Misleading Claim caused a Gluten Attack

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A friend of mine recently got "glutened" after sampling some food at an event, Bits and Pieces at Movietowne. It was one of the vendors that was responsible for this, not the management of the event. After asking questions about the crab backs and if they had any fillers or wheat, the vendor who made them said that they have 100% crab meat with no fillers. My friend tried them and she got sick an hour later and contacted the individual to find out if they were really gluten free. The person eventually mentioned that she used breadcrumbs but the crab backs would only have 1/4 tsp and that shouldn't cause a reaction since some of her gluten free friends did not get sick. This person could have made a person with a serious wheat allergy very sick. A person with Celiac Disease react to traces of gluten. A 1/4 tsp is way more than a trace, it is torture. The maximum amount of gluten allowed in food is 20 ppm, that is approximately 0.01997718 grams. There are people who still react to 20 ppm. A 1/4 tsp of gluten is approximately 1.25 grams (1251.42787875 ppm). It would take me weeks to recover from this.

My friend is trying her best to educate the individual about Celiac Disease and how different quantities of gluten can affect people. This person should not make claims about selling gluten free food when they are not gluten free. Check out my friend's Facebook post below about when she got glutened.

Post by Zayas.

This next post was after she contacted the individual and they insisted that it was not the breadcrumbs but something else that she reacted to. This person's ignorance can endanger someone's health.

Post by Zayas.

Always ask questions about how people prepare their food. Do not ask them "Is it gluten free?", they could  say "Yes" too easily. Instead, ask them about the ingredients that were used. If they refuse to tell you, don't buy their stuff. Also it would be safer to buy food from people who are personally affected by Celiac Disease or another Gluten-related disease instead of someone who is jumping on the Gluten Free bandwagon without any knowledge of the conditions associated with it and how to prepare food properly.

I used this Parts/Million (Ppm) to Grams/Liter Conversion Calculator to work out the amount of gluten in the crab backs.