The problem with "gluten free" in restaurants

[CMCM]

To many people, "gluten free" is somewhat of a dietary fad.  To a great many people it's a choice to avoid gluten, not a necessity.  Many if not most restaurants who offer gluten free items have little to no idea about cross contamination.  Most people unfamiliar with celiac disease and gluten really know less than zero about it.  I remember being somewhere and asking if such and such had gluten in it as an ingredient.  The puzzled waitress trudged back to the kitchen to ask the chef about it, and she came back to tell me:  "It has no gluten in it, it only contains flour."   Sigh. 

Then you have places like Papa Murphy's Pizza with their gluten free pizza crust, which they take out and lay on the flour-covered board where they prepare the toppings on their other pizzas.  My son got one of their pizzas and got terribly sick from cross contamination from it.  Only a few restaurants such as P.F. Chang's (a national chain, I think)  understand gluten more fully. This restaurant has a separate area, separate cooking pans, and use separate and identifiable plates for their gluten free dishes.  They have a gluten free menu.  But even they make mistakes.  One time I ordered a gluten free dish which arrived on a plain plate, not the gluten free designated one.  I asked about that...and the waitress freaked out and realized she had forgotten to submit the order as gluten free and had delivered to me the gluten version.

[Scott Adams]

I agree that cross-contamination, bad or no gluten-free training of restaurant staff, as well as mistakes like the one you mentioned, are common in restaurants, even ones that have a gluten-free menu (which can give most celiacs a false sense of security).

A couple of years ago I started taking GliadinX (full disclosure they are a site sponsor of ours) before eating outside my home. Many of the issues I used to have when eating out disappeared. Many studies have been done on the AN-PEP enzymes, and you can read more about them here:

• https://www.celiac.com/search/?q=gliadinx&quick=1&type=cms_records2

I do think that there needs to be some regulation on the use of "gluten-free" in restaurants, as it has created exactly the same situation as the use of "gluten-free" on packaged food labels before the labeling regulations were passed that added a real meaning to it, and provided enforcement options against companies that misuse the claim.