Study Finds Gluten-Free Restaurant Foods Contain Gluten Everyday Health Menu NewslettersSearch Celiac Disease News Study Finds Gluten-Free Restaurant Foods Contain GlutenOut of all the gluten-free foods sampled, pizza was contaminated the most. By Matt SeidholzMedically Reviewed by Kareem Sassi, MD October 8, 2018 Everyday Health Archive Medically Reviewed Gluten-free pizza is served in restaurants around the country.Tatna Maramygina/Getty Images These days, a lot of pizzerias offer “Contamination happens during the heating process,” he says. “Pizza contamination comes from shared ovens. Your gluten-free pizza goes in and it touches the same surface that a gluten-containing pizza did.” Likewise, when GF pasta gets contaminated, it’s often because it was cooked in the same water that was used to boil conventional pasta. Similar slip-ups in food preparation can compromise other GF dishes, as shown by the traces of gluten found in 30 percent of GF burgers, 28 percent of soups, and 30 percent of desserts. Even fast-food staples are dicey, although less than the researchers suspected. “Frankly, I was surprised to see that only 30 percent of french fries had contamination issues — I was suspicious of them and I was expecting more,” Dr. Lebwohl says. Most of the time, the amount of gluten found in these products isn’t large. The threshold to test positive for contamination is 20 parts per million, or .002 percent. That’s just .57 milligrams for every ounce of food, about the same as a single grain of kosher salt. But even these trace contaminants pose a problem, because gluten sensitivity is highly variable, even among celiac patients. For many of them, it doesn’t take much gluten to do harm. “There are patients with celiac disease that can eat several slices of bread and show no symptoms at all,” Lebwohl explains. “But there are others where even small amounts, like what we observed in this data, can cause discomfort or even lead to intestinal damage.” This underscores why he believes restaurant owners and cooks should pay attention to these findings. Celiac disease, he argues, is a serious illness that’s not always taken seriously by many in the food industry. “They should raise their standards and do more to protect these patients, especially if they’re selling dishes that they label as gluten-free.” Ultimately, however, Lebwohl and his colleagues believe that it’s up to patients to be their own best advocates. Just knowing how common gluten contamination can be is an important place to start. “But really patients should be prepared to ask pointed questions about the food they’re being served. ‘How is this being cooked?’ ‘What are your gluten safety practices?’” he says. “The more proactive celiac patients can be about this, the less they’ll be at risk.” NEWSLETTERS Sign up for our Digestive Health Newsletter SubscribeBy subscribing you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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