Dedicated utensils

[Onegiantcrunchie]

Hi everyone. All these years gone by and I don't actually know the answer to this one but...

Since many seemingly reputable sources say that soap and water (basically a proper wash) removes gluten, why is it that we're often told to have our own separate utensils?

And in a similar vein, if we need separate utensils, why is it that we can we eat in regular restaurants, as long as we are assured that the food is gluten-free - after all, how many restaurants have dedicated forks and spoons for non-gluten foods only? So we aren't using dedicated utensils outside of our homes anyway.

Yeah I just don't understand the discrepancy here, hope someone can help. Thanks!

[Wheatwacked]

Though it doesn't have the religious overtones, keeping gluten and non-gluten separate is not much different than keeping milk and meat separate in a kosher household. Avoiding inadvertent cross contamination despite best intentions. A strictly kosher person will not eat in a non-kosher restaurant even if it does serve kosher food. Some families keep four sets of dishes and utensils and pots and pans: milk and meat and Passover milk and meat.

Keeping kosher for Passover means abstaining from hametz, the fermented products of five principal grains: wheat, rye, spelt, barley and oats. Though matzah, the unleavened bread eaten on Passover, is made from grain, it is produced under highly controlled conditions to ensure that it does not ferment.

Guess it depends on how sensitive you are.

[Scott Adams]

I've never used separate utensils, but do check to make sure they are clean, especially in restaurants. Our dishwasher seems to do the job just fine.

[RMJ]

If you have smooth dishes and utensils and they are visibly clean you should be fine.  Things like wooden spoons and scratched plastic are what could be a problem because they are hard to get genuinely clean.

My husband who eats gluten has his own dishes and utensils because we don’t have a dishwasher and I can often see/feel some bits of residue on his dishes after he washes them.  

[Celiacandhappy]

Gluten particles could be trapped on porous surfaces so we should only be careful about certain utensils, like wooden spoons and some cutting boards. Also, the strainer that you might use to drain regular pasta cannot be used for gluten free pasta. Unfortunately even after a dishwasher cycle the gluten particles might remain trapped in the strainer. That is the only kitchen utensil that I would never share with non celiac.