When I got slapped with the celiac disease diagnosis back in (let me consult my mental calendar) 2008, one of the first moves Mrs. Dude made was to snag me a brand-spanking-new toaster exclusively for my gluten-free needs. Back then, the Dudettes were young, munching on bagels like they were going out of style. (Cut to years later, both Dudettes are now gluten-free and wouldn’t touch a regular bagel with a ten-foot pole.) There was never a debate about the safety of sharing a toaster. Ever emptied out a toaster and seen the gluten-laden crumbs that come tumbling out? Pretty revolting and definitely not safe. Even if you miraculously dodged cross-contamination, why roll the dice? Enough said. Or so I thought.
In 2019, a study aimed to quantify the risk of shared kitchen appliances and utensils. Here’s the scoop, straight from the Boston Children’s Hospital website:
The study findings, published in Gastroenterology in January 2020, revealed that using the same toaster for both gluten and gluten-free bread may not pose significant risk for people with Celiac disease. To come to this conclusion, the authors toasted 40 gluten-free slices and found that the gluten levels remained below 20 ppm despite having crumbs in the toaster from gluten-containing bread. Other highlights from this study included that people should never eat foods or use utensils with visible contamination from gluten-containing foods.
Confused? Welcome to the club. Forty slices hardly seem like a robust sample size, and the study’s other highlight reminds us that visible contamination should be a red flag, regardless of test results.
Now, I’m not here to bash the experiment or its creators. I’m all for facts that quell the rampant paranoia that “gluten is lurking everywhere.” It’s not, and they acknowledge that their sample size was small, and they didn’t test for hydrolyzed gluten. But that didn’t stop some folks from jumping to the conclusion of “Hooray, I can now share a toaster!” That’s not what the study proved, but it’s the message that many took away from it.
Fast forward to recently, when I stumbled upon an influencer on IG Reels with over 50,000 followers claiming that a shared toaster should be fine. She even threw in a free toaster giveaway for good measure. But wait, there’s a catch – at the end of the video, she advises that a dedicated toaster is probably still your best bet. Confused? Yeah, I’m still scratching my head too.
So here’s the bottom line: Can you use a shared toaster without getting glutened? Maybe. Should you? Absolutely freaking not. Remember, it only takes one slip-up to trigger the autoimmune response. Is a shared toaster worth that gamble? I’ll let you decide.