A gluten-free cookie was just the thing for my afternoon snack, but I had to leave the store empty-handed. Why? Cross-contamination with wheat at the cookie jar.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing better than sitting in the sun at the Bridgehead patio, tea at hand, and a gluten free cookie or two from Thyme and Again, just up the street. True enough, there are better things than this, but it’s still pretty good.<\/p>\n

On an early fall day, one of the last days that sitting out side in short sleeves despite the wind will be appealing, I fancy tea and cookies in the sun. They have to be gluten-free cookies because I have a gluten allergy.<\/p>\n

I’ve had gluten-free cookies from Thyme and Again before. They tell me they do all their gluten-free baking first thing in the morning, after everything is clean and devoid of wheat flour remnants from the day before, and before it is contaminated again from today’s gluten\/wheat baking.<\/p>\n

On this particular day, someone is ahead of me, buying cookies.\u00a0 I over-hear the server ask if the gluten-free cookies need to be kept separate from the others. The answer is no.<\/p>\n

I watch as the server use the same tongs just used for serving wheat cookies to grab a gluten-free cookie.\u00a0 I am shocked!<\/p>\n

In the past, I’ve seen other servers be very diligent about using a clean set of tongs to serve me my gluten-free cookies. And now I see someone potentially contaminating the whole jar.<\/p>\n

“I need you to keep them separate” I exclaimed! The server kind of winced, knowing she was wrong. I left empty-handed.\u00a0 I’m just not willing to risk my health, well-being, and energy to the risk of a wheat crumb. It’s just not worth it.<\/p>\n

It leaves me questioning future gluten-free purchases at Thyme and Again, or anywhere else that sells both gluten-free and wheat-based baking.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I just don’t feel that great after eating out, no matter how diligent I am.\u00a0 On the other hand, being super-careful and never taking any risks leads to a very limited social life and eating entertainment opportunities.<\/p>\n

How do you handle the risks of eating out, especially buying baked goods at stores that also sell gluten-contaminated products? Are you celiac, gluten allergy, or just prefer to avoid gluten?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A gluten-free cookie was just the thing for my afternoon snack, but I had to leave the store empty-handed. Why? Cross-contamination with wheat at the cookie jar. There’s nothing better than sitting in the sun at the Bridgehead patio, tea at hand, and a gluten free cookie or two from Thyme and Again, just up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[24],"tags":[36,37,234],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}