The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to give your kitchen the once over and prevent gluten cross contamination. Cross contamination of foods can happen easily, especially when there are other family members who do not follow a gluten free diet. Here are a few easy steps to keep foods safe from gluten cross-contamination.

• Designate a space in your kitchen to store gluten free foods. If you have other people in your household who are not gluten free, be sure to separate all packages of gluten-containing foods from any gluten free food.
• Have separate containers of gluten free foods and label them “gluten free”. Focus on foods that are likely to get cross-contaminated. Foods combined with bread or crackers are the likely suspects: peanut butter, fruit spread, jelly, jam, mayonnaise, mustard, butter, spreads.
• Set up your kitchen cutting boards to prevent cross-contamination. You should have a separate cutting board for all gluten free foods. Use only the designated cutting board for gluten free meal preparation. It may be helpful to have a color coded or  labeled gluten free cutting board.
• Most kitchen utensils and pots and pans are easy to clean.  It is not necessary to have completely separate items. However colanders, strainers, and flour sifters have a lot of small holes or screens, making them especially hard to clean. It is usually best to replace these  or have separate “gluten free” colanders for use in the kitchen.
• Learn more ways to may your gluten free lifestyle easier with my e-book “The Quick Start Guide To a Gluten-Free Lifestyle”