Pf Changs China Bistro
P.F. Changs is another favorite fast casual go-to restaurant for those who eat gluten-free, and many gluten-free diners have had good success ordering off the chains dedicated gluten-free menu.
The choices include a wide variety of appetizers, gluten-free egg drop soup, a noodle dish, plenty of entree options and even vegetarian options. You even can order a great dessert, P.F. Changs excellent GF flourless chocolate dome.
Gluten-free options at P.F. Changs include:
- Changs chicken lettuce wraps
- Pad Thai
- Chocolate souffle
All of P.F. Changs gluten-free dishes are served on a special plate with the chains logo so that you know youre getting a safe meal. The restaurant also uses gluten-free soy sauce in its GF creations.
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Gluten Free Dining Out At Restaurants
If you eat gluten free, youve very likely wondered if you can dine out at or order in from restaurants again safely. Which restaurants are more likely to be safe and how to ensure the best experience possible are the real questions. For that, I have 8 top tips!
Ive updated an excerpted portion of the chapter Dining Out Again Safely and Enjoyably, from my book, The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten Free. If you have anything to add about your own experiences eating gluten free at restaurants, good or bad, please share in the comments!
Gluten Free Burger Options
How can you order a burger, then? Unfortunately, Five Guys currently doesnt offer a gluten free burger bun. However, you can ask for it lettuce wrapped. Thats right, you can get any burger you want wrapped in a bunch of lettuce. Its still tasty, and youre also cutting a bunch of carbs and calories out of your meal by skipping the bread.
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Gluten Free French Fries Fast Food
French Fries
Theres some debate about whether there is major cross-contamination in their fries during the frying process. But according to McDonalds website, there is not!They do not cook their potatoey goodnesses in the same fryers as their gluten items making them safe to eat for our celiac friends.
Seasoning Packets & Gravy Mixes
I used to love my mom’s chip dip. It was a packet of french onion soup mix mixed with sour cream. Sadly, that soup mix packet contains soy sauce . So does the vegetable packet used for the classic Spinach Dip she used to make. Other seasoning packets and gravy packets can have wheat in them as well!
What to buy instead?
- McCormick sells gluten-free gravy mixes.
- Hidden Valley Ranch packets are labeled gluten-free.
- The onion and vegetable soup mixes are a little harder to find. I haven’t personally found or tried any that are gluten-free, so I don’t want to recommend something I haven’t tried. Check all brands at your stores, you may find one that I don’t have access to! Also, you may find packets in online specialty shops like Thrive Market or you can make your own from scratch.
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Eating Out With Celiac Disease Is Stressful The Gluten Dude App Lists Only Restaurants That Have Been Personally Vetted So You Can Spend Less Time Worrying And More Time Enjoying Yourself
Im with Cindi, I want to know. Heck, I would rather put people through the third degree than get sick. We occasionally go to a pizza place near here called The Mellow Mushroom. They have a GF pizza, a dedicated prep area/pans/oven and everyone I have talked to is very knowledgable about cross-contamination. After we went last time I had a reaction. It was bad, but didnt give me the after effect knock-down. For some reason I went to their website and read they had recently chamged their GF crust, and the new mix has agave syrup in it. Well, at least I wasnt glutened.
Hot Dogs And Other Sausages
Unless a hot dog or sausage specifically states that it is gluten-free, don’t assume that it is. Recipes vary greatly, and some recipes involve bread crumbs.
Traditional British banger recipes call for rusks, which is a type of unleavened wheat bread. While gluten-free rusks are available, make sure that’s what you’re getting if you’re hoping to avoid gluten.
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Granola Or Energy Bars
There’s no doubt that some granola and energy bars are delicious, and are just the kind of pick-me-up you need during a busy day. But just like other pre-made foods, if it doesn’t explicitly say that it’s certified gluten-free, you’ll need to read the label to judge whether it fits your snacking needs.
It’s also worth repeating here that not all oats are gluten-free in fact, unless they’re grown and processed in dedicated facilities that do not also process gluten-containing ingredients, they’re probably not. Keep that in mind as you make your granola bar choices.
So When Are French Fries Gluten
Lets recap what weve learned so far
First, we need to know if the fries themselves are GFand to find out, we can look online, call, or even ask in person.
Second, we need to know they are fried in a dedicated fryer that means they are going to remain gluten-free and not get cross contaminated.
Those are our two main criteria for restaurants and fast food.
One other option mentioned at the beginning was store bought fries.
With store bought fries, the instructions call for cooking them in an oven. These fries have usually already been fried once and then flash frozen.
Like with other food from the store, check the ingredients and labels to see if they are gluten-free.
Oreida packaged fries, tater tots, and breakfast potatoes are gluten-freeso that is the brand we always buy.
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Are French Fries Gluten Free
by Nima Labs Inc. | Jun 25, 2015 | food testing, nima, research
One of our summer interns, Adil, did some extremely important research! We all want to know: are french fries gluten free? Heres a re-cap of the things he found.
This past week Nima went on a french fry quest, visiting five restaurants around San Francisco. We chose these restaurants for a variety of reasons either to make sure that the claim of 100% gluten free was valid or to inspect such restaurants that customers online had said made them sick.
After informing the staff at each restaurant that I have a gluten allergy and asking them whether their french fries would upset me, I recorded their responses and ordered fries . While having a french fry scandal would have been exciting, the results are back in from the lab and they are rather comforting: all five samples contained gluten levels of under 5ppm.
Eating Gluten Free At Chick
Chick-fil-A offers many gluten free options depending on how comfortable you are with eating at a restaurant where there is some risk of gluten cross-contamination. As with most chain restaurants, Chick-fil-A is not a completely gluten free environment, and you should use caution if you have celiac disease or a serious gluten intolerance. But if youre careful and know what to watch out for, Chick-fil-A is one of the better chain restaurants when it comes to gluten free food options. Heres what you should know about eating gluten free at Chick-fil-A:
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What Common Fast Food Items Contain Gluten
When dealing with gluten-intolerance, knowledge is safety. Knowing what food items you can eat, as well as those that are taboo, can be the difference between a good afternoon with friends and a painful allergy episode.
While the list of food items containing gluten is inexhaustible, some are more common in fast food circles.
The following food items should be avoided by gluten-intolerant people at fast food outlets: wheat, barley, rye, malt, triticale, wheat starch, and brewers yeast. You should also try to avoid foods that require frying.
Fried foods at fast food restaurants may be gluten-free but are at risk of cross-contamination due to the same oil being used for frying both gluten-free and gluten-containing products.
Are Arbys French Fries Gluten
Arbys offers information on their website about which foods from their menu are gluten-free. They state that Arbys® Potato Cakes and Homestyle Fries* may be cooked in the same oil as the following menu items, which contain a wheat allergen: Crispy Chicken Patty, Buttermilk Chicken Fillet, Prime-Cut Chicken Tenders*, Curly Fries, Fish Fillets*, Jalapeno Bites®*, Mozzarella Sticks, & Steakhouse Onion Rings.
They dont mention if the fries themselves contain gluten, but they are in fact, fried in the same fryer as other ingredients that contain gluten.
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Are Burger King Fries Gluten Free
Burger King fries will routinely be made in fryers also used to make wheat-containing hash browns, the fast food chain announced today.
In a post appearing on the Food Allergy Research and Education website, Burger King said:
We are informing the food allergen community about the change in cooking procedure for our French Fries. Starting on August 3rd 2015, French Fries will no longer be cooked in a separate fryer. They will be cooked in the same fryer as Hash Browns that contain wheat flour, resulting in the likely risk of cross-contact with a known allergen for the French fries. Therefore, from now on, French Fries may contain wheat.
We are updating our website, bk.com to reflect this change. Our guests will continue to find complete and up-to-date nutritional and allergen information for BURGER KING® menu items on our website.
A Burger King spokesperson in an email said, As has always been the case, BURGER KING ® restaurants handle many products with wheat and other major food allergens, and therefore we cannot guarantee an allergen free environment.
My family has avoided Burger King fries for a long time after having found breaded onion rings mixed in a few times. It never gave us a lot of confidence in the gluten-free status of the fries.
But on its List for Guests with Gluten Sensitivity, which pointedly says it is not for those with celiac disease, theres a notation that the fries may be fried with gluten containing foods.
New to the gluten-free diet?
The Following Restaurants Offer Gluten
- Chick-fil-a: The restaurants signature waffle fries are cooked in a dedicated fryer in peanut oil. Read more about whats gluten free at Chick-fil-a.
- Five Guys: Five Guys hand-cut fries are cooked in a dedicated French fry fryer in peanut oil. Learn more about Five Guys gluten-free options.
- Honest Burger: Honest Burger is a popular fast-food chain based in the UK. Both the French fries and onion rings are cooked in a dedicated fryer.
- Hopdoddy Burger Bar: The restaurants French fries are gluten free and cooked in a dedicated fryer.
- In-N-Out Burger: The popular fast-food chain offers gluten-free French fries cooked in a dedicated fryer using sunflower oil.
- Larkburger: Larkburger is a small fast-food chain based in Denver, Colorado. It serves gluten-free French fries and onion rings, all cooked in a dedicated gluten-free fryer. Learn more about the gluten-free items at Larkburger.
- Red Robin: The restaurants famous steak fries are cooked in a dedicated gluten-free fryer, by request. Learn more about how to navigate Red Robins gluten-free menu.
- Sonic Drive-Thru: Some, not all, Sonic restaurants have a dedicated gluten-free fryer for cooking both French fries and tater tots. Inquire within. Learn more about Sonics gluten-free menu.
- Teds Montana Grill: Teds Montana Grill makes tasty fresh-cut fries, and yes, theyre cooked in a dedicated fryer.
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Are Alexia French Fries Gluten
According to the Alexia website, Our products may contain gluten, if they do, it will be called out on the packaging after the ingredient list. If you have an allergy or sensitivity, wed suggest checking the packaging each time you purchase it for the most recent list of ingredients and information.
From an article I found from Verywell Fit, they have conflicting information, stating Their fries are produced in a shared facility, although they are produced on dedicated lines, according to a customer service representative. Therefore, the company does not label its fries gluten-free, even though it states that none of its potato products use gluten ingredients. Always check the label, as Alexia will call out gluten-based ingredients on the label.
Either way, it looks like they will have their products labeled with some type of indication if there is gluten in the product.
Bouillon Cubes And Broths
This one is another shocker! Some bullion cubes contain barley, which is not gluten-free. Some canned and boxed broths state “may contain wheat,” which may or may not be safe to eat. Be extra careful when it comes to these items! Look for ones that state gluten-free on the label for the best bet. Three brands that come to mind are Swanson, Pacific Foods, and Imagine.
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The Fryer The French Fries Go In To Cook Is Not Used For Other Gluten
At many restaurants, French fries are cooked in the same fryer as onion rings, fried chicken or chicken nuggets, or other battered foods all of these contain gluten. In this case, lets say chicken nuggets are fried in the oil, then removed.
If a batch of fries goes into the same fryer, its going to be swimming in the same oil where the gluten just came out of. The oil wont kill off gluten, so if youre sensitive to cross contamination, anywhere that has used a fryer for French fries is very likely going to contain gluten.
Some restaurants might have a dedicated fryer for their gluten-free products, but youll need to ask your server to have the chefs use this fryer for making your French fries. Know that just because a restaurant says they have a dedicated fryer doesnt mean they actually do and they actually use one.
Eating French fries at restaurants is something to be done at your own risk. Youll want to do your research on those two points above before you go, or simply dont order French fries. Opt for a baked potato instead or another side dish that doesnt have the potential for cross-contamination.
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Tips For Using An Air Fryer:
- My #1 one tip for using the air fryer would be to not overcrowd the food in the air fryer basket. The food will cook faster and more evenly when theres room for the heat to circulate.
- Use an oil sprayer to lightly coat your food with an oil that has a high smoke point like avocado or olive oil. You may need to mist your food a couple of times throughout the cooking process, especially areas that may look dry.
- Lightly pepper your food on top once you put it in the air fryer. When it comes time to turn your food halfway through cooking youll be able to easily tell which pieces have been turned.
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