A celiac dietitian shares tips on how to avoid gluten at barbecues. Learn how to enjoy a safe and delicious gluten-free meal outdoors.
Tips for Gluten-Free BBQs: Insights from a Celiac Dietitian
Gluten can hide in unexpected places, such as mustard and barbecue sauce, making it essential to be vigilant when attending BBQs. It’s crucial for individuals with Celiac disease to be aware of potential sources of gluten and take steps to prevent cross-contact. From checking food labels to watching out for gluten in chips, there are important strategies to keep in mind to stay safe while enjoying a BBQ.
Cross-contact risks can also be present with chips and dips, so it’s important to be mindful of how food is prepared and served to avoid gluten contamination. By following tips for managing cross-contact at the grill and staying informed about gluten-free options, individuals with Celiac disease can better navigate BBQ season and enjoy their meals with peace of mind.
Grilling Without Gluten – Tips from a Celiac-Friendly Dietitian
Hello it’s Taylor silde registered dietician specializing in celiac disease and today we’re going to be talking about avoiding gluten at barbecues if you’re new here I am a Celiac specialized register dietitian I’ve been living with Celiac for over 10 years and I have attended my fair share of barbecues and with the weather getting.
Warmer the sun coming out it getting hot people are busting out their grills and I have already received quite a few barbecue invitations um luckily I’ve got a lot of friends and family who know how to keep me safe and are willing to take those steps but today I want to talk to you about avoiding gluten- at barbecues and if you are starting to get those.
Barbecue invitations in the United States some of the things that you want to keep your eye out for that might be shocking and could potentially contain gluten and also some things to consider when it comes to staying safe from cross contact this is not going to be a allinclusive and all-encompassing guide to attending barbecues cuz I would need.
Like an entire class to teach you that um but hopefully these are some tips that are helpful and it hopefully this is a helpful start in place if you will so that said let’s get into avoiding gluten at barbecues so I’m first want to cover a couple of things that might shock you that contain gluten so the first thing is mustard I don’t know if.
You ever come across a mustard with gluten but I felt like I went several years without seeing gluten in mustard and then I found it I had a few clients come to me saying they were shocked and and found gluten in their mustard and suddenly like it was like in a bunch of mustards it’s Mo for the most part most mustard mustard does not contain gluten.
Um but then like suddenly I came across all these mustards that did so this is an example of one that does um you’ll see here it says it has wheat flour hopefully you can read that again most mustard is gluten-free but this one has wheat flour so always check the ingredients of everything that has a label when it comes to the barbecue but.
Mustard is also one of those things you might be shocked by so don’t skip it make sure you’re checking it the next one is barbecue sauce and I feel like I went through a period of time where I like every barbecue sauce I picked up was gluten-free and then suddenly bam I found one that wasn’t um and I feel like this is one of those things.
Where like everyone’s like check your barbecue sauce and I just never came across the barbecue sauce with gluten until I did and I kind of feel like it’s like when you’re looking for it you never find it but then uh like when you are when you aren’t looking for gluten in something boom it sneaks up on you it’s kind of what happened to me with.
Barbecue sauce um so most barbecue sauce that I’ve come across is gluten-free in the United States but it can contain gluten and I found some that does contain gluten either in the form of like soy sauce or a thickener like wheat flour um or natural flavors and natural flavors a side note on natural flavors they’re not always unsafe there’s a.
Small chance that they could hide gluten so that’s why you want to check on them if you see them in a product that is not marked gluten-free um if you are not if you feel like uh you aren’t sure how to read a food label or you’re not fully sure what you’re looking for on a food label or you feel like there’s just like a lot of like questions that you have.
Around it and you generally get confused or you feel like it takes you a really long time to figure out if something is safe or you feel like you’re just kind of stuck buying things that are marked gluten-free because you just you don’t know what to look for I’ve got a totally free class totally free that you can take and watch literally right now if.
You want to that’ll teach you how to identify gluten on a food label in four simple steps in the United States again it’s taught by me a Celiac dietician um that’ll help make this that much simpler so if you’re someone who feels like you could really uh benefit from strengthening your label reading skills if a dietitian never taught you how to.
Read a food label for um staying gluten-free that kind of thing if you need this help I’m confident this class is really going to change your life when it comes to making sure your food is gluten-free when you’re buying it from grocery stores in the United States um I’ll leave that link down below if you need that help but that.
Aside barbecue sauce is one of those things that you want to make sure you’re checking because it’s always gluten-free until suddenly it’s not so make sure you’re always checking the label again of everything that’s at the barbecue but all barbecue sauce is one of those things you definitely want to keep your eye on the next thing are chips um I.
Feel like this might be a little bit more obvious um but sometimes it can sneak up on you I’ve seen malt especially in chips that don’t seemingly have malt in it um this is a really obvious example of malt vinegar chips but I’ve seen it in other things so just make sure you’re checking um also with chips uh I’ve also seen gluten hide in.
The form of yeast extract again if you’re not sure what to look for on a food label you’re not sure what the ingredients can or can’t hide gluten please please please watch that free class link down below um but chips are also one of those things you’re going to want to keep your eye on finally um dips are the other thing.
You’re going to want to keep your eye on um and and going back to chips dips also kind of fall into this category but with chips cross contact also can be an issue especially if the it’s kind of like a chip bag that’s left open and people are just like reaching in um you either want to be the first person who’s reaching into that bag um or you want to make.
Sure they are dumping those chips out of the bag properly or they’re using tongs um or if it’s like a chip Bowl try to see if you can get chips from the chip bag so you know that they’re safe um but chips can be also a point of cross contact especially with hands um dip also can be a point of cross contact so not only can it potentially hide gluten.
In the ingredients so make sure you’re checking the ingredients this is an example of a dip that does contain gluten um but also with cross contact so like for example say you had this out with some P chips and some vegetables and someone just like dipped their P chip straight into that dip that is now contaminated from cross contact so you.
Want to keep your eye on that and you’re making sure that um either the way that this food is served is preventing cross contact or everyone is aware of how to prevent cross contact or you’re having a separate dip or that separate dip has already been put aside before the uh you know General people who are attending the barbecue got to the dip there’s a.
Lot of ways to manage cross contact at a barbecue like I said I I I can’t possibly cover them all in this one video um that it is is something to keep your eye on and then finally like I mentioned don’t forget to watch out for cross contact there are a lot of ways that it can show up at a barbecue um so make sure that you are keeping your eye.
On that uh the other I think so I talked about chips and and you know people potentially putting their hands in there that have like touched a hamburger bun or um you know maybe like they’ve touched a cracker or something like that and then into the chip bag that chip bag’s now contaminated um but also dips dips could also be contaminated and I.
Think the other bigger one too is uh grills grills are also another bigger issue and you know they’re kind of like the main event at a barbecue so it’s important you’re keeping your eye on that a couple of things you can do with a grill if it is a one tier Grill so it’s only got one um kind of like layer um then you could potentially get a.
Grill mat and put that down that is a more eco-friendly route because you can reuse Grill mats and that creates a barrier between the grill so if the grill is contaminated your food is staying safe if it’s two tiered then you want to make sure that your food is on the top tier um if you don’t have a girl mat you can also use foil that can also.
Help create a barrier again if it’s a two-tier girl mix sure your Foods on the top there are a lot of other things that you’re going to want to consider like utensils and and how they’re preventing cross contact and all of the steps of preparing your food um but it’s not to say that it’s not impossible and if you’re looking for help if you’re.
Looking for things that are clear and concise on how to manage cross contact at these events and in general I’ve got some resources linked down below that can also help you um but I hope that this was kind of a helpful starting place in kind of opening your eyes on what to keep your eye on and what to start paying attention to again this is.
Not all inclusive but hopefully a really helpful starting point if you found any of this surprising or helpful go ahead and hit the like button if you want more videos from a Celiac dietitian you want more help go ahead and subscribe and with that my name is Taylor registered dietitian specializing in Celiac disease who’s also been living with Celiac for.
Over 10 years I hope you found this helpful and I will see you in the next one
