Find Me Gluten Free
Cross-contact vs. Cross-contamination
What is the difference?
While these terms are often used interchangeably, there is a difference in their meanings. It's important for you and anyone preparing your food to understand the difference because it can effect how someone practices safe food preparation.
Cross-contact
According to Beyond Celiac, cross-contact is defined as follows:
Cross-contact is when a gluten-free food or food product is exposed to a gluten-containing ingredient or food – making it unsafe for people with celiac disease to eat.
Cross-contamination
According to Beyond Celiac, cross-contamination is defined as follows:
Cross-contamination is a term that implies that a food has been exposed to bacteria or a microorganism, which could result in a food-borne illness like salmonella.
Why does it matter?
It's important to distinguish between the two terms because food service workers might assume gluten can be "killed off" by cooking it, similarly to a food-borne illness. However, this is not true. Gluten is a protein, not a bacteria, so it cannot be "killed off" through heat during the cooking process unless subjected to extreme temperatures for an extended period of time (which is unlikely to occur in a kitchen unless your food is also burned and charred).