Cooking with ovens and cross contamination?

[rt-116]

I got diagnosed with coeliac disease yesterday, so I'm still researching and learning a lot about it all. Including cross contamination! I wondered, what are people's thoughts on cooking in ovens? For example cooking gluten-free breaded chicken on the shelf above non gluten-free breaded chicken. Is that safe? Thanks for any tips!

[Fenrir]

I think I would avoid cooking/baking gluten food and gluten-free foods at the same time, it's too easy to contaminate when handling both. I'm not sure I would bake bread above gluten-free food either just in case somehow crumbs fall down. 

[rt-116]

Just now, Fenrir said:

I think I would avoid cooking/baking gluten food and gluten-free foods at the same time, it's too easy to contaminate when handling both. I'm not sure I would bake bread above gluten-free food either just in case somehow crumbs fall down. 

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Rebecca Kay]

On 1/24/2020 at 8:00 AM, rt_116 said:

I got diagnosed with coeliac disease yesterday, so I'm still researching and learning a lot about it all. Including cross contamination! I wondered, what are people's thoughts on cooking in ovens? For example cooking gluten-free breaded chicken on the shelf above non gluten-free breaded chicken. Is that safe? Thanks for any tips!

Yes, but when you take it out, the counter, the serving utensils, etc.....the likelihood of contamination is real unless you live with one other person and can really control the environment. Not encouraging fear, but the learning curve will take a while. In reality, if you want to know for certain that your food is safe, you need a gluten-free kitchen or very strict separation/limit gluten in your kitchen altogether. We have one counter devoted for the 'wheat eaters' because I can't buy gluten-free bread for all. I only cook gluten-free now for our whole family; if they use bread, they know the drill. PB & jelly containers are labeled strictly to maintain gluten-free; breaded shrimp and pizza are the only gluten-items allowed in the kitchen anymore and must be kept away from any other foods while out. I use foil to cover my old pans and ensure no "old" crumbs/residue can contaminate my cooking - althought I've scrubbed everything down and replaced all scrubbing brushes. We have TWO toasters, the 'before' toaster, and the gluten-free only toaster, which only the Celiacs in the house are permitted to use - EVER.  I bake - a lot - so have replaced things as time allows, but the toaster was a no-brainer. I use container lids as spoon/server rests near the stovetop so that even those are never placed directly onthe counters - just in case someone spread some wheat crumbs.  Everyone knows not to contaminate the sour cream, yogurt, family size/shared buckets of items - I don't care how many new spoons you go through on one sitting. That said, with several people in the house, the only way to control it is not allow it in! Even in your pantry, I wouldn't take the chance of pretzel dust from a bag getting out, etc. Hope that helps.

[Fenrir]

The other thing to take into account is that it's not just you learning, it's the people that live with you. You will make mistakes in the beginning and that's with you being celiac. Other people don't even think about cross contamination in their daily lives so it's easy for them to forget in the beginning too. 

My wife glutened me a few times early on just because she didn't even realize she dipped a contaminated spoon in something that I was going to eat.