Tips on Preventing Gluten Contamination When Grilling




It is a huge misconception that gluten can be “killed” if it’s cooked at high temperatures. This isn’t true. Gluten, according celiaccentral.org, is a particle and not a bacteria so it cannot be destroyed with heat. The only way to really remove gluten is by really cleaning the racks on your grill.
You can’t really do this:
Phone Rings. You pick it up. It’s your best friend Susie who has invited you to their Fourth of July party.
You: Hi, Susie.
Susie (a.k.a. Friend): I am so excited you are coming to the party. We are  going to have grilled chicken, hot dogs.
You: Do you grill any breaded stuff on your grill?
Susie: Steve usually toasts the buns on the grill.
You: You need to clean your grill racks completely. It needs to be bleached and really scrubbed.  
Susie: What?
You: After you scrub your grill completely clean you must NOT cook anything with breading or dressings that contain gluten-free otherwise I’m not coming.
Susie: Sorry, but you are uninvited.
Again, you can’t do that so what can you do to make your food a lot safer from contamination:
Frist Thing:
If you have a grill that has two racks always make the top rack the gluten-free rack. This prevents anything containing gluten from dripping on your meat, veggies or whatever food you are cooking.
My family’s grills doesn’t have more than one rack, so we make sure everything that goes on the grill is gluten-free. We only use gluten-free BBQ, dressings and no toasting buns on the grill.
                                                     Second Thing:
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Use aluminum foil.
This is your friend. I always carry a roll of aluminum foil with me in my car at all times. I do this because if I end up spending time a friends house and she makes dinner I have the aluminum to keep my food safe in their oven, grill and more.
Third Thing:
Call you friend or family in advance and really explain in detail how to make gluten-free food.
Have your family/friend cook everything plain.
You need to stress J that not all dressings, dips, and sauces are gluten-free. I will usually have my friend(s) or family cook it plain that way then I can take a look at the dressing or BBQ sauce before they slap it on the food. This will help prevent that awkward moment of them saying “I made this specially for you. This dressing BBQ is mainly made from tomatoes” but then you look at the bottle to find that it has wheat flour in it. So its important to stress them to make it plain and on foil and to have your meat or veggie far from any toasting of bread products.
Fourth Thing : Bring a small traveling grill with you to your event.
Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 9.54.24 AMIf you are going camping I would stress doing this. Even before I was on this gluten-free diet I would bring one because you don’t know what the last person was cooking on that grill.

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Fifth Thing:   Use a separate tongs, forks, brushes, scissors and other utensils.
Bring your own utensils to the party. It’s a pain, but so is a stomachache and damage to you immune system.
Sixth Thing: Use Separate Cutting Boards. 
You are going to what to use a separate cutting board for meat and veggies anyways so what is another cutting board.
Seventh Thing: Don’t ever use the same brush that paints on the BBQ sauce/dressings.
Eighth Thing:
Keep hands cleaned when handling gluten food with gluten free food.
Ninth Thing:
A lot of people don’t think about aprons, but aprons do get dirty to hands whipping on it or plates and food rubbing against it.
Tenth Thing: 
Make sure your plates, bowls, containers and serving trays are clean and don’t touch gluten-free food.
Serving trays is always a nightmare at parties. They put the grilled plain chicken on a platter with the cheese, but then put crackers or some sort of bread on the tray. Then when you tell the host I can’t eat it they ask, “Why. I made sure the chicken is plain and the cheese is cheese.” You have to then say, “ because its touching the GLUTEN French bread.”
You have to treat people who are not on a gluten-free diet like you would explain to a five year old. “You have to do this and that and make sure it like this and that.”
You can check out my DIY grilling tips and tricks vides on my YouTube channel
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Here is a cheat sheet to give to a friend/family: 
  • - Cutting boards, Kitchen Scissors, Knives, Tongs, Forks, Brushes, and all other utensils must be washed in all natural type bleach and then washed with soap.

  • - Grill & Cook all meats, veggies with no dressings unless spoken to the person with the GF diet.
  • - When grilling use top rack so gluten foods don’t get dripped on.
  • - Stress that Gluten can even be in Ketchup, so make the meats and veggies plain.
  • - Making things plain without any dressings and sauces are perfectly fine. I, the gluten-free person, can add sauces later myself. I don’t mind plain things.
  • - Don’t pepper my things as well. Some Pepper spices can have gluten in it.
  • -Serving Trays :
should NOT contain anything with breading, dressings, sauces, dipping sauces, crackers, cookies, biscuits on the same tray with the meat, veggies and cheeses. Try to keep things separate.
If you are doing a fun design and that serving tray must contain breading or things with gluten then please set a side a separate plate that only contains Gluten-Free items such as plain veggies, plain meats and cheeses
  • - Please cook my food on foil on the grill.
  • - Wash hands or wear gloves when handing gluten-free food.
  • - Gluten-Free BBQ sauces I love are: (Always read the labels because buying)
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Sweet Baby Rays  
 Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 9.39.31 AM       Jack Daniels BBQ sauces
  1. Don’t hesitate to get ahold of me if you have questions on the gluten-free diet                                                                          I hope this was helpful. There are probably a couple of things I am missing on the list, but this is the basics and things that can be forgotten about when grilling meats, veggies and whatever else you put on the grill.

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