In the gluten free world, "cross contamination" refers to any situation in which gluten free food become inappropriate for us because it has come into contact with gluten toxic food. For example, potatoes are naturally gluten free, but they become “contaminated” when they are fried in oil that has also been used to cook breaded onion rings.

 The term “contaminated” makes sense to us but may confuse others. After all, wheat is not a “contaminatnt” in the usual sense of the word — it is a nutritious food for almost anyone but us. In most cases “contamination” can be scrubbed away or destroyed by very high temperatures. That is NOT what celiacs are talking about!

“Contamination” is certainly a tactless word. I remember a time in my early days as a celiac when offended an excellent (if a bit fussy) hostess by suggesting that her toaster was contaminated.

 It is only recently that I first read about this contamination/contact issue. Click here if you would like to read more about it. I’ll keep using both words in this blog to make sure that everybody understands what I am saying, but I definitely prefer the term “cross contact”.

 This is strictly Paul’s Personal Perspective. I’ve tried to stick to objective facts in this blog, but there times when personal opinion is all that we have to guide us. I’ll write more articles like this one. At least for now, I plan to publish "Paul’s Personal Perspective" every Sunday.

Published 06/08/08