What About Sponges?

[kdonov2]

I know that many people are encouraged to buy entirely new untensils and cookwear when they discover they cannot have gluten. My question is, if I am sharing a kitchen with my non-celiac boyfriend and do not have a dishwasher, do I also need to have my own seperate sponge for dish cleaning?

Thanks

[T.H.]

I'm pretty sure that would be a good idea, yeah. I'll be honest, I say this more based on a recent article about sponges and bacteria, where it was saying that with sponges, it tends to just wipe the bacteria around when you reuse it, rather than actually cleaning it off entirely. I would imagine gluten would be similar.

I know that many people are encouraged to buy entirely new untensils and cookwear when they discover they cannot have gluten. My question is, if I am sharing a kitchen with my non-celiac boyfriend and do not have a dishwasher, do I also need to have my own seperate sponge for dish cleaning?

Thanks

[Gemini]

I know that many people are encouraged to buy entirely new untensils and cookwear when they discover they cannot have gluten. My question is, if I am sharing a kitchen with my non-celiac boyfriend and do not have a dishwasher, do I also need to have my own seperate sponge for dish cleaning?

Thanks

I do not use separate sponges and it has not been an issue. Considering that you use the sponge to wash your dishes, and I am assuming you use plenty of soap, any gluten that sponge comes into contact with would be long gone. The more important aspect with sponges is replacing them once a week so bacteria will not become an issue. Yes, once a week is the recommendation and as they are so inexpensive, I replace mine that often.

If you are concerned about wiping down a counter with wheat crumbs, then rinsing the sponge well after wards will take care of any problems. If that isn't enough to make you comfortable, then you could buy those disposable wipes for counter top use and use the sponge to wash dishes only.

Remember, you have to ingest crumbs to become sick and if you think about the way a sponge is used, that would hardly be of concern. Dishes get rinsed well and so do sponges. Unless you put that sponge in your mouth, after wiping away wheat crumbs, you aren't going to become sick or be exposed.

[Scott Adams]

This is an old thread, but in general someone with celiac disease should use a dedicated gluten-free sponge, and never use a shared sponge that has come into contact with gluten.