Wooden Spoons

[emcmaster]

Ok, I know we can't have wooden spoons that were previously or are currently being used to cook with gluten because wood is absorbent.

But what about a gluten-free wooden spoon that gets put in the dishwasher where there are possible gluten particles floating around? Does that contaminate it? My husband scrubs his gluten-y dishes pretty well when he puts them in the dishwasher, but I'm sure he doesn't get all the gluten off. And if that's the case, would the wood on my designated gluten-free wooden spoons absorb it to possibly contaminate me later?

[psawyer]

Well, some people would say no. But since I live in a house where my wife sometimes eats foods with gluten I have a pragmatic approach. We don't segregate dishes or flatware. Everything is washed in the same dishwasher--we only have one! I know gluten can get stuck in porous surfaces, such as scratched plastic (non-stick coating is plastic), or wood. The dishes that have had gluten are rinsed before they go into the dishwasher, but after that, they are not specially tracked and we consider them all to be clean.

My wife lived through the many years of sickness and foul moods that gluten caused me. The last thing she would want to do is expose me to gluten. We are both happy with our arrangement.

If you consider the conditions in a restaurant, any restaurant, that also serves gluten, you will either come the same conclusion that we have, or you will refuse to eat there at all. The restaurant will have one common set of dishes and cutlery, and one pool of pots. They will wash them, once, between uses, in a dishwasher. If you can accept that at a restaurant, home should be no different.

[lovegrov]

This is not one I'd worry about.

richard

[larry mac]

.....what about a gluten-free wooden spoon that gets put in the dishwasher.....

emcm,

My personal lifelong dishwasher policy (includes 55 years pre-gluten-free and 2 months gluten-free) is:

~ No wood in dishwasher, dries it out, leads to cracking, unsightliness, and premature retirement. I hand wash these items, among some others.

best regards, lm

[gfp]

Well, some people would say no. But since I live in a house where my wife sometimes eats foods with gluten I have a pragmatic approach. We don't segregate dishes or flatware. Everything is washed in the same dishwasher--we only have one! I know gluten can get stuck in porous surfaces, such as scratched plastic (non-stick coating is plastic), or wood. The dishes that have had gluten are rinsed before they go into the dishwasher, but after that, they are not specially tracked and we consider them all to be clean.

Fair enough, everyone can make their own choices but I should add it doesn't need a porous surface, gluten is by its nature very sticky... and the most efficient way to make "pure" gluten is by rinsing wheat flour with an alkaline solution.... such as dishwasher tablets.

My wife lived through the many years of sickness and foul moods that gluten caused me. The last thing she would want to do is expose me to gluten. We are both happy with our arrangement.

That's fine....

If you consider the conditions in a restaurant, any restaurant, that also serves gluten, you will either come the same conclusion that we have, or you will refuse to eat there at all. The restaurant will have one common set of dishes and cutlery, and one pool of pots. They will wash them, once, between uses, in a dishwasher. If you can accept that at a restaurant, home should be no different.

This is really where I disagree.... I view eating in any resto a finite risk over eating at home. Just as you have decided to set your own risk levels at home I set mine with regards to eating out.

The huge difference is that I do not eat out everyday.... I eat out at most once a week.... and even then I am ultra-critical of the silverware.

We can never be 100% risk free.... we live in a word full of gluten but we also to a large extent make our own luck....

I accept the risk of certain resto's on occaision because its on occaision, that doesn't mean I accept the same level of risk on a daily basis.... or 3x a day. Equally I am not telling you that you shouldn't... I just want to point out the difference.

The second thing that is different from a resto to home is that if you get sick in a resto (and most of us do from time to time) you still have your gluten-safe refuge.... home.

Most of the nasiest aspects of celiac disease life threatening) are cumulative effects. D is just an uncomfortable and potentially embarassing side effect but if that was the only reason to be gluten-free I would be back on gluten tomorrow....

Actually one of the major reasons that I am so strict is the same as you say....

the many years of sickness and foul moods that gluten caused me.

... and my foul moods and depressions are for me way more important than a bit of D or tummy ache!

However the major reasons are long term neurological damage, cancer, adrenal fatigue/failure, development of further intolerances, etc. etc. and all of these can be equally triggered by long term exposure and noone knows quite how little or how often.

I know that I myself react to the tiniest amount... not always GI, often more neurologically in the first instance.

I view taking a small risk at home as more conducive to developing these serious compicationbs than taking occaisional risks with plenty of time inbetween.

~ No wood in dishwasher, dries it out, leads to cracking, unsightliness, and premature retirement. I hand wash these items, among some others.

True but wooden spoons cost 10c each... IMHO why even take a risk for a 10c utensil?

[darlindeb25]

There is such a thing as being over cautious and making too much work of things. I am very senstive to gluten too, yet when my kids were still home, I never was glutened by the dishes and we had a dishwasher--my sister is very sensitive too and she has never had a dishwasher in her home. She is a dietician in a hospital and I know they do not have the time to fret over dishes. Her staff has all been trained in preparing food for gluten free people and they know all about cross contamination. When I am somewhere else, I do make sure there is no leftover food on the fork, but otherwise, we are pretty safe. When we get glutened away from home or even at home, it is rarely because of the dish we are using. It's usually accidental or carelessness on another's part. Someone here mentioned running the dishwasher 5 times, what a waste of time and energy.

We have every reason to be worried about being glutened, but we can't let it take over our lives. When friends have a party, I am very careful and if they are true friends, they will not question you as to why you are not enjoying the food. Life is not about eating, it's about having a good time with family and friends. We eat for health, not for happiness.

Most of the nasiest aspects of celiac disease life threatening) are cumulative effects. D is just an uncomfortable and potentially embarassing side effect but if that was the only reason to be gluten-free I would be back on gluten tomorrow.... Obviously, you did not have disabling diarrhea like many of us have. My diarrhea kept me out of work, away from family, sleep deprivation, etc. Even if diarrhea was the only problem with celiac disease, I would live gluten-free just for that reason. Gluten was ruining my health and my life. When I sit and think about it now, it may have been a huge factor in my divorce. I did everything I could to make sure my kids had a normal childhood and often times I was very sick and still did my best. I wish I had known about gluten back then, my life would have been so much happier.

[emcmaster]

Sadly, I find the more I find out about CC issues (and I'm pretty well-versed as it is), the more paranoid I get.

I wouldn't be worrying too much about the wooden spoons getting glutened in the dishwasher except we started using them more often and I've been continually sick for the past 2 months. Granted, I think it's something else, but as we all know, when you're really sick, you just want it to stop.

[gfp]

Sadly, I find the more I find out about CC issues (and I'm pretty well-versed as it is), the more paranoid I get.

I wouldn't be worrying too much about the wooden spoons getting glutened in the dishwasher except we started using them more often and I've been continually sick for the past 2 months. Granted, I think it's something else, but as we all know, when you're really sick, you just want it to stop.

I understand and sorry for the thread getting dragged off.

What I found is that real threat or not when your continually sick the more things I know it can't be the better.

If you wanna play a test then try putting some strong food dye like tumeric into your dishwasher and run a cycle with a clean wooden spoon. Everyones dishwashers are different and we use different products anyway....

OK tumeric isn't gluten ... but this is almost as much about eliminating risk as anything....

One thing you can do I found out by accident is I keep duck fat in a container... and it gets a bit gross so I stuck it in the dishwasher where it had gone all sticky .... I think this works with any oils.... I just didn't test....

Anyway, when it comes out it looks grosser than before, the sticky patch which was oil has been changed into something best described as looking like Elmers wood glue when dried...

[Jestgar]

I wouldn't be worrying too much about the wooden spoons getting glutened in the dishwasher except we started using them more often and I've been continually sick for the past 2 months. Granted, I think it's something else, but as we all know, when you're really sick, you just want it to stop.

I'd be less worried about the gluten and more worried about the residual soap stuck in the wood. (I try to limit my exposure to chemicals.)

[Jestgar]

Anyway, when it comes out it looks grosser than before, the sticky patch which was oil has been changed into something best described as looking like Elmers wood glue when dried...

EEWWWW!!

[gfp]

EEWWWW!!

Basically I just made soap.

Saponification: Alkaline hydrolysis of a fat or oil and a messy glycerol.

Probably the presence of the dishwasher salts did nothing to make this a clean reaction....

[Electra]

Ok, I know we can't have wooden spoons that were previously or are currently being used to cook with gluten because wood is absorbent.

But what about a gluten-free wooden spoon that gets put in the dishwasher where there are possible gluten particles floating around? Does that contaminate it? My husband scrubs his gluten-y dishes pretty well when he puts them in the dishwasher, but I'm sure he doesn't get all the gluten off. And if that's the case, would the wood on my designated gluten-free wooden spoons absorb it to possibly contaminate me later?

EEK wooden spoons give me the heebie jeebies lol!! I just had to reply because when I was a child my mother used to whip me over the butt with wooden spoons and they send shivers up my spine to this day. I WILL NOT use them they just give me the creeps. When they started breaking on her I would laugh and she started using those plastic spatulas (can I say YOUCH). I NEVER laughed about that pain lol!! Well I can use all the plastic I want, but that wood still gives me the creeps. Maybe it's gluten related LOL!! Anyways I hope you get your answers I just had to share!!

[larry mac]

I don't even use wooden spoons anymore anyway, I just keep those in the utensil holder on the counter 'cause they look nice. I prefer the white plastic ones. Those do go in the dishwasher although I occasionally have to replace them after getting stained with chili or spaghetti sauce.

My rule for wood in the dishwasher still holds for nice knives with wooden handles though.

Plus, I basically do all the cooking and dishwashing anyway, so I have almost complete control over the gluten aspects.

best regards, lm

[Mtndog]

The first thing I ditched was wooden spoons. I'm actually thinking about ditching the plastic too now and going with metal (or just new plastic color-coded so I know which ones are gluten free. I go with bright colors so hubby doesn't make a mistake).

It's really a matter of personal choice but I am supersensitive and would much rather know that my utensils were AGFAP (as gluten free as possible) since processed food is risky enough.

Some people don't worry about it.

[babygirl1234]

i always though that wooden spoons are hard to get gluten off them ?

[darlindeb25]

Babygirl--wooden spoons are ok if you buy them new to use after going gluten free--you should never use an old one, once you are gluten-free. Does that help?