Gluten Tox Home screening kit (review)

I was asked about a month ago to try out the Gluten Tox Home screening test kit. I have to admit, I have seen the product before, but since we have a gluten free home, I never saw the need to research the product further.

The test is simple enough to use although it has a few working parts in order to get a result. The test comes with easy to follow directions and takes about 20 minutes in total to complete from beginning to end. The kit is capable of testing from 20PPM (parts per million) down to as little as 5PPM. 

The way I tested this product was to actually add a small (the size of a crumb) gluten containing piece of food into a large amount of non gluten containing liquid, one that I knew would dissolve easily so I can actually see if the test showed a result. I tested down to 5PPM because I thought this would be a more beneficial test as my family is severely GI. 

TEST RESULTS:
The test yielded POSITIVE for gluten at the 5PPM mark. 

The test does in fact work, which I found kind of cool. I’m no mad scientist, but I felt like I was back in school for a few minutes. 

So is this at home test kit worth it? Well yes and no. I live in a gluten free household so this test is not something I would need to have on hand. If you had a mixed household (gluten containing foods along with your gluten free foods) than I would say it is not a bad idea. The biggest drawback that I see is that the test takes 20 minutes. One would assume though that this is not for testing every meal, as that would be time consuming and costly, but geared more towards big occasions one might have in their house…at least in my opinion.

Gluten Tox Home kit

 

Where I do see a huge use for this product would be in a commercial setting. Being a certified GF restaurant means that an establishment has gone through the proper training in safe food handling and preparation, via a certification organization (such as the GIG or the GREAT program). However, this is not always enough as I have seen even the best of establishments fail when it comes to improperly trained staff and cross contamination. Any commercial establishment that serves both regular and gluten free foods could find this very useful if they are preparing large quantities of food. They could very well test entire batches of food(s) to insure that the entire lot is gluten free. This would bring an extra layer of security on top of their certification. Better peace of mind for the patrons if you ask me. 

Just to give you an idea of the miniscule amount it takes to get an adverse reaction from gluten, take a look at this picture below. Both the 20PPM and the 5PPM are very tiny given the size of the bread, but when you suffer from an autoimmune disease or a severe reaction to anything, size is irrelevant. Keep in mind, that even the tiniest piece of gluten ingested by a person with Celiac disease is creating an autoimmune reaction. So regardless if you feel like you are sick from ingesting gluten or not, you are still doing damage to your body. The same holds true for people who are not Celiac and are instead gluten intolerant. They may not have an autoimmune reaction, but other damage is happening to their body. For more information on the effects of gluten to a person with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, contact me through my Healthy Xpectations website.

Slice of bread showing the size of 20ppm and 5ppm

  

Side note; I am not a fan of any establishment that wants to say they serve gluten free foods or have a gluten free menu, but has not gone through one of the certification programs out there. Any establishment that offers these foods on a menu or advertises them, but has not taken the time to get a certification in safe food handling and preparation, is just out to make a buck. And while I do appreciate making money as much as the next guy, I wouldn’t go about saying so without the paperwork to back it up! So if you have issues with gluten do me a favor and find a certified restaurant. You’re not only helping yourself, but also future generations of food intolerance and allergy sufferers by making them realize that the customer really does come first. 

Resources:

Gluten Tox Website: http://glutentox.com/