Is The Barbecue Safe?

[DanPatch]

Hi,

I'm sure many of us on here have eaten off of a barbecue...what I want to know is, is it safe for celiacs? Does anyone have a definite answer or suggestion?

Thanks!

[Ollie's Mom]

I don't have a definite answer for you, but I personally would stay away from any bbq but my own. My husband and I bought a new bbq last year when we bought our house - no glutenous substance has touched the grill, and none ever will.

I have no idea if "burning off" gluten from a bbq grill would work, but I doubt it given some people have sensitivities to some distilled alcohols made from gluten-containing grains, and canola oil due to crop rotation with wheat, etc etc.

For me, it would never be worth the risk.

[DanPatch]

  On 10/9/2011 at 12:36 AM, Ollie said:

I don't have a definite answer for you, but I personally would stay away from any bbq but my own. My husband and I bought a new bbq last year when we bought our house - no glutenous substance has touched the grill, and none ever will.

I have no idea if "burning off" gluten from a bbq grill would work, but I doubt it given some people have sensitivities to some distilled alcohols made from gluten-containing grains, and canola oil due to crop rotation with wheat, etc etc.

For me, it would never be worth the risk.

Thanks for the reply! My family hasn't bought a new barbecue since diagnosis, so there have definitely been some gluten-containing substances on it. Darn. Now that I think about it, it probably is contaminated - I just recently read a post about needing it to be 600 degrees Fahrenheit or something like that to kill the gluten protein. Can anyone confirm that? Also, if there are any more opinions on the 'barbecue' question itself, they would be appreciated! I need some evidence to prove to my parents that I'm not neurotic about everything like this.

[Lisa]

  On 10/9/2011 at 12:36 AM, Ollie said:

I don't have a definite answer for you, but I personally would stay away from any bbq but my own. My husband and I bought a new bbq last year when we bought our house - no glutenous substance has touched the grill, and none ever will.

I have no idea if "burning off" gluten from a bbq grill would work, but I doubt it given some people have sensitivities to some distilled alcohols made from gluten-containing grains, and canola oil due to crop rotation with wheat, etc etc.

For me, it would never be worth the risk.

A good cleaning and a good burn off and a good cleaning again...most likely would render a grill safe.

Distilled vinegar on the grill, field contamination with canola oil is a REALLY great stretch with no substantiation.

Clean it well and enjoy!

[pricklypear1971]

We've had our grill for years - gave it a good scrape and heat up and so far so good, I believe.

You can also just change out the grates....

[lovegrov]

I'm going to have to agree that for virtually everyone with celiac, distilled vinegars and canola on a grill is just not something to worry about. I would use the grill -- and I did use our grill -- after a cleaning.

richard

[kareng]

We bought a new grate and don't use gluten Teryaki or toast buns anymore. When we used the grill at a hotel, we got a metal tray thing that people use to cook veggies or fish on. It sits on top of the dirty grill but does have some holes. Works great for pork chops that would not squish thru the holes and touch the dirty grill.

If your grates fit, you could put them in a self cleaning oven and run the clean setting.

Ask your parents to use common sense. What is that burned stuff stuck to the grill? Burned food, right? Just cause it's burned, doesn't mean it's not still burned hamburger or bun. Burned toast is still bread, right? Wouldn't hurt if you offered to give it a good overnight soak and a scrub. Or a round in the self cleaning oven.

[Strawberry-Jam]

Cover a portion of the grill with aluminium foil and cook your food on that. Poke a few holes in places that won't let your food contact the grill. When I lived with my parents over the summer, they always cleaned & covered a portion of the grill away from other shelves that would drip on it etc. I was more worried about soy CC than gluten CC, since they hardly ever put gluten on the grill except for buns that were wrapped in foil anyway, But I don't think I ever got contaminated by eating my special separated meat. (They used different tongs for my meat too, so that I wouldn't get soy CC from their sausages and so on. My parents were awesome.)

[Ollie's Mom]

  On 10/9/2011 at 1:45 AM, Lisa said:

A good cleaning and a good burn off and a good cleaning again...most likely would render a grill safe.

Distilled vinegar on the grill, field contamination with canola oil is a REALLY great stretch with no substantiation.

Clean it well and enjoy!

I didn't say that I had an issue with distilled alcohol or canola oil... only that other people who post here say that they do.

I have no idea if it is "true" or not, but who am I to disagree with their experiences?

[Lisa]

  On 10/10/2011 at 1:09 AM, Ollie said:

I didn't say that I had an issue with distilled alcohol or canola oil... only that other people who post here say that they do.

I have no idea if it is "true" or not, but who am I to disagree with their experiences?

The internet if full of information. Some accurate and some not. You have to pick and choose what applies to you and your situation. Same here on this site.

Celiac Disease carries over 200 symptoms. None of us have the same blue print. Take the information that you find here and fine tune it to make your life more comfortable, and disregard the rest.

[ElseB]

The second the aluminum foil suggestion. We have a new bbq too so nothing containing gluten has ever touched it. But when visiting other people I always ask them to cook my food in foil and use separate utensils.

[George Knighton]

It could be safe... just make sure your not allergic to hickory smoke.

[lovegrov]

  On 10/10/2011 at 5:54 AM, George Knighton said:

It could be safe... just make sure your not allergic to hickory smoke.

I'm sorry, folks, but I mean, really? Don't we already have enough to fret about with celiac and CC and other food intolerances without bringing up some off-the-wall allergy?

richard

[kareng]

  On 10/10/2011 at 5:54 AM, George Knighton said:

It could be safe... just make sure your not allergic to hickory smoke.

Not sure what this has to do with normal BBQing. Most use charcoal or gas.

[Takala]

  On 10/10/2011 at 1:54 PM, lovegrov said:

I'm sorry, folks, but I mean, really? Don't we already have enough to fret about with celiac and CC and other food intolerances without bringing up some off-the-wall allergy?

richard

It's not so "off the wall" for people or other living things with nut allergies.

One of our horses has multiple allergies to many common things horses can come in contact with or eat, such as soy, ryegrass, barley, and he's in the only pasture we have that has no oak trees for a reason - some horses will beaver down those acorn nuts like it's cracker jacks in the fall. He's also allergic to redwood, which means that sometimes he'll react if he chews or rubs on it or if the pine shavings in the stall are cross contaminated - which is why it's safer to get shavings from out of the area, as CA has a lot of redwood coming thru their sawmills and sometimes nut trees from orchards. In the one run in stall with an exposed beam he was rubbing on, we covered it with indoor/outdoor carpeting so he wouldn't get a splinter. (very old barn, some very old redwood in it).

But here is the exasperating part. We have some squirrels. And once in a while, I find a freaking nut in a water trough in the fall, that some dingbat squirrel must have dropped in on the way to wherever. Not just acorns. Pecans, walnuts... we don't have a walnut tree. I have never planted a pecan. There are no acorn trees for 200 yards. Where... are .... these... squirrels.... coming .... from. I can't go to the neighbor's and ask them to cut down trees, for &^%$%#@@'s sake ! Can't they just bury them over there ?!!!! These squirrels also seed this stuff into the ground cover around the house so I have spontaneous generation of trees I don't want all the time. Example, we had a bunch of walnuts coming up around the base of the oak out by the driveway last year. Pecans sprouting by the bedroom window.

He (the horse) looks pretty good now, but that's because we have done a lot of work to try to remove things from his environment that set him off. The vet did a super job sleuthing this. He was so awful rubbing himself he had huge secondary reactions to insect bites, and a lot of hairless and raw skin. We think the primary thing that started it was a chain reaction to a severe bacterial infection at the same time we had to vaccinate him for West Nile (during the time West Nile first hit this state, and it was vaccinate or risk death, there were dead birds all over the place) and he got pretty sick, but survived. But if we had not been able to get this under control, it was not going to be a happy outcome as you cannot put horses on steroids long term, and the antihistamines couldn't knock it down.

Before we adopted the "allergic dog" routine and went to all outside/inside pets on no gluten or soy foods, he probably got hit more than once by a cat or dog drinking out of his water trough - the learning curve with cross contamination issues is sort of deep at times, and by reading here on this site I have learned a lot. I've also seen him react, blowing up with welts, just by being licked/groomed by another horse who had been in the other pastures, or fly sprayed with an herbal concoction.

It's always something.

[Takala]

  On 10/10/2011 at 2:44 PM, kareng said:

Not sure what this has to do with normal BBQing. Most use charcoal or gas.

Maybe this is a regional thing ? We have flavored charcoal in the stores here, made with mesquite, and there are bags of hickory chips, mesquite chips, etc next to the bags of charcoal, and there is always nut wood (from orchard prunings or removals/replacements) being advertised for sale, from almonds, or bundles of it at the convenience stores next to parks, lakes, etc.

[karenb]

There are Grill mats available, reusable, washable. We cut them to size, for one persons food. They work well.