DN coming to visit us and is Coeliac

[noni1711]

Hi All,

My amazing DN is coming to visit for the first time in 7 years (we usually go to them as they live in Oz) and we are so excited. I could ask my DSIL however I would like them to be able to visit without having to check/ask about gluten free environments. However I don't know where to start and the thought of gettting it wrong and harming her is too much.

Can you please give me all your suggestions and thoughts regarding how to make our house GF free or at least safe for coeliac?

Many thanks.

She needs to avoid anything containing wheat, rye or barley (some coeliacs react to oats too, those that don't need special GF ones so avoid oats too if not sure).

There's many foods that are naturally gluten free (rice, meat, fish, potatoes, veg, fruit, etc) and many alternatives in the Free From aisles of supermarkets. If a food contains gluten it will be labelled in the allergy information on the label. Sometimes this will be actually saying "contains gluten" others label by bolding the ingredients which are allergens so you'd be looking to not buy things with wheat, rye or barley in bold on the ingredients list.

When cooking you need to avoid cross contamination with gluten containing foods. So best to either cook everyone the same GF meal or ensure you use separate trays and utensils to prepare the GF meal. One easy mistake is everyone using the same tub of butter/marg, it gets easily contaminated with breadcrumbs. If you need it for cooking, make sure you have a fresh block. Don't toast things for her in your toaster or use toasting bags.

Sometimes gluten can be in foods you don't expect e.g. some chocolates contain barley extracts, some crisps contain wheat, frozen chips/potatoes are often coated in flour. It'll all be on the label though so check everything.

Someone asked a similar question recently here

Thank you Monkey in shoes! Much appreciated xx