The Gluten Free Blog

Just got back from the Allergy and Gluten Free show at London’s Olympia. And as usual it was a packed show full of good ideas and tasty foods.

Kent & Fraser

Our regular favourite brands such as Doves Farm, Hale and Hearty, and Orgran all had stands. But as usual we tried to hunt down some less well-known names and products. We chatted to the lovely Danny at Kent & Fraser who make scrumptious gluten free cookies, biscuits and shortbread, and whose packaging is eye-catching and contemporary. I can highly recommend the award-winning Stilton and walnut biscuits. Imagine these with a wedge of cheese and a glass of red on a warm summer’s night. Mmmm.

We said hello to the Rude Health girls. I’ve never come across this brand before. But it’s available in Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and numerous health food stores across the UK. They do gluten free honey puffed oats, puffed rice and honey rice flakes. In fact, we came away with a whole box of honey rice flakes, so we’ll do a taste test on those next week. Again, great packaging and a quirky website. Check it out.

Continuing to tickle the savoury tastebuds were Amisa’s organic gluten paprika and chilli crackers. These were crispy and flavoursome. Definitely recommended. Amisa is available at health food stores throughout the UK.

M&S chocolate and cherry cake

Good to see M&S have a stand this year. Marks has been rolling out its gluten free brand with its distinctive green packaging for a while now and we’ve already written about their orange and polenta cake and gluten free sandwiches. It was a good opportunity to chat to Helen, M&S’s nutritionist, and I asked her why M&S gluten free products were so expensive. She told us that gluten free products contain lots more ingredients than ‘regular products’ and some of those ingredients such as almond flour, are costly. The gluten free sandwiches had come down in price a bit apparently – so that’s good news.

Whilst I was chatting to Helen I took the opportunity to scoff two bits of M&S gluten free chocolate and cherry cake. Oooh this is a winner. And only £2.99.

We couldn’t leave without having a quick chat to our friends at Genius bread. Julie was on the stand (follow her on Twitter @geniusfoods) and we chatted about the latest addition to the Genius family: the sliced multi-seed loaf, which is available from May 16th 2011 in Tesco. Tasty, springy and substantial. Just what you’d expect from Genius.

Genius multi-seed bread

And last but not least, we have to mention the Warbutons stand which included a sushi-style conveyor belt! Great stuff.

The Allergy and Gluten Free show is at London’s Olympia until Sunday May 8th.

Did you go to the show this year? What did you think of it? Did you discover any new products? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re a regular reader of this of this blog you’ll know we’re big fans of Genius gluten free bread.

Cheese and coleslaw gluten free sandwich from Starbucks

Starbucks have been using Genius bread for a while since they started selling the classic tuna mayo earlier this year. This week they launched a new sandwich: cheese and coleslaw made with mature cheddar and red Leicester cheese with crunchy cabbage, carrot and red onion coleslaw topped with mixed leaf salad. Perfect for summer.

“We take the health and wellbeing of our customers seriously and we’re committed to offering choice, including a great quality gluten free sandwich. We’ve received really positive feedback from our customers and this product has enabled us to provide more options for our coeliac customers but also for other customers too,” said Sarah Dunne, corporate communications manager at Starbucks UK and Ireland.

Free from artificial flavours and colours, Starbucks cheese and coleslaw sandwich using Genius brown bread is available from all UK Starbucks costs £2.95 for take away or £3.45 eat in.

Have you tried Starbucks’ cheese and coleslaw sandwich yet? What do you think?

We visited the Allergy and Gluten Free Show at Olympia in London this morning. We guessed that Friday morning would be a better time to go than at the weekend but it was getting pretty busy even by the time we left.

There were lots of fantastic products on show and lots and lots of nibbles to try. And of course we had to say hi to our gluten free bread friends, Genius. How could we not after they’d invited us to a fantastic gluten free tea at Claridge’s.

The highlight for me was the product range from Look What We Found. Tasty meals, soups and sauces (I tried the Chilli Con Carne) that can be stored in the cupboard. No need to keep them in the fridge! I have bought a selection of 3 meals and 2 soups so will be doing a complete review of these at a later date.

Also great to see a stand from the guys at Estrella Damm. Their Daura gluten free beer (which tastes great even at 11am!) has won the World Beer Awards ‘World’s Best Gluten Free Beer’ for the last 2 years. And was a Freefrom Food Awards winner in 2010. We wish them luck in retaining their World Beer Awards status in a few months time!

Lastly, I have to mention 9Bar. These delicious mixed seed bars come in a variety of flavours and include hemp. Obviously rebranded from the previous Organic Hemp ’9 Bar’ and brought right up to date these seed bars really do taste great. For the ‘possible’ reasoning behind the name please refer to the definitions at the Urban Dictionary.

So all in all a fab show and I encourage you to get down there this weekend if at all possible. And expect more posts and reviews on all the products we saw. And tasted!