, Friends, and Restaurant Staff: Make sure everyone involved in the meal preparation process including any family members at home are aware of the importance of avoiding cross-contamination and understand how to prevent it.
6. Use Single-Serve or Squeeze Condiments: Opt for individual condiment packets or squeeze bottles for spreads like mayonnaise, mustard, and jam, which reduces the risk of contaminating the entire container. This is because the chances of someone sticking a spoon into ketchup sachets are very less as compared to a ketchup jar.
7. Be Cautious in Restaurants: When dining out, ask detailed questions about how gluten-free foods are prepared, cooked, and served. This includes conventional restaurants who claim to offer gluten-free dishes. It is important to learn, do they understand the risks involved and how it all works?

What to Look for in Gluten-Free Products?

Firstly, it is best to buy gluten-free products from manufacturers who are specifically making products for people with celiac. This is because they will understand the risks involved and therefore take appropriate precautions. However, for some items which require high volumes to manufacture, their may be no dedicated gluten-free companies making them. Examples include soft drinks, and condiments. Therefore, you may need to rely on brands that are not labelled gluten free. So how do you know if the products they are offering are gluten free or not, how do you know if they are contamination-free?

Three main steps:

Ingredients & Labelling:

Firstly, we check the ingredients mentioned of any product. This can let us know if any gluten-based ingredient was added. For large companies, we can usually rely on this since their quality control departments ensure that the correct ingredients are listed. However, if you have a small company, it may not be that reliable and therefore this step cannot solely be relied upon.

For example, we can safely rely upon the fact that Dipitt will be accurately labelling their ingredients but a local ketchup manufacturer? Not so sure. Therefore, this is your first-line of defense for reputable companies. Products like malted drinks, biscuits, and snacks are easily identified using this method. For brands who mention a “Gluten free label” on the packaging, this also helps complement the ingredient claim.

An interesting thing to note here is that some ingredients may not be clear enough to indicate whether gluten is likely to be present or not. For example, if you find only “starch” mentioned, it could be anything ranging from wheat starch, cornstarch to potato starch so in such cases, you cannot make a clear identification. Again, a reputable and well-established company is likely to mention wheat/gluten as an allergen separately if this is the case but it’s best not to take any chances.

Labelling & May-contain statements:

Many processed foods are made in facilities that also process gluten-containing items. Some companies label their foods with statements like “manufactured in a facility that processes wheat,” which is a warning sign for potential cross-contamination. This is true for many spice brands available in Pakistan such as Shaan & National which is why many celiacs avoid using them even though the spice itself is made using gluten-free ingredients. For example, here’s an image of the ingredients panel of National’s Delhi Nihari Masala Mix:

As it can be seen, despite containing 100% gluten free ingredients, National has mentioned a disclaimer that the products may contain gluten as their facility uses wheat-based ingredients in other products. Therefore, in this case, this tells us that cross-contamination is possible. However, a question to ponder is, almost every food companies bolstering a vast product portfolio may manufacture gluten-based items but they could be processed on separate equipment even if located in the same factory unit, how do we clear things up? The next step:

Ask the Company

The only solution is to inquire from the company directly. The best step would be to email their quality control department after messaging them on social media or calling them. Ask them about why they have included a may-contain wheat statement and whether their is any actual chance of cross-contamination. This is because some companies just mention it to avoid any legal liability while their is no actual threat involved. An example we encountered some time back if of PopNosh who despite not manufacturing any gluten-based variant in their factory (they outsource Nimko production), they added a “may-contain” statement. Upon contacting the company, they confirmed that no gluten-based product was being manufactured in the same facility and all their Popcorns were indeed gluten free.

Therefore, it’s important to contact the manufacturer in such cases to get a clearer picture. For our readers, keeping this in mind, we also have compiled a list of common gluten free branded items found in Pakistani grocery stores which although not labelled gluten free are indeed so verified through the approaches shared above:

Key Takeaways

Gluten cross-contamination is a real and serious concern for those who need to avoid gluten. If you are following a gluten free diet but eating contaminated foods despite them being inherently gluten free, you will not be able to remove gluten from your system leading to continued complications. Therefore, being a very sneaky and sensitive part of this diet, it is extremely important to raise awareness about the perils of cross contamination.