The June issue of Food Management Magazine looks at the growing awareness of gluten-free among the nation’s colleges and universities. The article entitled, “Thinking Outside the Bread Box”, offers practical solutions and specific information for food service professionals regarding gluten-free ingredients, cross contamination cautions, and stresses the importance of gaining proper education through NFCA’s GREAT training program.

NFCA GREAT Guide Beckee Moreland, who specializes in training college and university food service staff, is a featured expert interview.

from Food Management Magazine:

“High-school seniors are choosing colleges based on whether or not they can safely eat there. For a student with special dietary needs — and his or her parents — food can cause fear and anxiety.

’Anytime you don’t have control over the preparation of your food, that’s scary,’ says Beckee Moreland, a Gluten-Free Resource Education Awareness Training (GREAT) Guide, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), Lincoln, NE. ‘So you need to have trust and confidence in the people who are cooking and serving your food and in the ingredients being used.’

…An equation that Beckee Moreland, of the NFCA has developed over years of research, training foodservice professionals across the country, and living with celiac disease herself, is ‘Awareness + Education = Loyal Customers.’

‘If people in the foodservice industry are aware of what celiac disease is and why gluten-free options are requested, they’re more apt to train their staff to prepare food safely and gluten-free,’ Moreland says. ‘In the celiac community, word travels fast when customers feel confident that a dining establishment ‘gets it’ and they’ll back that trust with return visits and referrals.’”

Food Management Magazine provides ideas for foodservice directors, managers and chefs through coverage of industry issues and events, operational topics and food trends that affect the noncommercial foodservice industry. The publication serves noncommercial Foodservice Industry consisting of contract management companies and self-operated facilities in the business and industry, college, university, hospital, primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, life care facilities, correctional and government segments.

To read the entire article, visit the Food Management Magazine website:

http://food-management.com/food_feature/thinking-outside-bread-box-0510/