Need some info

[Roughy]

Hello I came on this forum today to ask the gluten free community about how sensitive you are to gluten. 

I run a restaurant and want to make my meat burgers gluten free. The binders are flour and bread crumbs which will be easy to replace. 

One of the ingredients is plum sauce. On the bottle it says wheat. But for 10LB of burger meat there is only 4 FL.oz. so how sensitive is sensitive?

I could omit but don't want to effect the recipe to much as my regular clients have an expectation.

Also are there any "hidden" gluten manufacturing lingo additives I should look out for? One of my multi spice ingredients is manufactured but not one ingredient indicates that it would contain gluten.

[Scott Adams]

I understand your concern about not wanting to alter your recipe for everyone, but in order to call them "gluten-free" you would indeed need to verify that all the ingredients in them are gluten-free. I know that Lee Kum Kee advertises that many of their sauces are gluten-free, so perhaps you can find a replacement plum sauce that won't alter the flavor? 

I would also verify that the spice mix is gluten-free by contacting the manufacturer.

It may seem like a pain, but doing so will help prevent lots of issues down the road. You should also consider training your staff on how to make sure that the gluten-free items are no cross-contaminated.

If you're going to do it, I recommend doing it right.

[kenlove]

10 minutes ago, Roughy said:

Hello I came on this forum today to ask the gluten free community about how sensitive you are to gluten. 

I run a restaurant and want to make my meat burgers gluten free. The binders are flour and bread crumbs which will be easy to replace. 

One of the ingredients is plum sauce. On the bottle it says wheat. But for 10LB of burger meat there is only 4 FL.oz. so how sensitive is sensitive?

I could omit but don't want to effect the recipe to much as my regular clients have an expectation.

Also are there any "hidden" gluten manufacturing lingo additives I should look out for? One of my multi spice ingredients is manufactured but not one ingredient indicates that it would contain gluten.

There is no one answer -- everyone is  different.  If i ate your burger I wuld leave a trail from  both ends  trying to get out of the place or to the washroom -- whatever is closer.    There  are a lot of alternatives to that type of plum sauce  with the obvious being make your own.  Dry spices are usually no  problem but  you have to read every ingredient as  sometimes barley or barley malt is not listed  but it s still dangerous for  us celiacs.  A lot of chefs I know didnt  realize that most  soy sauce is actually wheat and not  soy. San-J doesnt have a large food service  operation  but they do have some  great  Gluten free sauces and products to alter and try.  Good luck and thanks for asking!  

[Roughy]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll be contacting manufacturers today and talking with my food rep about an alternative plum sauce and see about price differences etc.

Fortunately my burger recipe doesn't have soy sauce so I'm in the clear there. Everything is raw ingredients except for these two ingredients I have to figure out.

[GFinDC]

Hi Roughy,

The FDA standard for gluten-free is no more than  20 PPM (parts per million).  That's a very small amount.  It may be easier to understand the requirement by considering germs.  Celiac diesease is an AI (auto-immune condition).  AI diseases are characterized by an attack by the bodies' immune system on some part of the body.  Usually the immune system detects and attacks microscopic germs.  So the immune system has to be very sensitive to detect and attack these small life forms.

The immune system doesn't stop at a 1 day response though.  It will create antibodies and continue attacking for an indeterminate period of time.  So a single glutening may result in weeks or months of pain and other symptoms for the person affected.

The GIG (Gluten Intolerance Group) certifies restaurants for serving gluten-free food.  Only some restaurants go through the process of getting certified.  I don't know what the cost of certification is.

Training of staff is critical for success though.

https://gfco.org/get-certified/why-get-certified/