May 2009 Archives

Carluccio's Gluten Free Menu

By Free From Food on May 21, 2009 8:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

If you like Pasta but need a wheat free or gluten free diet then one option is to find a Carluccio's Caffe. There are 13 in the UK (although they are only in the midlands and south - sorry!) and they all have a Gluten Free Menu, including pasta.

Their website can be found here: Carluccio's Caffes

The Gluten Free Menu can be found here: Carluccio's Gluten Free Menu

If you have any other restaurant recommendations please let us know.

A Gluten Free Chocolate Treat

By Free From Food on May 20, 2009 10:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

One of our favourite Gluten Free (and Wheat Free!) chocolate treats is the Sunny Wafer, produced by Dietary Special it is an orange flavoured wafer bar covered in milk chocolate. Oddly we have been buying this from our local Waitrose but they no longer seem to stock it even though it is still listed on both their website and that of Ocado.

The below links should take you to the Products (you may need to sign in to the Sainsbury's website first).


If you can recommend any other tasty allergen free treats please log in and leave a comment or email us contact@freefromfood.co.uk

Gluten Free Biscuits - Mrs Crimble's

By Free From Food on May 19, 2009 3:16 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Another winner from the Food Matters Awards is Mrs Crimble's Macaroons; these are wheat free and gluten free but do contain eggs and are made in a bakery where milk is used. We have tried both the plain and the chocolate covered macaroons and both are very good.

The below links should take you to the Products (you may need to sign in to the Tesco website first).


Mrs Crimble's website can be found below

Mrs Crimble's

Gluten Free Bread - Genius!

By Free From Food on May 18, 2009 2:17 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As we mentioned in our blog about the Free From Food Awards last week there is a new Gluten Free bread available called Genius Bread. We finally bought some over the weekend and it is as good as most people are saying; the texture and taste are much closer than anything else to "normal" bread. It is available as a white loaf and a brown loaf.

It is available through Tesco (although not all branches unfortunately); the below link should take you to the Tesco Product (you may need to sign in to the Tesco website first).

Genius Bread - Tesco

The Genius website can be found here:  Genius Bread

Allergen Free Food?

By Free From Food on May 15, 2009 6:02 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

We would like your help!

We are thinking of creating a list of food that is available both in the supermarkets and the main web shops for food allergies, the list would show which allergens that food item contains:

  • Gluten Free
  • Wheat Free
  • Egg Free
  • Dairy Free (Lactose)
  • Nut Free
  • Produced in a Nut Free environment
To do this we need your help - what area of food would you like to see first, bread, pasta, ready meals, snacks etc etc

PLEASE leave a comment or email (contact@freefromfood.co.uk); for us to do this we would like to know that it will be worth it and people will make use of the information!!

Free From Food Awards - The Winners

By Free From Food on May 13, 2009 5:18 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Foods Matter is a monthly magazine providing information and support to those with food allergies, intoloerances and sensitivity. The magazine presented its 2nd annnual Free From Food Awards yesterday from a shortlist of over 100 companies. The products include gluten free, wheat free, dairy free and egg free and also "produced in a nut free environment".

Please see the below list of winners and where their products can be brought, the list only shows the winners so please follow this link to see all the highly commended and commended winners for each category.

Free From Food Awards


Where to buy Free From Food

By Free From Food on May 12, 2009 12:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The main UK supermarket chains do have a wide range of allergy free food but much of this food is not in their "Free From Food" ranges. We have always assumed that buying allergy free food would be difficult and time consuming but the majority of what we need can be bought in your local supermarket. Now we are not so sure!

There are a number of web based food distributors that sell a wide range of allergy free food. These are just some:

www.glutenfreecatering.com

www.glutenfree-food.co.uk

www.dietaryneedsdirect.co.uk

Also the below website specialises in delivering abroad!

www.britishfooddirect.com

Any links that we add to this site will now include the above shops, if you can recommend any others please let us know.

contact@freefromfood.co.uk

Here are links to where to buy the products recommended by Mumsnet:

  • Alpro Soya Drinks (Flavoured)
Ocado
Tesco
Sainsbury's
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Alpro Yoghurts
Ocado
Sainsbury's
Tesco

  • Sainsbury Free From Fish Fingers
Sainsbury's

  • Doves Farm Chocolate Stars Cereal
Ocado
Tesco
Glutenfreecatering
Britishfoodsdirect

  • Doves Farm Cereal (a bit like special K!)
Tesco
Ocado
Glutenfreecatering

  • Doves Farm Lemon Biscuits
Ocado
Glutenfreecatering

  • Black Farmer Sausages
Ocado

  • Debbie & Andrew's Sausages
Available at Morrisons (but no web link available)

  • Waitrose Almond Tart
Waitrose

  • Larabars
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Whole Earth Cornflakes
Waitrose
Ocado

  • Dietary Specials Breakfast Rolls
Waitrose
Ocado
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Trufree Crackers
Tesco
Waitrose
Ocado
Britishfooddirect

  • Mrs Crimbles Chocolate Macaroons
Tesco
Waitrose
Ocado
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Rizopia Spiral Pasta
Ocado
Waitrose
Glutenfreecatering
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Orgran Spiral Pasta
Tesco
Waitrose
Ocado
Dietaryneedsdirect

  • Morrisons Hazlenut Cookies
Available at Morrisons (but no web link available)

  • Morrisons Rockey Road Bars
Available at Morrisons (but no web link available)

  • Procelli Bread
Ocado
Glutenfreecatering

  • Bi-Aglut Bread
Not found, possibly by perscription only

Gluten Free Food, Recommendations from Mumsnet

By Free From Food on May 11, 2009 8:25 PM
There is an Allergy Discussion Group on the Mumsnet website which has, amongst many other topics, discussions about not only Gluten Free food but all types of allergy related food.

www.mumsnet.com - Allergies

I will try and post links to where you can buy these tomorrow but for now please see the below list and thanks to all at Mumsnet

  • Alpro Soya Drinks (Flavoured)
  • Alpro Yoghurts
  • Sainsbury Free From Fish Fingers
  • Doves Farm Chocolate Stars Cereal
  • Doves Farm Cereal (a bit like special K!)
  • Doves Farm Lemon Biscuits
  • Holland and Barratt Jelly Teddy Sweets
  • Black Farmer Sausages
  • Debbie & Andrew's Sausages
  • Waitrose Almond Tart
  • Larabars
  • Whole Earth Cornflakes
  • Dietary Specials Breakfast Rolls
  • Trufree Crackers
  • Mrs Crimbles Chocolate Macaroons
  • Rizopia Spiral Pasta
  • Orgran Spiral Pasta
  • Morrisons Hazlenut Cookies
  • Morrisons Rockey Road Bars
  • Procelli Bread
  • Bi-Aglut Bread

Gluten Free Childrens Meal

By Free From Food on May 9, 2009 9:28 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Not having that much time to cook every night we have been searching for gluten free childrens meals. The Annabel Karmel range has a number of meals that do not contain wheat but they do NOT state they are Gluten Free or for a Coeliac.

If there are any suggestions for childrens meals that do state they are Gluten Free then please let me know.

Login to leave a comment or email

contact@freefromfood.co.uk

These are links to some of the retailers stocking

Annabel Karmel, Salmon & Cod Fish Pie - Ocado

Annabel Karmel, Tasty Chicken & Rice - Ocado

Annabel Karmel, Salmon & Cod Fish Pie - Tesco

Annabel Karmel, Tasty Chicken & Rice - Tesco





Wheat Intolerance & Children's Food

By Free From Food on May 8, 2009 1:03 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

If you have children with a wheat intolerance and don't have time to cook all the time what do you give them to eat?

Searching the internet shows up lots of web sites and blogs about cooking for a wheat free life but many people do not have time to cook a full meal for their child every day. So what is available and where can you get it?

All the major supermarkets in the UK have a Free From Food section but in general these product ranges don't offer ready meals. Instead you need to hunt through the childrens meals looking for those that don't contain wheat. The same issues arise for those with a gluten intolerance or dairy intolerance.

From our experience Ocado currently has a very good range of wheat free childrens meals; we will create a list of those meals and those available at other supermarkets and post it here soon.

We will also look into other childrens food such as gluten free sausages, chicken nuggets and chips - all of the normal childrens favourites.

If you have any suggestions of good allergen free childrens meals please let us know

contact@freefromfood.co.uk

Supermarket Free From Food

By Free From Food on May 7, 2009 7:54 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Looking at the Free From Food Ranges in the UK supermarkets it is clear that only a small percentage of the food aisles and therefore sales are covered. A large number of Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Dairy Free and other allergen free products are not included in the Free From Food ranges and therefore not obvious to the buying public.

This is clearly shown on the Tesco website, a search for "Free From Range" produces only 58 products which is a very small percentage of the Teco Range. It is clear from our own shopping at Tesco that there are more products than are included on the "Free From Food" range but they are difficult to find.

Non of the other major supermarkets are any better; they all hold limited ranges and it is not easy to find all of their products that are allergen free.

As a first step of our attempt to understand what is available we have updated the list of crisps that are available at supermarkets and which ones are free from which allergens. This list can be found through the below link.

Supermarket Crisps


As ever comments and emails are much appreciated

contact@freefromfood.co.uk



Gluten Free Labelling

By Free From Food on May 7, 2009 9:50 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

For those of you who don't know (we didn't!) the rules on what manufactures can put on their packaging about the product being Gluten Free changed in January this year.

Under the new European Union regulations, only foods that contain less than 20 parts of gluten in a million will be allowed to use the term 'gluten-free' on their packaging. Recent evidence has shown that this extremely low level offers better protection for people with an intolerance to gluten. Previously, a food labelled 'gluten free' could have contained up to ten times more than this.

Please see the below link to the Food Standards Agency

Food Standards Agency - Gluten Free Labelling

Eating Out - Wheat Free

By Free From Food on May 6, 2009 7:57 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Eating out when on any allergy based diet is difficult; we tried it last weekend aiming to avoid wheat. We were quite successful with the local pubs who could all tell us if they had any wheat free items on the menu even if most of them said they didn't have any!!

Searching on the internet however did show that some chains are improving not only the information they publish but also their menu choices.

J D Wetherspoon

The Wetherspoon chain have impressed us with their menu; not only does it give very detailed information (both on the in pub menus and on the internet) but also has a very wide range of dishes for people with allergies.

This 1st link is to the pub chains Food and Drinks Page:

J D Wetherspoon - Food & Drink

The 2nd link gives you a menu to select which allergens you wish to avoid and then lists all the menu items you can eat - a great web page!

J D Wetherspoon - Detailed Dietary Information


McDonald's

Whilst McDonalds doesn't offer that many menu items for those people with allergies it does give a comprehensive breakdown of allergens for the whole of the menu which is very good:

This link is to the general Food page

McDonalds - Food

The 2nd link allows you to select a menu item and it gives a detailed list of all allergens

McDonalds - Menu Items and their Allergens


Any feedback would be much appreciated so we know what you are all interested in!!!

For any thoughts or questions please log on and leave a comment or email

contact@freefromfood.co.uk

Supermarket Food

By Free From Food on May 5, 2009 10:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

One of the aims of this blog is to find out what food is available at the local supermarket for those of us with food allergies. This is turning out to be more time consuming than we thought but as a starting point I will be adding a page about crisps (not the best choice perhaps but it was one of the easiest and everybody likes crisps!).

The page will show those items that are gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, egg free and nut free and will provide links to the main supermarket. Initially these will be

  • Tesco
  • Sainsbury
  • Ocado
Any feedback would be much appreciated as producing the information is time consuming although we do believe it will be of use to many people.

For any thoughts or questions please log on and leave a comment or email

contact@freefromfood.co.uk

Free From Food Awards

By Free From Food on May 4, 2009 8:43 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Foods Matter is a monthly magazine providing information and support to those with food allergies, intoloerances and sensitivity. The magazine will be presenting its 2nd annnual Free From Food Awards on the 12th May from a shortlist of over 100 companies. The shortlist has now been published and includes many foods that we haven't heard of let alone tried!

The shortlist is drawn up following monthly tastings that the magazine carry out through the year so I am expecting that the winners will be well worth trying.

The categories are:

1. Dairy (cow's milk) free ('milk' and yogurt)
2. Dairy (cow's milk) free (butter, spread and cheese)
3. Dairy and/or gluten-free (ice cream, puddings and desserts)
4. Dairy and/or gluten-free (chocolate, confectionery and cereal bars)
5. Gluten-free (breads and bread mixes)
6. Gluten-free (pastas, pizzas and pizza bases)
7. Gluten-free (pies, flans and savoury sauces)
8. Gluten-free (cakes, muffins and sweet biscuits)
9. Gluten-free (savoury biscuits and snacks)
10. Nut-free (in all the tastings)
11. Christmas foods
12. Breakfast cereals
13.  Innovation award
14. Overall winner

For the complete shortlist please visit the awards web page and also the Foods Matter Web Site. We will try some of the winners and add another blog.

Free-From Food Awards


Gluten Free Cereal

By Free From Food on May 3, 2009 8:44 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Many thanks for recent comments about Crispy Cereal Rice. The only one I have found in the UK so far is:

Nature's Path Crispy Rice Cereal; this is Wheat and Gluten Free although may contain Peanuts.

These are links to some of the retailers stocking Nature's Path Crispy Rice Cereal

Nature's Path Crispy Rice - Ocado

Nature's Path Crispy Rice - Tesco

Nature's Path Crispy Rice - Ethical Superstore


Dairy Free Ice Cream

By Free From Food on May 1, 2009 5:16 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A friend recommended that we try Swedish Glace ice cream which is not only wheat free and gluten free but is also dairy free. Most main supermarkets stock it and it is very nice!!

These are links to some of the retailers stocking Swedish Glace ice cream

Swedish Glace Vanilla - Sainsbury's

Swedish Glace Chocolate - Sainsbury's


« April 2009 | Main Index | Archives | June 2009 »

freefromfood.co.uk

Pages

Monthly Archives

Search

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from May 2009 listed from newest to oldest.

April 2009 is the previous archive.

June 2009 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.