Monthly Archives: May 2009

Tesco asks for ideas from coeliacs

tescoAbsolutely astonished this morning to see that one of Tesco’s buyers has posted on the gluten free messageboard, asking what the gluten free community would like to see in store.

I’ve posted before about Sainsbury’s target in their CSR strategy of being the number one choice for customers with allergies or intolerances … at the moment, Sainsbury are my number one choice of supermarket for gluten free products, because of their wider range. Sainsbury is one of Tesco’s major competitors, so I’m delighted to see Tesco taking an interest too. And in all this talk about social media, it is great to see that such a big company has decided to take action and discuss matters with a niche group of consumers. Good for Tesco!

They’re particularly interested in creating a frozen range at the moment: I’d like to see some options that are both vegetarian and gluten free. So often the veggie options are padded out with breadcrumbs… How about a vegetarian, gluten free lasagne, for those too-weary-to-cook days?

For myself, I’d like to see a decent ready-made gluten free pastry available. And if they could come up with more breakfast ideas, that would be fantastic (we’re still struggling with breakfast here) – a really good gluten free croissant or pain au chocolat would be great. And what about stocking frozen gluten free pizza and gluten free icecream cones as well? My local store doesn’t have either of those, though the competition does…

And at the moment, Tesco (and the other supermarkets) stock some items in the Free From range that are readily available, cheaper, and suitable for coeliacs in the normal section. This takes up […]

By |May 28th, 2009|Alerts, Living Gluten Free|3 Comments
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Bob the Builder: Yes, we’re gluten free

Does your gluten free child love Bob the Builder?

bob-the-builder-gf-pastaI remember when Bob and his gang were significant in our lives, and I so wish that this product had been around then. A decade ago I would have been thrilled to find some gluten free products designed for, and packaged for, children. And it is still a huge gap in the market …

I was still pretty excited this morning. Amazing how finding something new like this can make me feel quite teary in the supermarket. New to me, that is – I think it’s been around for a while.

It’s made by FunFoods4All, and as far as I can tell, is the only gluten free product they make. We found it in a big Tesco, but it’s also available online (at Gluten Free Foods Direct, for example).

And it’s actually a good product too. It’s a corn and rice based pasta, with no additives or preservatives. We bought some (yes, of course we did!) and she had some tonight. There are a variety of shapes (Scoop, Muck and Dizzy, and Roley too, Lofty and Wendy join the crew), and they hold together remarkably well when cooked – and expand a lot!

Altogether now:

“Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!”

By |May 12th, 2009|Gluten Free Child, Gluten Free Finds, Living Gluten Free|0 Comments
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You do know its Coeliac Awareness Week, don’t you?

Free For Tea?Free for tea?

That’s the branding for this year’s awareness week, organised by Coeliac UK.

One of the best elements of this year’s arrangements is the focus on being able to go out for the day and have a cup of tea and a cake with a friend. The National Trust and National Trust for Scotland are supporting the campaign, so you could go for a day out, explore some of the beautiful gardens, historic buildings or natural landscapes of Britain and have a gluten free cake or biscuit to celebrate.

This is one of the things that we struggle with – we go out as a family for an explore, fancy a drink and a snack, and find that while everyone else can have a delicious cake, our coeliac daughter either has nothing, something we brought with us, or yet another packet of crisps. Very far from ideal. So hurrah for CUK and the National Trust.

Check if there’s a National Trust property involved near you.

And if you’ve got questions for Coeliac UK, you’ll find them at many of our most beautiful places this week.

Coeliac UK are hosting tea-parties in the Westminster Houses of Parliament, and in the Scottish Parliament this week, and there are many other activities and offers available. Visit the Coeliac UK site to learn more. (Scroll down to see all the offers available).

So – line up in twos by the front door, and let’s go out for tea and cake …

By |May 11th, 2009|Campaigns, Eating Out Gluten Free, Living Gluten Free|0 Comments
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Genius!

Have you tried the new Genius bread available here in the UK yet?

genius breadIt’s been available for a couple of weeks now, but you do have to be lucky enough to have a Tesco near you that stocks it.

My daughter is really enjoying it (so much so that we had to make another supermarket dash this morning). It is really very like ‘normal’ bread, and the brown has a nice malty taste. It is also not crumbly, and makes a good sandwich.

Disadvantages: it is expensive, no doubt about that. It is currently £1.99 during the introductory period, and will be going up to £2.49 in a month.

Also, the brown loaf we had last week had an uncooked section but, as we all know, that sometimes happens to ‘normal’ bread too.

I have asked Genius whether they were hoping to get it on the prescribables list, but haven’t had an answer yet. If I get one, I’ll let you know.

Tesco are currently the only place that have it – I do hope that changes! – and they seem to have a stocking problem. After finding the first (brown) loaf, I went back to buy more, only to find that all five loaves on the shelf were out-dated. I took one to customer services, to ask when more would be arriving, only to find that because there were still five on the shelf, the computer thought they were still in stock, so hadn’t ordered any more – and because the ones on the shelf were past their sell-by, Tesco wouldn’t sell one to me … Husband thought I should have asked them to give it to me instead […]

By |May 9th, 2009|Gluten Free Finds, Living Gluten Free|25 Comments
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