Am I removing gluten from my dishes or pushing it around?

[Wingo]

Do you all hand wash all your dishes or use the dishwasher?  I’m nearly 10 years post diagnosis and would like to feel better. I have a small shared kitchen and I’m looking at that to fine-tune the separation processes and remove cross contamination opportunities. How do you remove gluten from the stovetop, countertops and sink?  Do you wash gluten covered items together in the sink and with the same dish cloth?  I recently stumbled upon an article about this that said hand washing was the better method.  But it didn’t provide exact management of that.  What say you all?

[plumbago]

When there are others in my household, everything's gluten free. I do both - hand wash and 3-4 times a week use the dishwasher.

But at work, I sometimes eat in our dining room if the person cooking has assured me there are no gluten containing ingredients (this is about 2-3 times a month), and so while the occasional meal may be gluten-free, the kitchen overall is definitely not.

Plumbago

[Scott Adams]

I live in a mixed gluten and gluten-free household and we share the dishwasher, and I've never had issues, however, we do rinse the dishes off well before we put them into it.

[trents]

Wingo, you may be straining at the gnat and swallowing the camel. Have you had any follow-up antibody testing done to check compliance with gluten-free eating? Maybe you are cross-reacting to some other protein in your diet.

[cristiana]

I often mention a dodgy old dishwasher on this forum that we used to own.  I frequently emptied plates from it that didn't feel squeaky clean.  When we replaced it with a dishwasher that used clean water for the initial rinse cycle, my Ttg numbers improved.  Could have been a coincidence though.

I know a lot of people in the UK who wash up and never rinse afterwards.    This was the way I was taught when I was brought up here in England, but noticed when I lived in France the family I lived with washed their plates in hot sudsy water then rinsed it off with more hot water.  I am sure if we didn't have a dishwasher now I'd be employing the latter, French method, and would be fine.

 

[GF-Cate]

Beyond Celiac has some good information about cross contact & “hotspots” in the home. This is what they say about sponges & dish rags:

“Can I use the same sponges and dish rags to clean gluten-free cookware as I use for cookware that has been used to make gluten-containing items?”

“The short answer: No, you should have separate sponges and dishrags to clean gluten-free cookware. Paper towels may not be “green” but you can clean up and toss the gluten-containing crumbs.”

Personally, we switched to a 100% gluten free home after trying, but failing, to avoid cross contact in a shared kitchen. 

But if you don’t have that option, definitely keep separate cleaning items for washing dishes & cleaning the kitchen. A bin of kitchen washcloths can be used with soap to wipe down stovetop/counter/sink and put into dirty laundry after a single use so you don’t spread around particles of gluten if you want to use something besides paper towels.

[Scott Adams]

I agree that sponges and dish rags could pose a problem, but if the dishes are properly rinsed off after they are washed, that risk would likely still be fairly low--but it certainly might still be worth having separate ones just to on the safe side! We don't do this in our household, but do run all dished through the dishwasher after they are rinsed off (possibly using a contaminated sponge!).