Avoiding Cross Contamination, Part One

My kitchen is not always 100% gluten free. It is possible for glutenous foods to live with GF foods in the same kitchen, if it's done carefully. Extreme caution is required when combining a GF and non-GF kitchen. I rarely buy anything that isn't gluten free. But my husband has no trouble with eating glutenous food, so occasionally I'll buy something for him that's going to be all his.

For example, there's currently a bag of whole wheat buns in the refrigerator that I bought when we went camping a couple of weeks ago. But these buns are sealed in a safe container, and no gluten free food is touching them. When Eddie makes a sandwich, he takes extreme care when putting on mayonnaise and mustard. He will not spread the mayo on the bun then plunge the knife back into the mayo jar for more. If he were to do that, then the mayo would be contaminated. He usually uses a spoon to plop the mayo on the bun then spreads it with a knife.

It may sound extreme that we're so ubber cautious. Trust me, it doesn't take much to cause cross contamination. If you are storing non-GF foods in your fridge or pantry, be sure they're properly sealed and stored below any GF foods. Don't let the non-GF food touch the GF foods.

If you're blending a GF and non-GF kitchen, you won't be able to share electric cooking appliances. GF bread toasted in a toaster that's housed non-GF bread will be contaminated. You'll need to have two toasters, one for GF and one for non-GF. I still use the same pans to cook with that I used before going GF, but those could be thoroughly washed. I used to use stones to bake non-GF pizza crusts on, but I had to give those to a friend because they can't be washed with soap.

Be sure not to share utensils if you're cooking GF and non-GF foods at the same time. If I'm cooking GF rice pasta for myself and also making whole wheat pasta for Eddie, I don't stir the pasta with the same pasta stirrer. I use two different ones.

Part Two in the subject of Avoiding Cross Contamination is going to be about airborne wheat flour. Stay tuned!

Thank you for joining me on The Ali Way to GF Goodness!