Celiac Education in Restaurants: Restaurant Visits

Being educated on how to handle gluten-free food safely is more important in restaurants than anywhere else. We had the privilege of visiting some restaurants in Karachi and speaking with their their staff about what precautions are necessary to take when handling and preparing gluten-free orders, starting with Pomo Karachi.

During the talk we focused mainly on two things, the first one being ways to avoid cross-contamination. Cross-contamination is a huge risk in restaurants because there are so many dishes being made simultaneously. We gave the staff some suggestions on improvements that can be made in their kitchen to reduce this risk, such as using new oil when frying gluten-free things and wiping down surfaces after use. The second topic we focused on was how to accurately read food labels. Even though there are some basic ingredients which are known to have gluten, there are a lot of ambiguous ingredients used in restaurants which can cause confusion when looking for allergens. In these cases it’s extremely important to be able to read food labels.

Being able to speak with people who work directly in the food industry was an enriching experience, and I am looking forward to giving talks at more restaurants!

The resources we displayed during the talk are available here.

Group picture with Pomo owner, Imran Bandukda, along with Pomo staff.