Tip: Cooking in a Contaminated Kitchen

As a college student living with 3 other guys I see my share of messes in the kitchen. This might just look like a mess to most people but I see it as a possible cross-contamination issue. Whether it is crumbs or a mysterious sauce, with a gluten allergy even the smallest amount of gluten can cause problems. Over the years I have found a few ways to avoid these issues as much as possible and make your kitchen a safer place:

• Paper towels are your friends! Whenever I set something down on the counter or table I always make sure to have a paper towel down first so I am sure that no crumbs or gluten will be where I put my food down.

• Separate Butter and Peanut Butter! Anything that people can put a knife in and put it into again will cause a problem. These common items are put on bread products such as toast. Crumbs can be left on the knife when others put them back into the butter. Stay away from these items because even if you cannot see any crumbs there may still be gluten present. Get a separate butter and peanut butter.

• Label items! If you get any item that you want to dedicate to yourself go ahead and label it with a big “GF” on it. Make it big and make it red or a color that people will see so they will not accidently use it.

• Dedicate a toaster: Crumbs and cross contamination are going to be an issue with toasters. I won’t even try to share a toaster with wheat bread. Get your own toaster and let everyone you live with that this is going to be dedicated to you.

I hope these tips will help you make your kitchen a little safer for you as you try to avoid gluten. If you are a veteran please share other tips so people can learn as much as they can to avoid mishaps!

Tags: Cross Contamination, Tips