Hidden Gluten: Where Contamination Lurks in Your Kitchen

You’ve swapped out your pantry, checked all your ingredients, and double-checked your meal plans—your kitchen is completely gluten-free, right?

Not so fast! Gluten can be a sneaky little thing, and it often hides in places you’d never think to check—even in your own kitchen. From toasters to cutting boards and old pans, cross-contamination risks are everywhere.

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the unexpected places gluten can hide in your kitchen, how to properly clean and replace items, and tips to make sure your gluten-free meals stay truly safe!

 This episode is brought to you by Find Me Gluten Free—your go-to app for discovering safe, gluten-free dining options wherever you go!
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Because dinning out gluten-free shouldn’t be a guessing game! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Why Cross-Contamination Matters
• 2:50 Toasters: The Biggest Gluten Culprits
• 5:40 Cutting Boards and Porous Surfaces
• 7:40 Cast Iron and Non-stick Pan Dangers
• 11:00 Wooden Utensils, Colanders, and Kitchen Textiles
• 15:40 Air Fryers and Creating a Safe Kitchen
• 18:10 Sharing Kitchen Spaces and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode this podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. So you've swapped out your pantry, checked all your ingredients and double-checked your meal plans and your kitchen is completely gluten-free. Then right, not really. Gluten can be a sneaky little thing, and it often hides in places you'd never think to check in your kitchen and in other restaurants' kitchens, too places you'd never think to check in your kitchen, and in other restaurants' kitchens, too. From toasters to cutting boards and old pans. Cross-contamination risks are actually everywhere, especially when first switching to gluten-free or if you have a mixed kitchen where you have both gluten-free and gluten items in the house. So in today's episode, we're diving into unexpected places gluten can hide in your kitchen how to properly clean and replace items, and tips to make sure your gluten-free meals actually truly stay gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders: 0:52

Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love, whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show.

Carrie Saunders: 1:35

So today we're talking about cross-contamination in our own kitchens, and this can actually apply also to restaurants. So this is going to give you some clues on what to ask for in restaurants too. But why is cross-contamination such a big deal? For those with celiac disease or severe gluten intolerance, even a tiny crumb can trigger symptoms and can trigger damage in celiacs. Cross-contamination can happen when gluten particles from one item transfer to gluten-free foods through shared surfaces, utensils or equipment, and it's honestly easier to happen than you might think At least, it was a lot easier to happen than I thought in the beginning of being gluten-free, and your kitchen can feel like a safe zone and it should be a safe zone. But there are some hidden traps that might surprise you and I want to try to help you mitigate those problems before they become a problem, because I had to go through a lot of learning myself and being gluten-free because I was the first one in our family who found out they needed to be gluten-free. Nobody else we knew had celiac disease and it was a completely new ballpark to us and there's a lot of misconceptions and also a lot of lacking of information. So let's talk about some of the top hidden gluten traps in your kitchen, and these are some of the things that the dietician went over with me when I did speak to a dietician after I was tired of keeping getting sick all the time.

Carrie Saunders: 2:55

And toasters and toaster ovens Most people know this, but some people have no idea that toaster and toaster ovens are such a danger to celiacs and those that are highly sensitive to gluten. They are one of the biggest culprits when it comes across contamination, because crumbs from regular bread can get stuck into the slots of the heating elements and all the nooks and crannies and it's impossible to clean it's really impossible to clean a toaster. Now you're going to get a lot more potential of actually cleaning a toaster oven, or maybe you could switch out the grate in it in a toaster oven, so you're going to be a bit safer in a toaster oven than you are a toaster. You could even line it with foil if you use a toaster oven versus a toaster, so you can line the grate with foil before you put the food on it, so that's going to help mitigate cross-contamination. So I would honestly recommend, if you have a mixed kitchen, either have a separate toaster for gluten-free only and make sure everybody in the house is compliant, or have a toaster oven and you take the measures yourself to line it with foil when you go to use it and things like that.

Carrie Saunders: 4:10

And you know, ask, of course, you know everybody else that lives with you to be careful with the crumbs and things like that and making sure it's a lot safer for you. So you can also use and I've never tried this before, but I've heard of toaster bags that you can use to keep your gluten-free bread separate. Personally, that would still probably bother me because once you pulled the bag out, then you're touching the outside of the bag, which could have the gluten on it, and you're going to be using your hands probably to eat the toast. So I feel like that's probably not the best solution, although I will say I've never tried it before. It might be the best solution if that's the only solution you got. So use your best judgment and your doctor's best judgment on how to deal with that.

Carrie Saunders: 4:48

But toasters are a big culprit. Whenever we go on vacation and we go into a condominium that already has the pots and pans and toasters, we actually have a really cheap toaster from a big box company that we bring along with us, toaster from a big box company that we bring along with us so that and we hide the toaster that's there, we hide it up above the refrigerator and only have the toaster down so that we know that that's our safe toaster. So there's sometimes you have to adapt like that when, especially when going on vacation, if you're going to a place that has a full kitchen so think about that too, as I'm talking through this episode if you go to a condominium, like we do every year we go to the beach every year with our family and we bring some of our own pots and pans, because we know that there's going to be problems with potentially old pots and pans and we're going to go into that next too. And speaking of next cutting boards, that's one thing we do not use at a common shared kitchen. That is like, say, we're away on vacation and they have a cutting board, so wooden and plastic cutting boards can develop grooves in them where gluten particles can get trapped. It is practically impossible to get that gluten out. Dishwasher can't do it, you know. Hand scrubbing it might have a bit better of a chance of doing it, especially if you use something really stiff and bristly, but it can really linger in there. There's hardly any way to guarantee that you can get all the gluten out of cutting boards. So you want to make sure that you have dedicated cutting boards for gluten-free items.

Carrie Saunders: 6:20

If you have a shared kitchen or if you're going on vacation, like we do, we always bring a cutting board with us. We bring a cutting board, we bring our favorite cutting knife and we don't even use their cutting boards, or even sometimes we don't even use their knives. So what we want to make sure we're doing is using that separate cutting board. You want to use non-porous materials like glass or acrylic or gluten-free use too, if you have to share it and in your shared kitchen. As a celiac, it makes me very nervous to use shared equipment for anything, honestly, for all these years of getting sick accidentally because of doing things like that. But if you do need to use shared equipment, something non-porous is going to be a lot safer for you and I would regularly inspect and replace cutting boards that are worn or damaged. So when you start seeing cracks in them, really be diligent here, because the cracks are going to be so microscopic that you're going to want to look for those precursor cracks before they actually become big cracks or you still might be hiding gluten in it. Again, I totally recommend instead something dedicated. But if you can't completely get that and you're going to have to do the best you can and you know, use services that don't get those cracks in it.

Carrie Saunders: 7:34

Now here's a surprising one to me and this is something that I learned over trial and error when I first had to be gluten-free is cast iron skillets and non-stick pans. These harbor little particles of gluten in them because cast iron is, you know, somewhat porous. It likes to grab onto food. We create our own non-stick surface with cast iron. I absolutely love cast iron, but what I found with cast iron and old non-stick pans not saying you should use nonstick pans, because I think we all know by now that nonstick pans aren't the best thing to use, but when I first went gluten-free they were still kind of more the mainstream to use I found that even the nonstick pans had little cracks and crevices in it because I was getting sick using gluten-free pasta in my nonstick pans and I've figured out, especially after talking to the dietician, that it gets cracks and crevices as it wears and gets older. So, similarly to cast iron, they both can have these nooks and crannies and you know places that can store this gluten and they can. You know. Then it will release into your food as you're cooking is what many times will happen.

Carrie Saunders: 8:46

And so having dedicated pans for gluten-free cooking is really essential here. It's really essential for all of the items we're talking about in this episode and especially for pans. You know that's what you're cooking in. You want to really make sure that that's gluten free. And what I have found is I could reclaim those old cast iron pans that were that had gluten in them originally. We did a really thorough re-seasoning. We took a wire bristle brush and a drill and really scoured off that first few layers of surface and, you know, thoroughly heated them up in the oven, like they recommend you do when you're re-seasoning, and then put oil in. You know, put the proper oils on them and we were able to reclaim old cast iron pans. So don't throw away your cast iron pans just yet If you feel comfortable doing that process. They still may be salvageable, but do keep in mind that it may take several cooks of gluten-free stuff in that type of pan for it to finally become safe for you. So you know, use your best judgment. Talk to your doctor, see what they think too. But in our experience we have been able to reclaim old cast iron pans.

Carrie Saunders: 10:01

Now nonstick pans. You can't reclaim those. That's just not possible. I recommend honestly you donating them, not really throwing them out. Donate them to somebody who needs pans and get yourself some stainless steel pans. We switched to stainless steel when I started getting sick from our old nonstick pans and realizing we really shouldn't be eating that stuff anyway because it gets in your food. So we have reserved nonstick pans for things that we absolutely need something nonstick for and they're dedicated gluten free now.

Carrie Saunders: 10:34

So making sure that you're looking at your nonstick pans and your cast iron skillets. I have found that stainless steel whenever we go on vacation. Those tend to be safe. I don't tend to get sick from them and I think it's generally accepted that stainless steel doesn't get those cracks and crevices in it. Obviously, if it's really damaged, please use your best judgment there. But definitely you got to be careful of the cast iron and the nonstick pans. You got to be careful of the cast iron and the nonstick pans.

Carrie Saunders: 11:02

So the next thing that I was told by the dietician right away was she was like you need to get rid of all your wooden utensils and your rolling pins. So wooden items are very porous and they can easily trap gluten particles. So when you go gluten free and you need to be that way for medical reasons, you're going to want to donate those wooden rolling pins, those wooden utensils somewhere else or mark them as gluten. Only if you're having a mixed kitchen and make sure you get your own specifically gluten-free label. You know, don't let anybody else use gluten on them for wooden utensils and rolling pins, because it's such a porous material you cannot wash the gluten out of it. So make sure you're using dedicated there or opt for something like silicon and stainless steel. I find those are able to be washed, especially the stainless steel. Obviously, silicon can eventually break down and get cracks in it. So if you do have a mixed kitchen, stainless steel is a really good idea. If you know that it's going to be hard for everybody to be really diligent and not using the gluten-free utensils on gluten food. So stainless steel can be a great option for that. But if everybody can be really good at you know, keeping things segregated, you know wooden utensils for you can be fine as long as nobody else uses them for the gluten items.

Carrie Saunders: 12:24

Now here's one you might not think of and this is something I've definitely thought of in my years of being gluten-free is colanders and strainers, especially those metal ones. The tiny holes and mesh of a colander can trap gluten particles from pasta or grains and even a thorough wash may not fully remove these particles. I mean, if you think about how the mesh ones, the metal mesh ones, are made, you know they're basically weaved together like a blanket and in between those weavings it can trap gluten and it can be enough to make you sick. So I totally recommend having a separate colander just for gluten-free pasta. You can choose stainless steel or plastic. They can be more easily cleaned sometimes, especially if they're not the mesh kind and it's, you know, just straight plastic or straight stainless steel with slots in it. It's that mesh that can really trap the gluten in it. Now, obviously gluten can get trapped in the slots of stainless steel or plastic ones. So it's best to have your own separate one, but if you have to do a shared one because of space issues or whatnot, I would recommend something that's really easy to tell if there's, you know, nooks and crannies of leftover pasta in it, like on a stainless steel or plastic colander with just the slots in it.

Carrie Saunders: 13:39

Now here's something a little bit more interesting too, and dish towels and sponges. But if you use the same dish towel to wipe surfaces or dry dishes, gluten can easily transfer, and sponges, besides, just how they can be kind of gross for harboring bacteria to begin with, they can also harbor gluten if you use the clean contaminated dishes. So I would recommend, if you have a you know, a blended kitchen with both gluten and gluten-free stuff, use color-coded dish towels a specific color for gluten-free and a different color for regular use. That's going to make it easier on everybody and less stressful, and obviously replace sponges regularly if you use them, and consider using disposable cleaning wipes in gluten-free prep areas. Sometimes that's the best way to remove it, because actually alcohol can remove gluten better than soap and water. So using something like that to clean whenever you really thoroughly need to clean is a good idea, and so also we need to be looking out and this might be a little bit more obvious, but I still want to say it anyway waffle makers and panini presses those are. These can harbor gluten too. They can be really hard to clean thoroughly. They've got cracks and crevices on the cooking plates. So even thorough cleaning again for these, they may not fully remove the gluten. So I would totally recommend using separate appliances for gluten free cooking here and if it's not possible, use removable washable liners and thoroughly clean between uses.

Carrie Saunders: 15:10

So the last appliance I want to talk about is air fryer. So in our house we like to use an air fryer as a toaster. So our air fryer is like a toaster oven as well as a toaster. And if you really think about it, whenever you use an air fryer and then it depends upon the style too ours has shelves in it. Some of them don't have shelves and they're like a basket. So a basket would be definitely harder to use in a blended kitchen where you have both gluten and gluten-free items. If you have an air fryer like ours, where it's got different shelves and it's more like a glor, how all that like, even though it's air frying, you still get the grease and the crud all over the inside. I mean, open yourself, take a good look if you haven't in a while. And then whenever you're frying foods air frying foods that's moving all that air around and it could be, you know, blowing small particles of gluten onto your gluten-free food.

Carrie Saunders: 16:07

So I want you to make sure you're being really careful with air fryers, especially if you share them. You probably want to fully encase your food in something, whether that's aluminum foil or something that's oven proof or air fryer proof, to make sure that there's no gluten getting onto your food. So air fryers, I would be really cautious of sharing that and for the similar reasons as toasters, they're just really really hard to get clean. So I definitely recommend having a separate one if at all possible, or just completely avoiding it if it's not possible to have two separate ones, because it's a little bit larger of an appliance to have on our counters. So I would definitely use washable liners if you have to use a sheared one or using foil, and make sure you thoroughly clean the air fryer between uses or have have the gluten person thoroughly clean the air fryer in between uses. And you know, just be really cautious and careful with air fryers because they can be a good risk.

Carrie Saunders: 17:08

So if you do have to have a sheared kitchen with gluten items, some tips for keeping your kitchen gluten-free for you is make sure you're labeling your gluten-free items Clearly mark utensils, cutting boards, appliances that are all dedicated for gluten-free use and, if possible, maybe you can get them all color-coded too with the specific color that you guys agree to. And another thing that can really help is to create a dedicated gluten-free zone. You can designate a part of the kitchen where only gluten-free foods are prepared and are stored, so you can have one kitchen cupboard that's only gluten-free items on one part of the counter in the kitchen that is always for gluten-free stuff. That can really help you if you have a blended kitchen and you're severely sensitive to gluten. And also use dishwashers wisely. This is another thing we need to be careful of. So while dishwashers can help reduce cross-contamination, be cautious with items that have scratches or nonstick coatings too.

Carrie Saunders: 18:13

Plus, you really want to be making sure that you're thoroughly cleaning. There's a filter in your dishwasher if you don't know this Some people don't know this there's a filter usually in the bottom. Make sure that is regularly cleaned so gluten doesn't build up on there and then you're just swishing gluten water all over your dishes, as it's supposedly trying to clean, if you know what I'm saying. So, like you know, really make sure you're taking care of your dishwasher and cleaning that filter once a week. It's probably a really good idea. In our house, we clean ours probably about once a month, but everything's gluten-free here, so that's not too big of a deal. We just do that to maintain it and keep it in good running condition.

Carrie Saunders: 18:52

So if you do have to share a kitchen, be mindful when sharing spaces and help everybody understand you know the rules so that you can be safe and so that you can feel good and feel confident in eating. Because I can tell you this, there's nothing worse than being fearful of what you're eating. I have definitely been there way too many times in my life after finding out I was celiac and just being afraid of eating I mean, that's just a terrible feeling. So so your kitchen should feel safe to you. You shouldn't have that fear of eating. I know I've been there way too many times and I have felt fearful on eating food when I was like out and about or in a place that it wasn't safe, and I want to make sure that this helps you, you know, feel safe in your own kitchen if you have gluten in the house as well, and help others understand what is important and what's risky to you.

Carrie Saunders: 19:47

Who needs to be gluten-free? Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode, and we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.