Image IS NOT from the bakery in question
I’m a little frustrated at the moment. This morning, I walked into a local bakery that had a sign in their window that said, “gluten-free pastries now available”. Once inside, I saw that they indeed had a nice selection of gluten-free pastries (they were even sourced from a reputable dedicated gluten-free bakery) — one huge problem though. They were in the same case with every other gluten filled croissant, eclair and gallete (touching in some places) — and worse yet, on the bottom shelf. I promptly questioned the manager as to why these were being displayed this way and his response was baffling. He said, “these pastries were not intended to be sold to people as sensitive as yourself, they were merely an option for people on a gluten-free diet”. My jaw dropped in disbelief.
OK, I’m the first person to advocate being overly nice, never condescending, and always going out of my way to act as some sort of goodwill ambassador when talking to people about the gluten-free diet. It never does any good to treat people with disrespect or try to belittle them for their lack of knowledge on the subject — before being diagnosed with celiac disease, I knew nothing about what gluten-free meant. But (and this is a big BUT), if you are managing a restaurant or bakery or any other place that is serving “gluten-free food”, you need to educate yourself on exactly what that means and why it is so important to get it right.
Some good news: After a 30-minute discussion with the manager, he seemed grateful that I was so interested in the fact that they were serving gluten-free items and he did ask how they could make things better. The first obvious task would be to not keep these items in the case with everything else. They had a few items covered on glass cake plates on top of the counter — so I suggested that those be dedicated to gluten-free items and that they keep separate utensils for those items. I explained that since they had gone to the trouble of sourcing these items out from a reputable gluten-free bakery, they need to continue this and keep everything as safe as possible right through to the end consumer — otherwise there is no point in offering gluten-free options. Since our conversation, I’ve emailed him numerous links to sites talking about cross-contamination and how to minimize the risk
This bakery (which shall remain unnamed for now) informed me that they were convinced to sell gluten-free food by one of their distributors who said it was one of the hottest trends at the moment. There was never a mention made of celiac disease or the necessity of a gluten-free diet for those with CD.
This particular story might end up in a good way, but to think how many places out there are selling food labeled as gluten-free and have no clue as to what that really means and are actually hurting people in the process. I’m going to be checking back in a few weeks to see if things have changed here and I really hope they do — it would be nice to have a bakery so close to home that I could get some safe GF pastries. I will hopefully be doing a positive review of this place at some point in the near future.
I work in a restaurant and unfortunately- keeping any of these things from cross contaminating- is near impossible- and the last thing on their minds or that they care about. If it doesnt affect them- Directly- they seldom Care. They’re careful to put notices up all to cover themselves for food allergies… but Not careful with Cross Contamination. They may be “nice” to you as you’re explaining all this to them… and then walk away and laugh about. I’ve tried to explain all this to my boss and Upper Management- and they just laugh at me- nor do they Believe how Sick gluten makes me… Most are just concerned with Profits and getting everything out on time. Even if they make everything Appear not be cross contaminated in the Case- doesnt mean they didnt cross contaminate anything BEFORE they placed it in the Case. Maybe I just work in a very disorganized place… but I’ve worked in many… and havent seen much of a difference… and with what I’ve SEEN- behind the scenes- I wouldnt TRUST any Restaurant to serve me anything that’s purely Gluten Free- and Not Contaminated… especially since the general public and Restaurant owners/employees/etc… are NOT Educated about this disease.
Good going, Chris, educating this bakery about celiac and cross-contamination. I’m often too quiet about such things to avoid being a “bother”, but I know I need to be more vocal and ask more questions.
(Of course, I’ve learned this the hard way..)
Oftentimes, even when places are advertising macarons or whatever as gluten free, I find the staff have no idea what’s going on, and say all they know is what things are marked gluten free – and not how they got to that point.
It extends to restaurants too – I find it so hard to eat anywhere, as I’ve been glutened so many times in the last year, no matter how careful I am to explain my situation. How do you do it??!