Summertime/Anytime Parties - chances of gluten cross contamination (xc)
Yes, lazy summer parties are great, friends getting together, everyone brings a dish, throw something on the grill, how hard can that be and how can I possibly get sick by eating just plain burger, my own gf bun and some salad?.
1. A friends grill more than likely has cooked meat in a non gf marinade or toasted a wheat bun. At one friends party, she told me she had used tamari not soy, she is a good cook, so real ingredients, but I still got xc from something. And at most parties I eat the raw veg, bought cooked shrimp, my own stuff and anything that I am convinced is safe, not questionable. Questionable is not safe, you're harming yourself. And for those of you that don't get noticeable symptoms, you can still be harming yourself invisibly. IT'S NOT WORTH IT. Many days of headaches, joint aches, fatigue etc until you feel better, plus what else have you done to your body.
2. You can put your burger or hot dog on a piece of foil on grill, but you still have to be careful about hands touching wheat rolls touching your raw meat. And if there is residue on grill plates and metal surrounds, that residue can be falling back onto your food. Plus the spatula used to flip your burger could have been used to flip contaminated stuff.
3. Read labels of salad dressings or bring small screw top jar of your own safe dressing.
4. The plain salad, lettuce, tomatoes, cues should be safe. But what surface were the vegetables cut on, have people used one salad tongs to help themselves to other salads that aren't safe. At Christmas or Thanksgiving, I'm normally told to serve myself first from the safe food with clean serving utensils before people then use on spoon for several dishes.
5. Your friend is proud, she's cooked some gluten free pasta to make this wonderful gluten free pasta salad for you. Then she sees you haven't had some. Do you feel you have to eat some. Unless you've double checked everything with her, don't risk it. Her colander for wheat pasta is probably contaminated with the wheat starch sticking under rim and in holes, so not safe. Do you know what dressing she use, perhaps not safe. What about the bought marinated artichokes, olives, bell peppers, etc. What brands, how safe. And we all know how bad labels can be.
6. Remember any food that comes under USDA doesn't have to follow FDA gluten free labeling guidelines. More and more companies and restaurants have stopped any form of gluten free labeling since FDA guidelines changed.
7. Check all meats you buy, raw and processed. Again, they come under USDA and don't have to follow FDA gluten free labeling guidelines. With so many bbq ready meats in the summer, most with marinades, what do you do. At one talk I gave, a woman said she got sick after eating bacon as the only new item. She didn't know to check label. Many meat counters in supermarket have a difficult time trying to find answer for you, they try but they often haven't been supplied with the information.
7. Just have a little bit, you'll love it, I made it especially for you. NO. I know, it's very difficult to say no to some people. It would be lovely to say my doctor told me not to, but then we come over as being very difficult to eat with, and social life flies out the window.
8. Those chips, you recognize them, you know they're safe, but what about the dip, and what about fingers going from unsafe chips to safe chips. Yes, just fingers touching can be enough xc for many of us.
9. Packaged herbs, spices, mustards, marinades etc. There are some brands out there labeled gluten free. I was told by a Celiac nutritionist that they now want nationwide for all herbs and spices that are inherently gluten free to be labeled gluten free. Good Luck with that. I wouldn't buy from the Dollar store or equivalent. At least with a named brand, you can go to the web side and check what it says and date posted. I also say go to Google and start to type in is ... gluten free. I normally find by the time I have typed gf, the line is filled in. So that's a good start, someone's already tried to get an answer. But look at the date of replies/answers. If it's more than a year or two old, I don't know how happy I would be buying it. And so many companies are totally useless on both their web site and phone calls.
10. Be aware of words used. Mustard flour does not mean mustard and wheat flour. It just (normally) means mustard seeds - naturally gluten free - are ground to be as fine as flour. Same for ground almond, aka almond meal or almond flour in US, ground ginger - ginger flour and probably other ingredients. I have even seen imported quality jams containing wheat, when jam should be just fruit and sugar, plus perhaps some lemon and pectin. Not all the other ingredients they adulterate foods with.
11. Wheat Starch. Some European products labeled gluten free are sold here with wheat starch in ingredients. I know Schar used to have wheat starch in their gluten free croissants. Some regulations in Europe say that wheat starch is safe. I don't know how safe I would feel eating a product labeled gluten free, containing wheat starch. Many of us can't tolerate the alcohols 'they' tell us are distilled to be gluten free. They tell us we are reacting to other ingredients. But then it shouldn't be labeled or posted as gluten free.
12. Hard apple cider. It should always be naturally gluten free. Unfortunately, some companies are fermenting it with barley so no longer gluten free. I only buy hard apple cider labeled gluten free. I drink Woodchuck, amber variety. Recently I got some in 12 oz can, rather than 12 oz bottle. $9.99 for 6. There are more companies producing hard apple cider now, some of them quite expensive as cider is returning to the spotlight. It is quite alcoholic, slides down very easily when you're hot and it's icy cold, but it packs the same punch as other alcohols.
