Shopping for a gluten free diet

*debbie*

My gluten & lactose intolerant friend has found thai food about the only takeaway that she can eat most of...just avoiding the obvious ones such as cooked in batter seems to be OK as they cook with coconut milk rather than cream.

kaaloo

In addition to what has been already said, one way to save money when shopping at the big supermarkets is to completely avoid the designated "free from/alergy free/gluten free etc" range and look for every day products which happen to be gluten free.

The designated range will always cost 3 times the price but there are still lots of things you can eat which are gluten free and clearly marked but sold as everyday products.

An example of this is Sainsburys. They sell own brand Crunchy nut cornflakes and other cereals clearly marked suitable for coeliacs. These sell for around 99p. If you buy a similar product 3 aisles away, you will pay £3! A lot of supermarkets are getting better at labeling. Iceland are very good - they willl clearly write CONTAINS GLUTEN on products and Ive been told by them that if it doesnt say this on the packet then it wont have gluten in it (own brands only).

If you need any more help, just shout because gluten free can be a minefield and takes time to master!

kaaloo

shug119 wrote: »

Aldi are pretty good for gluton free, ice cream, choc, biscuits ext.

Shug

What biscuits are gluten free in Aldi? Iven never shopped there but would really like to give them a go!

MadMac_2

Quite agree about keeping an eye out for 'ordinary' products - I've noticed many more ready meals in my local Tesco are now suitable as they swap over to using cornflour and the like. At least ready meals at Tesco are cheap compared to most other places!

You can now easily get gluten free soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and brown sauce in most supermarkets - and they are priced so much cheaper than obtaining from the health food store!

I've still got my old Coeliac Society supermarket foods book (the 2006 version) if anybody wants it? It lists 'safe' foods by type per supermarket and is usually a good gauge of which ones to head for!

jenny_f

Bit off topic as not really money saving but M&S have cakes (fruit, choc and cherry and chocolate orange). They also have crispbakes that are gluten free (think they are chicken and mushroom). Also, in the gastopub range the salmon fishcakes are gluten free.

The store will do a print out of everythin in the shop that's gluten free - very handy especially as it has the bar code number on so you can be 100% sure its the right product.

HTH

juliet_f

M+S also do premium pork sausages which are gluten free. They are delicious!

jenny_f

They are now starting to Mark gluten free on the front of the packet, makes things a lot easier, it's on the salads at the moment but is spreading to other things too

jenny_f

shug119 wrote: »

Aldi are pretty good for gluton free, ice cream, choc, biscuits ext.

any more info on the biscuits, are they just in the normal biscuit section? What are they called?

cheers in advance