Does Heat Kill Gluten?

[Pauliewog]

I have read about cross contamination from things like toasters. I can understand about crumbs getting on gluten-free food. However, what about the case of hot temperatures. Say for example, a fryer? If gluten-free fries were cooked in the same hot oil as fries with gluten would they CC? Or what about a BBQ grill? Yakitori (BBQ chicken on a stick) usually has chicken dipped in a sauce with soy then grilled. I can order the chicken without sauce but I wonder if it is cooked on the same grill will it cross contaminate. Does heat (hot heat) kill gluten?

[kareng]

In the case of a fryer - no gluten isn't "killed". IF gluten was destroyed during frying, then onion rings, mozarella sticks, etc would not have the nice floury crispy coating still intact. Haven'tyou ever gotten fries with an onion ring piece mixed in? Pizza is cooked at 500F at pizza places. The gluten is still intact or you wouldn't have a crust.

Of course I should point out that gluten isn't alive, so it can't be "killed".

It has been suggested on here that if you "cooked" the gluten at 600 for 1/2 hour, you could destroy it. I haven't seen any actual studies of this but it seems to work for most people. This can be accomplished by putting the grill rack or pan or pizza stone in the oven during a self-clean cycle.

[kenlove]

I've asked them to take a wire bush and clean part of a yakitori grill at my friends place in Tokyo. YOu can get really ill from the cross contamination with just a little sauce sticking on something that would otherwise be ok.

The distillation process in alcohol can "kill" the gluten so I can drink some barley based things like Japanese shochu. Not the brewing process though.

I have read about cross contamination from things like toasters. I can understand about crumbs getting on gluten-free food. However, what about the case of hot temperatures. Say for example, a fryer? If gluten-free fries were cooked in the same hot oil as fries with gluten would they CC? Or what about a BBQ grill? Yakitori (BBQ chicken on a stick) usually has chicken dipped in a sauce with soy then grilled. I can order the chicken without sauce but I wonder if it is cooked on the same grill will it cross contaminate. Does heat (hot heat) kill gluten?

[Skylark]

Gluten has to be charred into ash to become safe. Normal food cooking temperatures are not hot enough. Deep fat fryers are a major source of cross-contamination. You cannot eat food from shared fryers without getting some gluten. As Ken mentions, shared grills need to be scrubbed or a piece of foil put down to keep the sauce off your food.

Distillation leaves almost all the gluten behind with the mash. There are some people sensitive to the tiny amounts that come through with the vinegar or alcohol but it's unusual.

[lpellegr]

If it was that simple to get rid of gluten, we wouldn't need this forum. Unfortunately, gluten proteins cause an immunological reaction in your body when an antibody recognizes the sequence of amino acids in the protein, and even when they have been broken into small pieces they can still cause trouble. Heat can unravel the protein without breaking it down, and even if it does break it down, it will still have pieces with the triggering sequence and it's still going to cause the same reaction.