How Do We Learn More About Offering a Gluten-free Menu?

These days many restaurants are lining up to offer a gluten-free menu, but some of them don’t go about it the right way. The first thing I suggest a restaurant do is get in touch with a trusted gluten-free organization that certifies gluten-free menus and offers training for proper gluten-free service. The Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, or GIG for short, is such an organization. GIG runs a restaurant certification program called GFRAP, which stands for Gluten Free Restaurant Awareness Program.

Excerpt from GIG’s website:

The Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program (GFRAP) facilitates the relationship between individuals with celiac disease and individually owned and operated restaurants that understand their dietary needs. Participating restaurants will be able to prepare GF meals in addition to their regular meals.

What many people trying to get started in the gluten-free market don’t understand is that knowing what menu items are gluten-free is just a small part of the equation when it comes to gluten-free restaurant service. Actually getting the meal to the table gluten-free is a whole different challenge, in addition to knowing exactly what ingredients in dishes are safe for people with gluten intolerance to consume. Though many people consider the ingredients and the safe food preparation to be the only things to figure out, how to treat the customers once you get them in the door is yet a whole other skill set.

By the time someone knows they have to follow the gluten-free diet, they are likely to have been to a ton of different doctors and are shocked to find out that many of those doctors don’t know much about celiac disease. If someone’s doctor can’t help them beyond giving them a diagnosis for celiac, how is someone at a restaurant supposed to know exactly how to prepare and serve safe gluten-free meals? Many people with celiac don’t think there is such a thing as safe gluten-free dining even though there absolutely is. It just takes a lot of hard work to learn how to do it. Some people don’t have the time for that, or don’t think it’s worth the effort so they just avoid eating out as much as possible.

Once a restaurant has completed the GFRAP requirements, they might consider hiring a gluten-free consultant in their area to help them get -  and most importantly keep - a gluten-free customer base. Since some restaurants with gluten-free menus don’t actually implement them correctly, just having the menu doesn’t guarantee success with the gluten-free community in your area. One restaurant in our area declared they had gluten-free pizza when really they only had a gluten-free crust. The manager of the place had no idea that gluten could be in sauce, pizza toppings or anything else. The restaurant has since recitified the situation, according to the manager.  

Doing a Google search should help you figure out if there is a gluten-free consultant in your area. If you find one, it’s still best to work with GIG first, to get the extensive training that their program offers, and the organization’s very important seal of approval. The latter goes a long way to create the trust you need your gluten-free customers to place in your establishment.