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Tiger Dining provides options for students with gluten-free diets

Tiger Dining is making a push for more options for students with special dietary needs on campus.

Auburn University made the list of Top 10 Gluten-Free Accommodating Colleges by Udi, the No. 1 gluten-free brand in the United States. Currently, there is a gluten free prep area in the Wellness Kitchen as part of Auburn University's Made without Gluten Initiative. Soon, Auburn University may be the first to have a certified gluten-free dining location on its campus.

Plains to Plate is going through the process to become certified gluten-free, according to Glenn Loughridge, director of campus dining. The location has passed the lab certification and is currently waiting for the final certification to be sent back, which will make Plains to Plate "one of the first, if not the first" retail location on a college campus to be certified gluten-free, according to Loughridge.

Emil Topel, senior executive chef, said that in order for Plains to Plate to be certified gluten-free, everything in the building had to be gluten-free. From the tables to the employees' uniforms, from the equipment to the ingredients, everything had to be cleaned, according to Topel.

"We had to clean the place from top to bottom, including air vents, because it had gluten in there already," Topel said. "[If] I’m going to say it’s gluten-free, then it has to be gluten-free."

By having a kitchen space that is completely gluten-free on campus, students with dietary restrictions have more options than before.

"We’ve moved from made without gluten to gluten-free which is a huge step," Topel said.

Topel said he doesn't have any ingredients that go into Plains to Plate that are not on his list of gluten-free items.

"We have a book now with pictures of every item in there," Topel said. "We'll do it in order to make sure there isn't anything weird in there that might have gluten."

For the menu of Plains to Plate, the change to gluten-free ingredients was "pretty easy," according to Topel.

"It was a matter of changing the bread," Topel said. "We had the black eye pea hush puppy [on the menu] that had a cornbread mix as part of the recipe, so we had to change that to rice flour."

Loughridge said Tiger Dining has been working toward accommodating students who have special dietary needs, like gluten intolerance. 

"We want to make sure that we accommodate a lot of different types of needs as far as food goes," Loughridge said.

By having a certified gluten-free dining option on campus, students with gluten intolerance will have an experience they normally do not get to have, according to Loughridge.

"They don’t get to go into a restaurant and just order whatever they want," Loughridge said. "They have to think about every single step in that process. They have to think about cross-contamination [and] think about things that every other student doesn’t."

Topel said it would be hard to make all campus dining options gluten-free, because "we don't have the kitchen space" currently available on campus. Topel said there are new buildings being built in 2018 which may "work [gluten-free space] in more often."

One way that gluten-free options could be spread throughout campus is through the convenience stores on campus, according to Topel.

"Maybe we can package [gluten free cookies and muffins] in Plains to Plate and bring those around campus," Topel said. 

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"The goal here is that they would have a place [on campus] that they could feel completely safe," Loughridge said. "They could order anything on the menu without fear."


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