Chipotle is a restaurant that I used to frequent regularly in my pre-Celiac days.  The quality of the food was always top notch and, though more expensive than fast food, offered a good value for the money for a lower price than a sit down chain restaurant.  As Spring dawns and we are spending more time out with the children, has sent me looking for more food options other than packing my own.

I was delighted to find out how many options they have for someone who has any allergies.  Information found elsewhere says they are very understanding about people with dietary issues and will gladly change gloves to minimize the risk of cross contamination.  For Celiacs and folks on gluten-free diets, everything but the flour burritos are safe.  We have a pretty fair run of the menu.

Here is a direct link to the allergen card, which will open in a new window.  You will need a PDF reader to view it.

www.chipotle.com/Chipotle_Allergen_Card.pdf

After having a hard time recently finding Cornmeal that was guaranteed to be Gluten Free, I settled on Arrowhead Mills.  The side of the package cornmeal package was labeled gluten free, but for more information, contact them.  The representative was very pleasant and knowledgeable about the status of their products and assured that I did not have to worry about any cross contamination, as they regularly cleaned and tested the processing line.  Doing further research lead me to this statement on the Hain Celestial Group Gluten Free Choices website:

If you or someone you cook for lives gluten-free, you know how confusing it can be to eat well. The Hain Celestial Group is dedicated to providing wholesome, great-tasting gluten-free products that take the stress out of shopping and cooking. And we’re committed to supporting your diet with recipes and helpful tips. You can count on us for all your gluten-free needs.

At Hain Celestial, we take every measure possible to ensure that all of our products labeled as gluten-free meet our high standards of testing. Our gluten-free products contain less than 10 parts per million of the gluten protein in wheat, rye and barley which is well below the international standards of 20 parts per million.

We conduct tests at every step, from product development through production and packaging, to ensure that no ingredient contains a detectable amount of gluten, and that high standards are maintained and monitored at production facilities to avoid cross-contamination.

Our facilities are allergen cleaned before every gluten-free product run and allergen test samples from every batch we produce are sent out to independent laboratories for allergen testing. In addition, we educate the people who work with our gluten-free products, and those who handle our raw ingredients, so the purity of your food is never compromised.

I was one of those kids who grew up on Friday night fishsticks and fries and as an adult still like a nice crisp fish fillet.  My brand of choice was always Gorton’s.  With my recent dietary changes, I knew I could no longer have any of the breaded products, but am concerned about cross contamination of other products, so contacted customer service.  Here is their response:

Any Gorton’s product containing gluten-based ingredients will list those ingredients separately on the label.

However, Gorton’s is sensitive to the fact that some consumers are very concerned about non-gluten containing products manufactured in an environment with gluten-based ingredients. Although some of our products do not list any gluten-based ingredients, Gorton’s cannot guarantee that any product is entirely gluten free. Products produced in a plant that is responsible for production of other Gorton’s products that do contain gluten-based ingredients. It is possible that all Gorton’s products may contain trace amounts of gluten from the production facility.

I also returned to their website to look at the non-breaded products and was surprised to see that when you click on the individual items are taken to a page that includes the ingredient and nutrition information. From looking at this information the following items are gluten free, though there is the possibility of cross contamination.

• All Natural Lemon Pepper Grilled Fillets
• All Natural Garlic Butter Fillets
• All Natural Lemon Butter Fillets
• All Natural Cajun Blackened Grilled Fillets
• All Natural Italian Herb Grilled Fillets
• All Natural Classic Char Grilled Fillets
• Salmon Lemon Butter Grilled Fillets
• Tilapia Roasted Garlic and Butter Grilled Fillets
• Tilapia Signature Grilled Fillets
• Shrimp Scampi
• Lemon Shrimp Scampi