Vitamins and Minerals

[Lynxcat]

I have used Healspan products for years now and I have recently written to them to ask for confirmation of which of their products are gluten free. I have also asked them to consider putting the cross-grain symbol on their packaging as a confirmation that the product/s are free-from gluten and safe for people with coeliac disease.

I will let you know the response.

I think this may possibly be the way forward - for us to write and ask companies to confirm their products are safe and to place the cross-grain symbol on their products.

Has anyone else tried this pro-active approach?

[Hidden]

Hi Lynxcat, I commend anyone who is pro-active so good for you. The reason that many companies do not display the crossed grain symbol is because it is a registered trademark and they have to pay a license fee to CUK to display it.

There are many foods that are gluten free and not listed in CUK's food directory, this is for a variety of reasons. I have found that if I contact a company they will send a list of their gf products.

The other thing that I do is I contact companies and ask if they had considered doing a gf option, the replies are usually interesting and it raises awareness of the gf diet. I read in my local paper about an award winning Bristol Pie maker Pieminister and I loved the name so I emailed them and asked about a gf pie and they were aware of the gf diet but they were not happy with gf pastry and we had a couple of conversations about gf pastry. If you google Pieminister you will see why I wanted them to do a gf option.

Lastly it's by being pro-active that we the consumer can change things, so keep it up.

[Lynxcat in reply to Hidden]

Perhaps, we might sometime in the future think about creating our own GF directory - independent of Coeliac UK - may be even with our own Gluten Free symbol that small companies might choose to use if they find the other too expensive. Anything to broaded both our choices and awareness.

[Hidden]

Hya, I think that you have some great idea's. I agree about there being a need for an online food list but the biggest problem it has to be updated regularly, because ingredients change and manufacturers withdraw products.

On your Blog about a gluten free food map we talked about Chinese supermarkets and when buying food from these shops it's easier for us if we take things one step further. For example tapioca starch doesn't always have tapioca starch on the packet and it will say Bot Nang and then tempura batter underneath with a picture of prawns in batter. I realised this when I asked in a Chinese shop if they had any tapioca starch and the guys English was poor my Chinese is non existent so he gave me a a pen and a piece of paper so I wrote down tapioca starch and he shrugged his shoulders to I tried Bot Nang and he stuck up his thumb and said Wednesday.

I now know that rice flour is Bot Gao and sticky rice flour (glutenous rice flour) is Bot Nep so there's no issues regardless of language. And it's information like this that we as coeliac need to share.

I would like to see cafe's and restaurants displaying a sign in the window stating they cater for coeliac. And then before we even step inside they will know about our needs and have a gf menu.

Here's a link to the FSA about gf labelling:

food.gov.uk/safereating/all...

I like the thought of a ''Gluten free friendly'' sign

[FionaGFG Administrator]

Cheers guys. We've been mulling this over as well this weekend. We're going to have a few brainstorms in the tree house & will share ideas soon. We're sure that together we could all combine our skills and talents and make a real difference this year for coeliacs. We have so many ideas we just need to start planning the best approach and strategy for them. Here's to coeliac power.

[Lynxcat in reply to FionaGFG]

Thanks Fiona.

As a matter of interest is there a badge or a ribbon for Coeliacs as with other charities? I have not heard of one so I am very curious to know. If there isn't then this might be a further way of bringing Coeliac Disease and Gluten to top of the agenda in public minds.