Some research studies on celiac disease make me want to slap my hand against my forehead and say “Duh”. If you would have just asked me, I could have told you the truth about whatever you are researching. I could have saved you millions of dollars and years of work.
But that’s not how science works. Science is all about testing a theory and confirming or disproving its accuracy.
In this instance, most celiac patients know that shared fryers are a no-go. Gluteny crumbs fall off of the breaded frying item, fall to the bottom of the fry oil, as the oil circulates it moves those gluten crumbs around the oil and contaminates the next item fried. Instinctively, we know this to be true. It is the first rule of cross contamination – don’t eat items that come in direct contact with gluten.
Science tested the shared fryer theory. Researchers put gluten free fries in a fryer with gluten items and tested for gluten. They found that approximately 25% of the time gluten free items fried in a shared fryer with gluten items will have greater than 20ppm of gluten. Sixty percent of the fry orders contained quantifiable gluten.
Note that the article says “ELISA may underpeform for gluten that has been heated.” In other words, the testing may not be able to detect all of the gluten. The 60% rate of contamination may be higher than they are able to detect.
Bottom line – celiac patients should not eat foods from a shared fryer due to increased risk of gluten contamination.
Furthermore, ShakeShack uses shared fryers between their onion rings and French fries. Prior to this study, they stated the fries were gluten free. They used an oil filtration system to filter the crumbs from the onion rings. ShakeShack has added French fries to their items that have possible contact from wheat and gluten. For a celiac patient, that is a no-go.
I hate this because I love French fries. I now primarily make my own fries at home with potatoes and peanut oil. But now you know!
Link to article…..https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.652039/full #glutensensitivity #glutenfreerecipes #glutenfree #celiacdisease #celiac