It’s pretty common for FODMAP people to eat with others. Well it’s practically unavoidable. Here are some tips to help keep everybody safe.
Know your enemy (allergies/intolerances.) There are lots of great websites out in the world to help you discover if each ingredient your are using is a source of cross contamination. When it comes to FODMAP one of the best tools I use is the FODMAP app. If you looked on the web and still don’t know ask your guest. They’re rather you ask, than get sick.
List all the ingredients. Make a small recipe card that describes what is in each dish. It makes for a great presentation and helps special diets make educated choices about what they choose to eat. They will appreciate your subtlety in directing them to which dishes they can eat.
Serve guests with special diets first. Quietly ask your guest with dietary needs to get their food before others get their good. They know how to not cross-contaminate their food. This avoids polite but uneducated guests from making accidental cross contamination mistakes. I say quietly as some people do not like making their dietary issues a topic of conversation, even though they would really appreciate you letting them go first.
Use new packages/ingredients . If you are having someone over that is sensitive to food, use new packages. This avoids potential accidental cross contamination. A perfect example of this is buttering your toast. It’s normal to spread the butter on toast, then take some more butter and spread that on toast. You have contaminated your butter with gluten.
Use dedicate packages/ingredients. Like buying things new we have dedicated packages to only be used when making things like “gluten free”. This helps to ensure that you never cross contaminate as you only use it for one thing. We have a friend that has a severe gluten intolerance. Therefore we have sugar that we only use for baking gluten free. We have another regular sugar for when friends come over or we are cooking baked items that contain gluten.
Use new measuring cups for different ingredients. This can be annoying but also can help your guests feeling great. You may not think about what you just used the measuring cup for. Was it FODMAP friendly? If you get into the habit of a new measuring cup for every ingredient you don’t have to worry about what it was used for.
Pour into, do not scoop. When you are using anything for cooking, pour into your measuring tool. (I usually do this over the sink) Do not scoop out the ingredients. This helps to make sure the contamination only goes in one direction. Out into the measuring tool, not into the bag/box/container.
Use two spoons. If you want to taste something while you are cooking. Use one spoon to pour into your tasting spoon. This keeps your germs out of the cooking and keeps cross contamination down.
Cook Contaminants last. If you can make it fit in your schedule. Cook anything that has contaminants last so they can’t possible cross-contaminate food.