Acta gastroenterologica Latinoamericana

Celiac disease is an autoimmune enteropathy. The only known treatment consists of a permanent adherence to a strict gluten-free diet, which represents an important challenge for patients. Objective. To describe the gluten-free processed food offer in food locals from 3 neighborhoods representative of high, middle and low economic status in Buenos Aires, Argentina.METHODSCross-sectional study. Specially trained monitors performed a standardized direct assessment of food locals. Whenever direct observation was not possible, we interviewed the personnel as an indirect assessment. We classified dish offer in different categories, and evaluated the processes of food elaboration, storage and distribution.RESULTSWe included 112 food locals. Results for neighborhoods representative of high, middle and low economic status were, respectively: no gluten free dish available in 27.5% (45/62), 27.0% (27/37) and 30.8% (9/13), (p = 0.96); adequate elaboration in 17.7%, 13.5% and 7.7%, (p = 0.61); appropriate food storage in 12.9% (8), 13.5% (5) and 7.7% (1); (p = 0.85); adequate distribution in 8.1%, 8.1% and 0% (0), (p = 0.56). Conclusion. In 1 out of 4 food locals there was not even one gluten free dish. In addition, there was a lack of compliance with safety measures to avoid gluten cross-contamination.