Healthy Gluten Free Consulting Can Help You

By Claudine Hodges


Understanding the issues around gluten is becoming essential for those who work in the food industry. Incidences of gluten intolerance and celiacs disease are on the rise and consumers are demanding that restaurants and food companies provide gluten free options. Now there are specialists offering healthy gluten free consulting for businesses to train their staff and make sure their practices are of the necessary standard.

Wheat intolerance has been linked with a plethora of health issues including osteopirosis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, depression, migraines and more. For those who are sensitive to it gluten causes inflammation throughout the body and results in both short and long term problems. Research has linked this problem with increased risk of cancer and heart disease.

To avoid gluten completely it is necessary to understand how food is produced and where it is present either as an ingredient or as a result of cross-contamination. Both are potentially harmful. This is why it is difficult for restaurants to guarantee gluten free food. Most celiacs do not eat out because they cannot be sure that chefs staff in restaurants understand the problem fully, but this is changing.

Avoiding gluten is actually quite difficult as wheat is a versatile ingredient and is used in many ways. It crops up in surprising places such as ice creams, chocolate as it is used as a thickener by industrial food processors. It even appears in oats. This is because of cross-contamination. Oats do not actually contain gluten but they are often contaminated in factories.

Some households decide to go totally gluten free because the contamination issue requires a lot of attention to detail. Separate utensils, chopping boards and pans are all necessary. If, for example, a breaded shrimp has been fried in some oil then that oil cannot be used to make gluten free food. The smallest trace of gluten can contaminate everything.

There is a lot to learn when it comes to wheat free food. These days many specialists are offering consulting services to individuals and companies who need to know exactly how to produce and source safe food. Individuals can take workshops in understanding food labels, preparation of food, and even have help to make meal planners.

For restaurants, caterers and professional cooks they offer classes on the history of the problem, food production and wheat substitutes. They can do in-house staff training to show kitchen teams how to avoid cross contamination. Waiting staff also need to learn about the issue to be able to communicate effectively with customers. A consultant can teach them which questions to ask and how to deal with queries.

Gluten intolerance is not a fad that is going away. It is a serious and growing health issue. People who are incapable of eating gluten are looking for the food industry to step up and cater for them. If the problem keeps increasing at the current rate, soon a large proportion of the population will be avoiding this food. Industry professionals can utilize the knowledge of consultants to make their businesses safe for those with food allergies.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment