We’ve been back from the Allergy and Free From Show in London for a while now, and have had time to mull over the various things we learnt, new things we tasted, and food we liked enough to bring home.
Sometimes, it’s a little like coming back from holiday with some kind of local gourmet treat, and finding that it just isn’t as good out of context… In other cases, you know that you’ve found a real treat, and will go out to hunt down more.
Whereas last year, I’d say the theme was cupcakes, this year it was definitely back to basics, but with a twist: pasta (especially fresh), and wraps. My poor coeliac tried so much of both that we didn’t need to find lunch.
The pasta that we really liked came from:
- Dell’Ugo. Not so much the fresh chickpea pasta—they’d sent me some of this to try in advance, and if you’re missing wholewheat-style pasta, this is the one for you—but the fresh penne and tagliatelle. We thought these were very good, and although they are fresh, they’ll last for 35 days in the fridge, apparently. We will be buying this.
- Asda’s fresh gluten free pasta deserves a mention too; again, we’d been sent some to try in advance, and it was also good. Sadly, we don’t have an Asda near us, but if you do, you should try it. (Asda are launching 95 new gluten free lines this summer. 95! Go check them out…)
- Then I must mention Feel Free’s ravioli. We’ve been wanting a decent ravioli for ages, and here it was! This is a frozen meal, with meat and ricotta inside the ravioli, and will be available in Budgens and Londis. We bought some to bring home…
- and Celi Good’s pasta pronto range (this would be useful for camping/expeditions etc – we bought some of this too)
There were a range of different wraps/flatbreads available. It’s as though manufacturers have suddenly worked out how to do it, so they’re all giving it a try… We liked (and bought) the chapatti from Free From Authentic Foods. BFree were cooking breakfast wraps, which our coeliac enjoyed (these will be in Asda and Ocado, and are probably there now).
Other products that we liked enough to carry home from London:
- Delidivine’s sausage rolls
- Sin chocolate brownie
- Conscious dairy and gluten free raw chocolate (mint)
- Sensa Glutine pizza bases sold by Bruschetta (a gluten free restaurant in Kingston)
- ilumi’s ready meals in pouches – ideal for trips away, expeditions etc.
There were lots of new products being launched. I’ve mentioned Asda; Warburton‘s told us they would have new products out by the end of June (we’ve already found brown and seeded wraps!); Sainsbury’s will have new products on the shelves in September, including a chocolate log and gingerbread men.
So which products would we buy again?
Actually, all of the ones we brought home. We picked well!
If you didn’t get to London, do go to Liverpool (get your free tickets here). It’s well worth it. An extraordinary event, packed with great products – and, well, just packed. 21,000 visitors in London over the three days! It just shows how much people want good quality free from products.
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I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
