Cross contamination questions

[deanna1ynne]

I’m trying to do a kitchen purge now that we have official diagnoses for my children, and have a few questions:

1. I used to grind my own wheat flour 3+ years ago. I’ve only ground bean flours since then. Do I need to throw out my current stash of bean flours due to cross contamination in the grain mill (internals of the grain mill cannot be cleaned, but it’s probably run over 200 lb of beans though since grinding any wheat)?

2. I have 25 lb of buckwheat flour sitting in a five gallon bucket that used to hold wheat. I washed the bucket in between, of course, but didn’t know about celiac then and can’t be sure that no wheat stayed behind in the cracks of the lid (To make a five gallon bucket airtight for foods, you hammer on a special lid, and I don’t know how concerned I should be about the crack that creates between the special lid and  the bucket, and food particles that might hide in that crack).

3. I understand the basic principal to purge pourous things ( like wood ) and  wash the rest. Where do plastics like food storage containers and cutting boards fit? What about an enameled waffle iron that does have some scratches in the coating or an enamel Dutch oven used for making bread in the past, but with some chips in the enamel? What about cast iron?

4. I am sharing a kitchen with extended family who will not be gluten free, and like to bake (with flour). What kinds of precautions should I take? Anything in particular related to them using wash rags to clean up after themselves and wipe down surfaces? Also, if they keep some wooden utensils, and I just don’t use them, is that ok, or is it problematic that their wooden utensils are in the drawer with all the utensils?

 Thank you in advance.

[RMJ]

The item that worries me the most in your list is people baking with flour in a shared kitchen.  Flour can easily become airborne and contaminate things.

 

[deanna1ynne]

21 minutes ago, RMJ said:

The item that worries me the most in your list is people baking with flour in a shared kitchen.  Flour can easily become airborne and contaminate things.

 

Yes, we are working on that side of things. My hope is to get kids doing “better,” and if grandma bakes and  notices that is makes the grand babies sick, she is open to not baking here anymore. She is just reluctant to do it if it’s unneeded, but also doesn’t want to cause her grand babies pain.

[deanna1ynne]

What about silicone baking molds?