Can You Get Glutened Going to the Grocery Store?

Many celiacs believe you cannot get glutened
going to the grocery store, but that has not
been my personal experience at all!

Being a super-sensitive celiac can be quite frustrating at times.

You don't fit into the ordinary celiac crowd because you react to many foods that fit into the legal definition of gluten free. That makes you feel like an outsider.

The typical celiac can't relate to what you're going through. It is totally outside of their experience, so they don't believe that touching a door knob, getting too close to an in-store bakery, or walking down the bread or flour isle at the grocery store is enough to gluten you.

In fact, they get pretty angry and vocal when super-sensitive folks try to share their lives.

But how true are their arguments?

Can you really get glutened from going to the grocery store?

Or is that idea all in your head?

When dealing with false information, there's always a misconception or false idea that is at the heart of that belief.

Always.

So you have to take a good look at the actual argument, from both sides, before you can evaluate it and come to your own conclusion.

Problems with Cross Contamination

In this case, the main argument leveraged against super-sensitive celiacs is that gluten has to be swallowed in order to trigger an autoimmune reaction in the gut.

Therefore, personal experience is often considered invalid.

Supposedly, the gluten molecule is too large to pass through the skin, but I really don't know. That's just what some celiac experts say.

However, what you breathe in finds its way to the back of your throat. From there, it's pretty easy to swallow whatever it is, so anything airborne can cause gluten reactions if those protein molecules hang around in the air like flour does.

In addition, gluten is sticky. It won't come out of crevices, seams, and scratches.

You hear this all the time within the celiac community:

Newbies need to replace their toaster and some of the kitchen equipment and utensils they used before diagnosis because you can't clean it well enough to prevent cross contamination.

Yet, they don't understand how that same sticky gluten molecule, unseen to the naked eye, can stick to a:

• doorknob
• kitchen towel
• remote control
• light switch

Or anything else that someone touches after eating a sandwich or cookie.

Do people really wash their hands just before entering the grocery store?

Not likely.

Problem with Bulk Bins

Ever thought about the guy or gal stocking the grocery shelves during the wee hours of the morning? Are you sure their hands are clean of gluten?

While that sounds like an over-reaction, I've had grocery stockers tell me NOT to buy from bulk bins – ever. And that includes the ones above your head because of the way they are stocked.

Yes, stockers wear gloves when they fill up those upper bulk bins. At least, they're supposed to, but there's no way those stockers are going to switch out their gloves for each new bin.

This means their gloves are bound to have gluten molecules all over them as they move from bin to bin.

In addition, stockers don't wash their hands after stocking the bread or bags of flour onto the shelf. They just move onto stocking something else.

Plus, many bins are reused for a different item than it contained the first time.

Flour Poofs When You Pick Up the Bag

Flour poofs when you pick up the bag.
This makes both the flour aisle and conveyor belts
problematic for super-sensitive celiacs.

Have you ever watched someone pick up a 5-pound bag of flour? It literally puffs flour particles into the air. And not just a little bit.

When I was working as a culinary specialist in a group home for teenage boys, I tried my hardest to pick up one of those bags of flour without it going poof and spilling all over everything.

I didn't want to have to quit my job, so I experimented with all kinds of tricks trying to make it work.

However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it.

Not only did the flour poof into the air, but it got all over the grocery shelves, all over me, all over the floor, the grocery cart, and everything that was in the cart.

I had the two kids who were with me that day do it too, in case they had a better solution, but they were worse at it than I was. There was no way to get that bag of flour off the shelf without contaminating me and everything else with gluten.

This hit me particularly hard when the women in front of hubby and me at the check-out slung a 25-pound sack of flour over her shoulder and onto the conveyor belt.

Flour went flying everywhere!

It was all over the floor, the candy near the register, and especially, the conveyor belt.

Needless to say, it was also in the air, on her hands, and therefore, all over her cart handle.

Although these flour particles didn't actually land on me – hubby took the largest share of the blast – as I backed up, I couldn't help but think about the time a checker was eating french bread while checking out our groceries.

You really don't know what that checker or shopper has had their hands on, what they've touched, and whether the conveyor belt is clean of flour and bread crumbs, or not.

After watching that event, I realized that no matter how some of the prominent members of the gluten-free community feel, everything we purchase at the store, as well as everything in the store, has the likelihood of being contaminated with gluten.

And the odds go up even more if the store passes out free samples or has an in-store bakery where a child can munch on chicken nuggets in the shopping cart as mom does her shopping.

Free samples or in-store food get a shopper's hands or their kid's hands covered in gluten. From there, it's anyone's guess what they touch next.

Definitely, their cart.

So the reason why an ordinary celiac doesn't understand those who get glutened at the grocery store is because they've never taken the time to LOOK and consider how gluten gets passed around.

It's no wonder that I've gotten glutened so many times from just going to the store. Gluten is everywhere – can be anywhere – no matter what an ordinary celiac wants to believe.

Getting Glutened at the Grocery Store Isn't All in Your Head!

It's not crazy to believe that gluten crumbs and flour dust can be found on:

• fresh fruits and vegetables
• the outside of processed foods
• canned goods
• frozen goods
• packages of fresh meat
• the grocery shelves
• your cart handle
• and other stuff

Once you open your eyes and look around at the different ways it might happen, it begins to make more sense.

Super Sensitive Celiacs must watch for ways
that they can be glutened at the store

Between the flour, grocery stockers, janitors, shoppers, checkers, and free samples being passed out, it's amazing that we don't get glutened far more often than we do. Especially, if you're in the habit of diving into a candy bar or banana as soon as you leave the store.

I suppose if that were to happen, if we were to become more aware of what we're doing than we are now, more people would be able to tie that grocery trip to how they're feeling 2 or 3 days later.

For now, it's enough to know that getting glutened isn't always because you made a mistake in purchasing your groceries. Sometimes, like a dropped bag of flour that explodes when it hits the floor, things are just beyond your control.

While you can certainly stay home, let a family member shop for you, or order your groceries online, that isn't much of a life, which is the point that ordinary celiacs are trying to make when they accuse you of living in fear.

Although the accusation may or may not be true, the take-away is that you have to decide for yourself how far you're willing to go to stay safe.

Many celiacs have no problem with taking risks, while others prefer to error on the side of caution.

Either way, the potential for getting contaminated with gluten at the grocery store is definitely there. It's not all in your head.