Tuesday, April 26, 2011

How I keep cross contamination risks low.

I am always fearful of cross contamination when I eat out, I do my best to explain to servers at restaurants what I need to be safe from cross contamination. Sometimes, I even carry around a card explaining everything.
At my house, I am super-duper careful because if I get sick, I feel like it is pretty much my fault. Yeah, sure, I am the only gluten-free person in my home but I have properly educated my lovely  and supportive boyfriend on ccing the home.

As I have previously blogged, some items that would be easy to cross contaminate like: cream cheese or butter, we have two of. They are also labeled.
I also clean the kitchen several times a day. Yes, that may sound extreme but it is really helpful. I have the sink clean, the counters cleaned off and the stove clean before every meal. I clean the kitchen after every meal too. Every night, I wipe down the appliances and the cabinets. Jacob loves his gluten items and I never know where his 4 year old hands have touched! It all starts in a clean kitchen! 

Another important part of a gluten free kitchen is a gluten free toaster. Anytime I mention my gf toaster to someone non-gf they don't seem to get it. "Isn't the gluten free bread enough?", they usually ask? Well, honestly, NO. Crumbs from non-gluten free bread will get trapped in the foils and rub all over my toaster. I almost think of it as sex. My toaster, my gf toaster only has sex with gf bread, that is it's husband. If it cheats and allows non-gf bread to enter it, then it will get a "toaster transmitted disease" (lol) and gluten me. So, since I don't like sluts and my beautiful toaster is strictly gf, then I am one happy lady.

The day I got my awesome Hello Kitty Toaster, my gf beauty!

Another, tip I use is I wash my hands when I cook a ton. Just in case. Also, if I have to cook GF food and Non-GF food at the same time, I cook the GF food first. This way the gluten is less likely to come into contact with my food. I then store the GF food in a spot far away from the gluten items.

What are your tips? Please share!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

this is an excellent post! keeping the cross contamination down is really tough, but it CAN BE DONE!

never even though about the toaster!

arnel mcatee said...

My husband has been eating GF for two years but when he used to eat gluten, I had him trained to keep mayo and butter free from contamination like this: he'd dip a clean knife into the mayo, spread it on his wheat bread, and then wipe the knife with a napkin before dipping the knife back in the mayo. Other than his bread, we didn't bring anything in the hose that was gluten. In the house...gluten free food, outside of the house....eat whatever you want. Of course there were three of us who ate gluten free, (myself and our two daughters,) and he was the only gluten eater.

Unknown said...

Jessie- Thank you!

Arnel- That is a wonderful tip :) We do something similar to that here, we scoop out our desired amount on a spoon without touching the bread 1st then use a knife so the product never becomes contaminated. Wow, such dedication to not bring items in the house that were not gf other than bread. We have so many non-gf items in the house.

Jaye Tee said...

My husband is very careful and considerate when it comes to my condition. I still take extra precautions though. I find that using squeeze bottles for mayo and other condiments helps. Not only does it stay crumb free, but it also eases my mind to know that there aren't any traces of gluten lurking about. I am also dairy free, so my husband has his butter, sour cream, cream cheese etc. and I have mine. It sounds silly, but if I do by a jar of something that I think we will share, I will place one half in another jar and put my name on it to avoid confusion. It sounds extreme, but when I first went gf, I would color code all of my things with a strip of duck tape or a sticker to remind myself and my husband about what was safe. Hope this helps :)

Unknown said...

Jaye- Great tips! Thank you so much for sharing them and helping others get valuable tips to utilize!