Leaning there is a new local restaurant offering made-from-scratch gluten-free pizza is usually exciting news. A number of restaurants use frozen crusts as the base for gluten-free pizza, which makes finding a freshly made crust pretty rare. Some, not all restaurants offer gluten-free pizza for customers with food allergies/intolerances, so they understand the importance of preventing cross contact and just how easily it can be accomplished. Unfortunately, Fritti’s gluten-free pizza falls into the latter category rendering it unsafe for anyone avoiding gluten for medical reasons.

Some day in the not too distant future, the gluten-free diet trend will lose momentum forcing restaurants to prepare gluten-free items taking cross contact into consideration. Until then, we are stuck with restaurant’s adding gluten-free items to their menus for those who choose to reduce their gluten intake, which can leave them susceptible to cross contact.

The gluten-free crusts are made using Italmill Flour important from Italy in dedicated mixers in a separate preparation area. The pizzas are also made using separate ingredients and there is no up charge. Wheat-based pizzas are rolled out in rice flour, which cuts back on the amount of gluten in the air. All of this information sounds great until learning the gluten-free pizzas are cooked in a wood-burning oven and come into direct contact with the same cooking surface used for their wheat pizzas. Why doesn’t the company understand that cross contact is eminent due to the gluten already present on the shared cooking surface?

I understand cooking pizzas in a 1000 degree wood-burning oven is what makes their pizza unique, but it is also the one step that makes it unsafe for anyone who needs to follow a strict gluten-free diet, specifically anyone diagnosed with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. In this case, at least the company’s procedures are transparent, so diners can make the choice to or not to partake.

It would be much easier if restaurants didn’t add ‘gluten free’ items to their menus without being able to keep them free of cross contact during preparation. After all, those of us with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity are the ones for which following a gluten-free diet is the only medicine. It is a lifestyle change not a choice, so enough with the ‘adding gluten-free items we can’t eat’ mentality. Why not make it safe for everyone?