A guide to keeping your kitchen allergy friendly
Here are a few basic things to keep in mind when you are thinking about your kitchen. Regarding gluten – are you going gluten free by choice or necessity? If it’s by choice, you may have a few more options. For example, oatmeal itself is gluten free, but unless it is labeled “Gluten Free”, it may be processed in a place that is not completely free of gluten, so there could be some cross-contamination. Although it may be minimal, if you truly have a gluten allergy (Celiac), then you will want to stay away from anything that isn’t labeled GF. But if you are GF by choice, this may be acceptable for you. Sometimes it’s just not labeled GF on the package, but there may be more information on the company’s website. So don’t forget to check there too.
Read the label! Gluten is found in many things that may surprise you. For example, baking/cooking spray - some contain flour! Again, if you are GF by choice, this may be acceptable, but if you have Celiac, this could be a problem.
Regarding vanilla – this is not as clear cut. Many brands of vanilla extract are manufactured with alcohol, but it seems to be commonly accepted that the distilling process should remove any gluten. There are also alcohol-free vanillas. So, if you are GF by choice, there may not be enough gluten in vanilla extract to make a difference to you. If you are Celiac, that has to be a decision you make. I use Trader Joe’s Pure Vanilla Flavor Alcohol Free. If you are a purest in your baking, this is vanilla “flavor”, not “extract”, but I think it is very close to pure vanilla extract & has worked well for me.
Regarding other food allergens, like peanut butter – with true allergy, depending on the severity, you may just want to eliminate the product from your kitchen altogether. But if you’re like me, maybe just one or two family/friends have an allergy. In which case, I am very diligent about keeping products separate. Some ideas would be to keep things separated by shelf in your cupboard or pantry. Something else to keep in mind is which utensils, mixers, bowls, etc. you use for baking. I keep my kitchen basically gluten free, so I don’t have to worry about cross contamination. But if you only make some things free of a certain allergen, like gluten or peanut butter, just remember, for example, not to dip anything like measuring cups into regular flour, then into sugar if the next time you bake you may be baking gluten free – because now your sugar will be contaminated with gluten (from the regular flour). Another thing I do is to thoroughly clean bowls, utensils, mixers, etc. that I have used to make anything with an allergen (like gluten or peanut butter). Not that we don’t really clean anything we bake with, but maybe be a little more diligent than usual and make sure you scrub all the little crevices where anything could get caught. And don’t forget about things like cutting boards, particularly wooden ones, as they may be a little more porous & retain allergens. Maybe even consider two separate sets of utensils, especially the ones that may be harder to keep allergen free. Doing this may depend on your budget & your kitchen space.
All of these things are simply ideas to keep in the back of your mind, depending on your situation and whether certain things have been eliminated from your baking based on choice or necessity.