Food Allergy Safety Must- Knows: Cross-Contact vs. Cross-Contamination
- Allergy Force Insights
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
We caught up with Betsy Craig, CEO and Founder of MenuTrinfo, a company that helps food service establishments and manufacturers serve people with food allergies, celiac disease, intolerances, and sensitivities—safely.
Betsy is a nationally recognized expert in food safety and allergen training. She’s spent years helping kitchens and manufacturing facilities prevent avoidable mistakes that can have serious consequences for people with dietary restrictions.
We asked Betsy to help us explain the differences between cross-contact and cross-contamination — both can make foods unsafe to eat for different reasons.
“These terms sound similar, but they describe very different risks,” says Craig, “especially for people managing food allergies or celiac disease. Understanding both is essential to staying safe with food allergies, whether you’re eating out, shopping for food, or cooking at home.”
Cross-contact vs. cross-contamination is a must-know aspect of allergic life, especially when climbing the learning curve after a food allergy diagnosis. And if it's any consolation, you'll even catch allergists confusing cross-contact with cross-contamination. It can be confusing for everyone!
What is Cross-Contact?
Cross-contact happens when a food allergen touches another food—transferring proteins that can cause an allergic reaction. Even a trace amount of that allergen on supposedly allergen-free food is enough to be dangerous for someone with a food allergy.
Cooking or reheating the food won’t remove or destroy the allergen.
It’s important to understand where and how cross-contact can happen so you can gauge the risk of eating food in a given situation and take precautions like asking detailed questions, or if uncomfortable, even taking a pass on eating the food.
Common Places Cross-Contact Happens
Your own kitchen
Friends, relatives, and caregivers’ homes
School cafeterias and college dining halls
Restaurants
Bakeries, ice cream shops, and food trucks
Catered events
Food manufacturing facilities
How Cross-Contact Happens
Kitchen Error: When the kitchen makes a mistake with your order.
… A chef can mistakenly add cheese to a burger that was supposed to be dairy free, or croutons to a salad that’s supposed to be gluten-free.
Shared Utensils or Equipment: When the same utensils or equipment are used to prepare different foods without being thoroughly cleaned between uses.
… From tongs and soup ladles to cutting boards, blenders, food slicers, and toasters, carelessness can spread allergens where they shouldn’t be.
Shared Cooking Surfaces: When the same surfaces, like grills and griddles, are used to cook different foods.
…Grills and griddles often cook multiple foods at once—like eggs next to bacon or salmon next to steak. Griddles and grills can be tricky to clean thoroughly between uses, so cross-contact happens.
Shared Cooking Oil or Water: When fryers filled with hot oil and vats of boiling water are used to cook multiple foods.
… Foods like French fries may be cooked in the same fryer as mozzarella sticks (dairy, wheat) or egg-free pasta may be cooked in the same boiling water as a previous batch of pasta containing eggs.
Gloves and Hands: When food handlers don’t change gloves or wash their hands with soap and water when handling different foods.
…It's not hard to imagine a rushed food handler rummaging for a fresh bagel from a bin without changing gloves...after making a bagel with lox & cream cheese (fish, dairy) for the previous customer.
Storage: When foods are improperly stored.
…Allergens can transfer when foods are stacked, stored loosely, or leak (e.g., flour dust, open bins of nuts, or dripping seafood containers).
Protecting Yourself from Cross-Contact
When Dining Out
For someone new to food allergies, the work it takes to stay safe can feel overwhelming. But being aware of risks helps you ask the right questions and avoid surprises.
What can you ask restaurants, caterers, or cafeteria staff to learn how they manage cross-contact in their kitchens? Questions will vary depending on your dietary needs and the food you want to order. It’s helpful to have some idea how foods you want to eat are typically made.
Below are examples to get you started:
I am allergic to X, Y, and Z. So can you please make sure my food does not contain my allergens or come into contact with foods with my allergens? I need to avoid X, Y, Z allergens.
Can your kitchen team wear fresh gloves or thoroughly wash their hands before they handle my food?
Can you take care to wash any utensils or equipment used to prepare my food with hot soap and water before using them on my food?
What foods are cooked in the fryer/pasta cooker? Are you able to make my food using fresh oil/fresh boiling water that hasn’t been used to cook other foods?
What foods do you cook on the grill/griddle? Is it possible to cook my food in a separate pan or aluminum foil on the grill/griddle? Or in the oven ?
Is it possible to keep my food order away from other orders waiting for pick-up by our server?
When Buying Packaged Foods
You need to read food labels every time you buy a packaged food — before you eat it.
You want to be consistent when interpreting "Contains" statements and Precautionary Allergen Labels (PALs) that sometimes appear below "Contains" statements.
What are PALs? These are statements that disclose if a food "May Contain" specific allergens, is made on shared equipment with other allergen-containing foods, or is made in shared facilities with other allergen-containing foods.
These statements are voluntary for manufacturers and are not regulated by the FDA. While by law they must be truthful and not misleading, their meanings may vary depending on the manufacturer, their facilities, their equipment, and processes.
Some manufacturers provide PALs and some don’t. If a product does not include a PAL statement it doesn’t mean the food is less risky than a food with a PAL statement — the manufacturer just chose not to provide the information.
It’s important to call manufacturers to research any new products you would like to buy. Ask detailed questions about their facilities, equipment, and processes so you can understand the cross-contamination risk and determine if the risk is acceptable for your family to accept.
To help you through a call with a manufacturer, look at this article — How To Read Food Labels For Allergens. It includes detailed questions at the end to guide your manufacturer research calls.
Looking for foods that are specifically certified ‘Free From’ allergens and/or gluten can help, too. This can save you time calling manufacturers. MenuTrino’s ‘Certified Free From’ (CFF) program holds manufacturers to high standards and regularly audits and tests their facilities and products for allergen presence. The CFF program holds manufacturers accountable for the purity of their food products. You can find a list of food manufacturers that have been certified here.
What is Cross-Contamination?
Cross-contamination happens when harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals taint your food. Unlike cross-contact, which is an allergen issue, this is a foodborne illness concern. It can affect anyone — not just people with food allergies.
How Cross-Contamination Happens
It happens when the contaminants are unknowingly transferred from:
Person to Food
...A food handler doesn’t wash their hands after using the restroom and then touches food.
Surface to Food
...Raw chicken was cut on a cutting board or carried on a tray that is then reused for cooked food without cleaning in between.
Food to Food
...Juice from raw meat drips on ready-to-eat items in a refrigerator.
Common contaminants
Bacteria: Salmonella, E. Coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, Cholera
Viruses: Norovirus and Hepatitis A
Parasites: From worms that infect fish and animals to soil and waterborne parasites like Ascaris, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia
Chemicals: Pesticides, heavy metals
Physical Material: Metal, Plastic, Glass from production mishaps
These contaminants can cause anything from mild discomfort to severe illness—and in some cases, even hospitalization or death. Unlike allergens, though, many contaminants can be neutralized with proper cooking to recommended internal temperatures.
Summary of Key Similarities & Differences: Cross-contact vs. Cross-contamination
Cross-Contact | Cross-Contamination | |
Who is at risk? | People with food allergies or celiac disease | Anyone |
What makes the food unsafe? | Allergenic proteins | Bacteria, viruses, parasites, chemicals, physical materials |
Where does it occur? |
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What are the risks? |
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How to mitigate the risks? |
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What’s Important?
Navigating food allergies takes time, patience, and lots of learning. Understanding the difference between cross-contact and cross-contamination is an essential early step to protect yourself or your loved ones from allergic reactions.
While cross-contact and cross-contamination can occur in the home, nourishing ourselves away from home requires us to place faith in strangers who prepare food for us behind the scenes.
Trust is everything.
And it can easily be misplaced, broken.
As Betsy Craig reminds us, “Staying safe as you navigate allergic life is about being aware of risks, asking detailed questions, and knowing when to walk away if you feel uncomfortable.”
Because when it comes to food safety, especially for those with allergies, every detail matters.
MenuTrinfo® LLC is the nation's leading food allergy education, training, and auditing company, providing ANAB-accredited programs such as ISO 17065 Certified Free From® for food allergens on consumer packaged goods, in commercial kitchens, and university dining halls. MenuTrinfo also offers the AllerTrain® and AllerCheck™ programs.
Certified Free From (CFF) Allergens, by MenuTrinfo, is the only global program providing in-person verification, testing, and validation of allergen-free claims for consumer-packaged goods. Ongoing industry-standard testing ensures products remain “Free From” the stated allergen(s), protecting consumers with dietary restrictions. CFF certification gives consumers confidence and peace of mind that the foods they choose meet strict allergen-free standards.
Allergy Force is committed to helping people with food allergies live freely — with less fear, less anxiety, more confidence — through education and technology. The Allergy Force food allergy app is peace of mind in your pocket...
Image: Brian J. Tromp on Unsplash
Sources
Cross-Contact
FoodDocs: Cross-contact vs. cross-contamination: what's the difference?
MenuTrinfo: 5 Easy Food Safety Basics
MenuTrinfo: Avoid Allergen Cross-Contact in the Kitchen
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (eatright.org): Preventing Cross-Contact at Home
Cross-Contamination
World Health Organization: Food Safety
CDC: Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States—Major Pathogens, 2019