Restaurant working group

The idea of ​​creating a "Restaurant" Working Group was presented officially on May 8, 2010 at the ALIG information day with the objective of creating an independent group working on this subject.

The availability of gluten-free products in shops and supermarkets has continued to increase in recent years. However, this was not the case for restaurants in 2010: consequently many people with gluten intolerance avoid eating out, due to bad experiences, while some of us have found some restaurants ready to take the necessary precautions to offer some gluten-free meals.

At its first meeting, the Working Group therefore began to assess the situation, to follow the steps necessary to remedy such "disastrous" situation:

  • In many restaurants, gluten intolerance and therefore gluten are completely unknown.
  • In many other restaurants staff has heard about the disease, but this information is often incomplete if not completely wrong.
  • Even knowing the issue, meals prepared in these restaurants are contaminated with gluten because the staff is not aware that it is necessary to avoid the contact of gluten-free and gluten-containing products during a rigorous and consistent meal preparation.

Following these findings, the Working Group decided to address these issues with the restaurants at several levels, knowing that the situation is better in other European countries.

The Working Group has managed to find a few pizzerias interested in offering gluten-free pizzas, some of which were already offering gluten-free pasta for some time. The availability of frozen pizza dough balls (from Schaer imported by La Provençale), as well as training given by an ALIG dietician regarding their preparation and cross-contamination risks, has allowed these pizzerias to offer gluten-free pizza from September 2011.

The Working Group also found a number of restaurants interested in offering gluten-free meals. To help these restaurants in their goal, the Working Group has organized individual training sessions for each restaurant interested, so that they are informed about the disease, the gluten-free diet and the preparation and manipulation errors that can lead to contamination with gluten in a kitchen using products with and without gluten.

It should be noted that it is not easy to find restaurants that wish to appear on our list, because cooking without gluten requires lots of attention and involves more work in already quite stressed kitchens. For this reason we greatly appreciate the efforts of those restaurants that have agreed to offer dishes for gluten intolerant persons and who commit to respect the rules of this dietary cuisine.

 

In collaboration with Luxair, the Working Group advised the airline on the development of gluten-free meals and more tasty snacks in their different flights and ALIG allowed the airline to quote its initials in these prepared gluten-free products. To reserve a gluten-free meal it is enough to call or send an e-mail to the Callcenter of Luxair at least three days prior to departure.

Some school canteens have also requested our training and our dietician has informed the staffs of these canteens.

At present, the training has been halted because our dietician is not available during the spring and summer of 2012.

As of autumn, we will resume training for any interested restaurant.

Restaurants trained by ALIG » 

Pizzerias trained by ALIG »

Important: Book at least one day in advance!