Are Places Like Panera & Chipotle Safe?

[jasonD2]

Panera has gluten-free options and chipotle is all gluten free except for the tortillas but when those servers keep digging their hands thru all the ingredients to build a salad or a burrito bowl it gets me worried

[kareng]

Was just at Chipolte for my son who is not gluten-free. The guy who rolled the flour tortillas up, used his gloved hands to get the cheese.

[GFreeMO]

  On 11/9/2010 at 8:14 PM, kareng said:

Was just at Chipolte for my son who is not gluten-free. The guy who rolled the flour tortillas up, used his gloved hands to get the cheese.

I got severe CC from the gloved hands that roll the tortillas and then tough the lettuce and cheese etc. at Chipotle the one time I ate there.

[i-geek]

That's why I don't eat at Chipotle any more. I have successfully eaten at Qdoba several times- I always get the naked burrito (aka burrito bowl). The ones I've been to use spoons or tongs to handle all of the food items which lessens the chance of CC.

[BethJ]

I skip the lettuce, cheese and anything else that isn't dished up with a spoon or tongs. The first time I went to Chipotle, I asked them to change gloves and they were very accommodating but usually it's so noisy in there it's just easier to do without than scream at them why I want them to change gloves. I still get very nervous watching them move my bowl along the line while they're handling all those giant flour tortillas.

[Skylark]

Chipotle warms the corn tortillas on the same grill as the flour. That CC'd me once. I order the rice bowl now and avoid toppings they dish out with gloves and it works fine.

[brendygirl]

I have to tell ya, I eat out 2-5x a week, and I never eat at Chipotle. I went in once, when my brother was being his selfish self (he is allergic to eggs, seeds, poultry, etc, so we can't go to a chicken place or a salad place, but we can go to places swimming in gluten) and when I saw how fast those people were slapping that stuff together, I saw contamination everywhere. And I'm usually the one who thinks people on here are overly worried about cc (like the people who put menus up like tents around their food when they eat to avoid airborne particles).

Plus, it was so loud in there, when I asked for a gluten free menu, just out of curiosity, the guy couldn't even hear what I was saying.

I went to have Panera's soup one day, and it was fine. But, I have a hard time watching people eat all those rolls and bread bowls and seeing all the beautiful displays of stuff I can't have, and even the big, celebratory stencils of wheat all over, that I just stay away.

I'd rather go somewhere where I can have the shrimp plate that other people are too cheap to spring for, and when they drool over my plate, I just say, when you pay $6 for a mini loaf of frozen bread, a little extra for shrimp isn't a big deal at all.

Or when I can dive into dessert at PF Changs while the others oogle me and I can say, well I barely eat any carbs, given that I don't eat much bread!

Or dig into a bacon burger and fries at Farmer boys and say, there's less guilt when it's wrapped in lettuce!

[MelindaLee]

I LOVE the orchard salad there right now. The cherry vinegrette is so worth seeing all those lovely baked items I can't eat! Mmmmm.....too bad it's almost midnight and they aren't open!

Edit: opppssss....at Panera!

[Frances03]

I personally love Chipotle. I've been in to MANY different ones all over, and they ALWAYS change their gloves and all the utensils in the entire place as soon as I mention that we have a "gluten allergy". We always get the bowl. The ONLY thing in the entire place with gluten is the flour tortillas and I can't imagine gluten "FLYING" around in there from a freakin flour tortilla. People worry way too much. I am SO thankful for a place like that where my son and I can EAT, it really bothers me when people start ripping it up one side and down the other. If you dont trust it, fine, dont eat there. To have a restaurant where the ONLY ingredient with gluten is an already made tortilla, I think that's pretty nice. I love their chips, they are SAFE, and good luck finding safe tortilla chips in a restaurant! And don't eat the corn tortillas if you dont like that they warm them on the same machine as the flour! OR, better yet, ask them to warm yours between foil! I do it all the time and they never mind! Or, get the crunchy corn, they are really good too! As for the lettuce and cheese, you can skip it, or you can ask them to get you some from the back. Or you can try to imagine the miniscule amount of gluten that would get on lettuce or cheese from a hand that touched a flour tortilla, and then imagine that being ENOUGH gluten to actually make you sick, and then you can convince yourself that you are indeed sick, and then hey, stay home for a week if it makes you happy. PHEW! I just had a pregnancy moment, but oh well, someone has to stand up for the people that aren't paranoid and are just out here trying to make it in this gluten filled world, while still enjoying our lives!

[lpellegr]

  On 11/21/2010 at 3:57 AM, mcphena said:

I personally love Chipotle. I've been in to MANY different ones all over, and they ALWAYS change their gloves and all the utensils in the entire place as soon as I mention that we have a "gluten allergy". We always get the bowl. The ONLY thing in the entire place with gluten is the flour tortillas and I can't imagine gluten "FLYING" around in there from a freakin flour tortilla. People worry way too much. I am SO thankful for a place like that where my son and I can EAT, it really bothers me when people start ripping it up one side and down the other. If you dont trust it, fine, dont eat there. To have a restaurant where the ONLY ingredient with gluten is an already made tortilla, I think that's pretty nice. I love their chips, they are SAFE, and good luck finding safe tortilla chips in a restaurant! And don't eat the corn tortillas if you dont like that they warm them on the same machine as the flour! OR, better yet, ask them to warm yours between foil! I do it all the time and they never mind! Or, get the crunchy corn, they are really good too! As for the lettuce and cheese, you can skip it, or you can ask them to get you some from the back. Or you can try to imagine the miniscule amount of gluten that would get on lettuce or cheese from a hand that touched a flour tortilla, and then imagine that being ENOUGH gluten to actually make you sick, and then you can convince yourself that you are indeed sick, and then hey, stay home for a week if it makes you happy. PHEW! I just had a pregnancy moment, but oh well, someone has to stand up for the people that aren't paranoid and are just out here trying to make it in this gluten filled world, while still enjoying our lives!

Wow. That was shockingly insensitive. If you can't imagine gluten "flying" around from a tortilla, or the amount of cross-contamination on a glove affecting the cheese and lettuce, then you lack imagination and experience. Good luck to you in your gluten-free life, because with this cavalier attitude you will surely someday hurt yourself or someone else.

[i-geek]

  On 11/21/2010 at 3:57 AM, mcphena said:

I personally love Chipotle. I've been in to MANY different ones all over, and they ALWAYS change their gloves and all the utensils in the entire place as soon as I mention that we have a "gluten allergy". We always get the bowl. The ONLY thing in the entire place with gluten is the flour tortillas and I can't imagine gluten "FLYING" around in there from a freakin flour tortilla. People worry way too much. I am SO thankful for a place like that where my son and I can EAT, it really bothers me when people start ripping it up one side and down the other. If you dont trust it, fine, dont eat there. To have a restaurant where the ONLY ingredient with gluten is an already made tortilla, I think that's pretty nice. I love their chips, they are SAFE, and good luck finding safe tortilla chips in a restaurant! And don't eat the corn tortillas if you dont like that they warm them on the same machine as the flour! OR, better yet, ask them to warm yours between foil! I do it all the time and they never mind! Or, get the crunchy corn, they are really good too! As for the lettuce and cheese, you can skip it, or you can ask them to get you some from the back. Or you can try to imagine the miniscule amount of gluten that would get on lettuce or cheese from a hand that touched a flour tortilla, and then imagine that being ENOUGH gluten to actually make you sick, and then you can convince yourself that you are indeed sick, and then hey, stay home for a week if it makes you happy. PHEW! I just had a pregnancy moment, but oh well, someone has to stand up for the people that aren't paranoid and are just out here trying to make it in this gluten filled world, while still enjoying our lives!

Someone asked for opinions. We gave them. It was not a personal attack on you, geez. Oh, and thanks for being so condescendingly insulting as to imply that people who complain of cross-contamination from the servers' gloves are imagining things. Gosh, that sounds like all the doctors who've told so many of us for years that our symptoms were "all in our heads", we're just "paranoid", and we have "IBS" and there's nothing they can do, or restaurant servers/family members who serve unsafe food because "just a little bit can't hurt". Would you give similar advice to someone with an anaphylactic wheat allergy?

[3Celiacs]

Personally, I think all of the comments reflect the severity of each person's individual response to gluten. Just goes to show that we'll never really know until we walk in that person's shoes!

[Salax]

  On 12/8/2010 at 10:10 AM, 3Celiacs@myhouse said:

Personally, I think all of the comments reflect the severity of each person's individual response to gluten. Just goes to show that we'll never really know until we walk in that person's shoes!

I agree. I also try to read each post as informational, nothing personal. In fact to a degree, I do understand the comment about gluten flying through the air from flour tortillas or that being extreme or whatever. It all depends on personal experience and what you are comfortable eating or not eating. To each his own I say.

Besides, we as a celiac and gluten intolerant group get alot of people that give us guff for what we are or what we aren't eatting. So I think we of all people can understand when someone may not be as sensitive to CC as other and there is no concern about touching a flour tortillas and then touching a corn one. It is what it is. Only you are responsbile for your health no one else is. So don't worry about what other people are doing, just worry about your self. And of course children if they apply or the naughty hubby that tries to kiss you after drinking a beer.

On a personal note, I have never eaten at chipotle..I hate cilantro...So there

[cyberprof]

  On 11/11/2010 at 11:17 PM, Skylark said:

Chipotle warms the corn tortillas on the same grill as the flour. That CC'd me once. I order the rice bowl now and avoid toppings they dish out with gloves and it works fine.

I've never tried anything but the burrito bowl. I skip the lettuce, cheese and anything else that they use their hands on. (I did get glutened when I ordered the cheese first time there.) I also ask them to change their gloves and have never had even a dirty look - I say I'm "allergic" to wheat. And I ask - if they don't offer- the original person to take my order the whole way through the line. Over the past 3.5 years, I've never been glutened and I have eaten there ~30 times, all at different locations. Seattle, Federal Way, Portland OR, Chapel Hill NC, California etc.