Cross-contamination

[DoubleJ]

I am planning to serve fondue over the holidays, and one of the guests has Celiac disease. She is concerned about dipping her gluten-free bread into the same pot of cheese that others are dipping their non-gluten free bread into. Is this a valid concern, or over-cautious?

[Jestgar]

NNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Don't Do It!!!

She gets her own cheese!!

[jerseyangel]

  DoubleJ said:

I am planning to serve fondue over the holidays, and one of the guests has Celiac disease. She is concerned about dipping her gluten-free bread into the same pot of cheese that others are dipping their non-gluten free bread into. Is this a valid concern, or over-cautious?

Hi, and welcome!

Yes, this is a valid concern. As soon as wheat bread is dipped into the fondue pot, it will contaminate it for the Celiac guest.

I would suggest putting some of the cheese sauce into a separate dish for her to eat before anyone dips anything into it.

[jaten]

  DoubleJ said:

I am planning to serve fondue over the holidays, and one of the guests has Celiac disease. She is concerned about dipping her gluten-free bread into the same pot of cheese that others are dipping their non-gluten free bread into. Is this a valid concern, or over-cautious?

It's valid and wise, and the only safe course for your friend is to completely avoid any chance of cross-contamination. You're a good friend to ask. But please believe she's not overreacting. A crumb is all that it takes to cause damage to a Celiac's intestine, not to mention all of the more obvious side-effects that your friend may suffer in the short term.

You can read lots of articles on the subject, but a quick and painless way to get some good information would be to go to the website of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, and watch the recent CNN videos in which one of their anchors is generating Celiac awareness. All 3 of the videos will take less than 20 minutes of your time, and give you a better general understanding of the disease and its requirements.

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Thank you for caring enough about your friend to ask. She is very fortunate!

[Nantzie]

Yep. It's one of the most important things we have to do to keep ourselves from getting sick. It's easy to not eat the bread or whatever. It's the cross contamination that gets us every time.

The reaction that triggers us to get sick is on a molecular level. I know it sounds bizarre, but it's true. And sick means sick for days and sometimes weeks. And it feels like having food poisoning and a hang over at the same time. Not fun, and not worth eating a bite of something just to be polite. Especially during the holidays when there's so much that needs to be done.

It's so great that you're coming here and asking questions. Believe me, if any group of people would be able to figure out how to get around the cross contamination issue, it would be us.

Any time you're having your friend over and need info/advice/suggestions on how to accomodate for her, just stop by here and we can help.

Nancy

[ebrbetty]

everyone has given you great advice, don't do it!

[zansu]

also, many cheese fondues have beer and or flour. Either of those would be bad fro her, too.

[DoubleJ]

  zansu said:

also, many cheese fondues have beer and or flour. Either of those would be bad fro her, too.

In the cheddar cheese fondue, I replace the beer with apple juice. The swiss fondue uses wine, which is fine. In both fondues, I will use cornstarch in place of flour.

[zansu]

that works great! Thanks for making the effort for your friend to be a part of the celebration. Parties are rough. Cross contamination (like we're discussing) can really wreck the holiday if we're not REALLY careful.

have a great party!

[Nantzie]

That sounds SOO good. Might have to break out the fondue for New Year's this year.

Nancy

[zansu]

yeah, I'm betting that woodchuck cider would substitue nicely for the beer...

[tarnalberry]

definitely not an over-reaction about the cross-contamination. but even more importantly, it's not up to you to determine if it's an over-reaction. she sets the level of risk she's comfortable with, and if it's so high that it can't be accomodated, so be it, but if you can, I encourage you to try, so as not to have her feeling left out.