Navigating Your Way in a Cross-Contaminated World
Awareness of gluten sensitivities such as celiac disease and gluten intolerance is on the rise, and so too is the frequency of gluten-free product labeling. But in a grocery world that is too often plagued by cross-contamination and dangerous mislabeling, how can you as a conscious consumer protect your family from getting “glutened.”
In this article we’ll cover some of the tips and tricks that you should know in order keep your home gluten-free.
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Look for Your Grocer's Labels: Gluten-Free product labeling has formerly been a helpful way to avoid offending glutens, but with companies like Wellshire Farms mislabeling their products, you will need to look beyond the manufacturer’s packaging. Unfortunately, this particular company has refused to recall contaminated products for repackaging, but stores like Whole Foods Markets are at least subtly indicating that these foods are unsafe. Whole Foods Markets, like many grocers use additional in-house labeling on shelving and fixtures to indicate which products are gluten-free. At Whole Foods Markets, you will no longer see the green and white labels pasted below any controversial foods like Wellshire’s. So if you don’t see your grocer’s stickers, you may want to keep moving.
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Read the Paper: While you may not read your local paper daily, you may want to keep an eye on sources like the Chicago Tribune. The paper’s recent exposé articles have driven some manufacturers to recall and repackage gluten and allergen contaminated products. While other companies who refused to do so cited sales levels so low that production had halted. In the gluten-free community, we need these kind of actions taken, and research performed—it is vital to our heath. No matter where you live, if your are gluten-free, you just may have found your paper in the Chicago Tribune.
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Buy Whole Foods: Most gluten-free chefs will agree on one way to minimize your risk of cross-contamination—buying whole foods exclusively. Renowned chef and author of several cookbooks, including The Wheat-Free Cook, Jacqueline Mallorca spoke to us on the subject and had this to say: "When it comes to gluten-free grocery shopping, I think we have to be vigilant, but not paranoid. Think out of the box most of the time. Literally. If you make it yourself, from fresh or minimally processed ingredients, you can be pretty sure it's gluten free! Not to mention more nutritious, much cheaper, and better for the environment." We agree with Ms. Mallorca, there certainly is something to knowing every ingredient in your granola bar. -
Stay Tuned: Having access to some of the best informed, gluten-free resources is a luxury that all of us have via the internet. The gluten-free community is an intelligent, close-knit and expressive one, offering an almost endless number of blogs, forums, information sites and articles surrounding all topics of gluten-free living. And if you ever doubt the gluten-free status of a product, simply go onto your favorite forums and ask. You may need to weed out what seems to be the most intelligible of the replies, but with this supportive community, you will surely get your answer.
Jacqueline Mallorca's The Wheat-Free Cook is being re-issued in March 2009.
Posted 12/30/08 by Kristen Campbell, co-founder of GlutenFreeFox.com (learn more about Kristen Campbell)
