How Can I Tell If My Toppings Are Gluten Free?
In the last article on gluten-free products, we covered the basic considerations for providing a gluten-free pizza alternative to your customers - sourcing a good quality gluten-free pizza base, identifying which of your existing toppings contain gluten and excluding them from a restricted glutenfree menu, managing cross-contamination and managing customer expectations. Since then we’ve spoken to numerous pizza restaurateurs who, having decided to offer their customers a gluten-free alternative are having difficulty in clearly identifying whether or not specific pizza toppings really are gluten-free. The recurring theme of these questions, which comes up again and again in conversation, is the lack of sufficient detailed knowledge to ask the right questions of a supplier, or to assess whether or not the supplier is providing the right answer. So we thought it would be a good idea to describe how you might go about identifying your gluten-free toppings.

WHAT IS GLUTEN ANYWAY?
Gluten is a grain protein found in wheat, rye, oats and barley. It is also found in the fashionable “ancient” grains such as spelt and kamut, which are really just mediaeval forms of wheat. Any food product which is manufactured wholly from one of these grains, contains one of these grains in any form or contains any ingredient which was derived from one of these grains will contain gluten. Any food product which is manufactured wholly without the use of any of these grains can be said to be “glutenfree”. Many food products manufactured or sold in Australia which do not contain gluten are now labelled “gluten-free”. If a product is labelled “glutenfree” it is safe to use in a gluten-free pizza. However there are many food products available commercially in Australia, particularly those which are made for the food service market, which are not labelled gluten-free even though they are. Similarly, many products which contain gluten do not have this fact printed clearly on their labels.

SO HOW CAN I TELL?
The point of this article is to provide you with some quick, easy steps to assess a particular topping that you might be using and to decide whether or not it is gluten-free. You will need the following tools to make an assessment of which of your toppings are gluten-free:

• A “Food Additive Decoder” or similar publication which lists food additive numbers and explains in detail what they are. You should be able to purchase a copy from any good bookstore.

• Copies of the ingredients lists and nutritional information for each topping of concern, as printed on the packaging.

• A telephone.

• Access to the Internet.

For each topping which might not be gluten-free you will go through the following steps:

• Examine the ingredients list and assess whether or not the ingredients are gluten-free.

• Use the additive decoder to look up the definitions of any additives listed by number.

• Assess whether or not those additives are glutenfree (if possible).

• If necessary, consult the manufacturer’s web site for further information.

• If necessary, telephone the manufacturer for further information.

When visiting a pizza restaurant I generally find that I can make a complete assessment of the pizza toppings in use in under an hour, possibly with a little follow-up research later by Internet and telephone.

While this might seem like a lot of bother, in reality it’s less than the time that it will take you to organise the advertising for your new gluten-free alternative. And lets face it - there’s little point in providing a gluten-free alternative if you don’t get it right, is there?

WHAT TOPPINGS SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT?
The following rules of thumb may be applied when reviewing pizza toppings to identify ingredients of concern:

• All fresh fruit and vegetables are gluten-free, unless contaminated with a flour, sauce or marinade made from a gluten-containing grain.

• Pizza sauces should be assessed.

• Pizza cheese should be assessed.

• Meats often contain gluten and should be carefully assessed.

• Packaged vegetables should be assessed.

• Sauces often contain gluten and should be carefully assessed.

THE BASE ITSELF
If you’re buying in a gluten-free base from a reputable gluten-free manufacturer then it should be clearly labelled gluten-free and the ingredients list should not show any gluten-containing grains.

You should keep the bases in the manufacturer’s packaging for as long as possible, only removing them when you need to make up a pizza. If you must remove a gluten-free base from its packaging prior to use it should be protected from cross-contamination by being immediately wrapped in clean plastic wrap or by some similar precaution.

If you have chosen to make up the bases yourself using a gluten-free premix, your main issue is crosscontamination on the premises. You will need to be extremely careful about where you store your premix (completely separated from all conventional flours) and where you make up your gluten-free bases. At a minimum you should observe the following precautions when making up gluten-free bases:

• All work surfaces, machinery, etc., must be completely clean, inside and out, before you start to work on the mix;

• You must ensure that the entire workspace is kept completely free of conventional flours and other ingredients which may contain gluten throughout the mixing and forming process;

• You must not allow the mixing, handling or use of any conventional flours in the same workspace (anywhere in the room) throughout the mixing and forming process;

• Once the bases have been made up you must still observe all of the precautions relating to the handling of a pre-made base in order to keep your made-up bases glutenfree.

PIZZA SAUCES
If you are making your own sauce, using tomato paste, garlic and herbs then you should be fairly safe here. The only things to check are that the tomato paste does not contain a thickener (which might be made from wheat flour) and that there are no gluten-containing ingredients in a crushed garlic paste. A commercial pizza sauce may contain flavours or thickeners which are made from wheat or other gluten-containing grains.

PIZZA CHEESE
If you buy your cheese in as blocks and shred or grate it on the premises, then cross-contamination is your only concern. Commercial grated or preshredded cheeses, however, may contain anti-caking agents made from wheat.

MEATS
Meats are the most complicated area where the gluten-free status of pizza toppings is concerned. Manufactured meats in particular may contain starches, thickeners, flavours, etc., which are made from wheat or other gluten-containing grains. The general rule of thumb here is that if you are buying a fresh meat product (e.g. ground beef, fresh chicken) then it is likely to be gluten-free. If, however, you are buying manufactured or processed meat products (e.g. ham, bacon, salami, marinated or flavoured chicken, manufactured meats such as pastrami, chicken loaf, etc.) you should read the ingredients list with great care and identify all ingredients to determine their gluten-free status.

There are a number of reputable brands of glutenfree ham, bacon and salami on the Australian market but they tend to be premium products. Food service products in this area are often not gluten-free.

PACKAGED VEGETABLES
The main issue of concern here is marinade. Generally pickled or preserved olives, garlic, artichokes, capsicums, etc., are gluten-free. However, where they include flavours, colours or marinating sauces, particular attention should be paid to these ingredients.

SAUCES
Most tomato sauces on the Australian market are now gluten-free. Barbecue sauces continue to be an issue, with many containing gluten, as do soy sauces, chilli sauces, etc. The most common issues here are flavours, colours (especially caramel colouring), flavour enhancers and thickeners. Care must be taken to identify and assess all of these to determine that they are indeed gluten-free.

HOW DO I ASSESS A SUSPECT INGREDIENT
Suspect ingredients can be assessed using the following steps:

• Check the ingredients list:

• If the ingredient is listed as being made from a glutencontaining grain (e.g. “Thickener - from wheat”) then the product is not gluten-free;

• If the ingredient is listed as being made from a gluten-free grain (e.g. “Thickener - modified maize starch”) then it is acceptable.

• The ingredient may be listed only by a code number (e.g. “Flavour (1422)”). In this case assessing the ingredient may require several steps:

• You will need to look the code number up in the food additive decoder. This may immediately tell you whether or not the ingredient is made from a gluten-containing grain.

• If you cannot determine from the food additive decoder whether or not the ingredient is gluten-free, the information may be available on the Internet. A brief search on the manufacturer’s website may yield the ingredient’s gluten-free status.

• If you are still uncertain, you may have to contact the manufacturer directly. In these cases it is generally best to request an “allergen statement” from the manufacturer which should tell you whether or not the ingredient is gluten-free. Once you have assessed all of the suspect ingredients, you can make a determination:

• If the topping has one or more ingredients made from glutencontaining grains, the topping is not gluten-free;

• If the topping has no ingredients made from gluten-containing grains, the topping is gluten-free.

PULING IT ALL TOGETHER
Now that you’ve been through your cool room and worked out what ingredients you have that are gluten-free and you’ve been through your menu to work out what pizzas you can offer gluten-free, how do you pull it all together?

Clear documentation is the key:

• Clear instructions to staff to ensure that they understand how to handle and prepare a gluten-free pizza and which pizzas they can offer as glutenfree;

• Clear signage for customers to ensure that they understand which pizzas can be ordered gluten-free; and

• Don’t forget to set expectations appropriately - make sure that your customers understand the steps that you’ve taken to provide a gluten-free alternative and the limits to those steps.

By making the simple ingredient assessment described above you can determine which of your toppings are gluten-free, develop a clear and unambiguous gluten-free menu and advertise that menu to your customers. This allows you to offer a genuinely gluten-free alternative with little additional cost or risk, thereby attracting additional customers to your restaurant and adding to your bottom line.