Gluten-Free eaters still need to take precautions when eating out

With the words Gluten-Free all over the place in the media lately, and more and more restaurants offering  gluten-free options- I fear that our guards are somewhat down now expecting that when we see the words “gluten-free” that the person on the other end knows what it actually means to be gluten-free.  I am finding that this is not always the case.   On the blog www.GlutenFreeLI.comI have posted about bakeries advertising that they have gluten-free products, while being made on the same shared equipment, and by dusting the pan with “only a little flour” which is totally unacceptable, and of course, then renders the product not gluten-free.  Also, restaurants are offering gluten-free menus, while still only a handful on Long Island are members of programs such as the Gluten Intolerance Group’s Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program (GFRAP) or the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness’s GREAT program.  These two programs provide training materials to the restaurants and help educate their employees as to the concerns with preparing gluten-free products with as little cross-contamination as possible.  Those who are not educated on the correct preparation of gluten-free foods and are just offering a “gluten-free menu” because everyone else is- present a tremendous danger for us in the Celiac Disease/Gluten-Free community. 

Recently, I was traveling from LI to CT for a trip and on the I-95 there were 2 huge billboards advertising two Diners that had gluten-free options.  I was beyond excited and couldn’t wait to pull off and try one out.  When we arrived, we asked for the gluten-free menu, and was given a smaller sized version of their typical Diner menu which was nice that it wasn’t just a piece of printer paper!  In the menu it said “prepared using GFRAP standards”- not that they were a member of GFRAP, but I thought that this was a good sign that at least they knew what they were talking about.  I ordered a gluten-free French toast, and when it arrived, it looked a bit bigger than I have seen in the past, but assumed they must have cut their own slices in the back.  I took one bite into the French toast and the waitress came running out to tell me not to eat it that it was the regular French toast. (too late!)  When she came back with the now clearly smaller version of French toast she said “sorry, we don’t serve gluten-free too often.”  I have started to take for granted that when places offer a gluten-free menu, that that atomically means that the staff has been trained, and that they have some sort of procedure in place to accommodate gluten-free eaters.  The manager was less than apologetic, and almost didn’t even seem to understand what the problem was.  Needless to say I refused the “corrected” GF French toast, because I only assumed then that they must have prepared it on a same grill, and would not want to even risk eating one more bite of contaminated food.

We have to go back to the days where we question every single item’s ingredient that we order as if there was no gluten-free menu.  We have to stress to the wait staff the importance of preparing GF foods separately and using clean utensils.  I have not done this in a few years- I tend to eat at places I trust, and that have GF menus, so that when I go to a new place that has GF items, I fall under the assumption that they too know what they’re doing.  The problem with something being considered a “fad” is that it makes businesses want to jump on the “fad” bandwagon.  It’s great that gluten-free has so much awareness recently and that truly is a good thing, but people who offer gluten-free don’t necessarily understand what it means to be gluten-free so keep your guards up and go back to asking questions!