Happy Halloween 2016

Ah, Halloween. The one day of the year when being a Coeliac Disease victim pays dividends. I'll never tire of 'dressing up' as Patient Zero. What a costume.

Not brown bread yet

Related blog posts:
- Halloween
- Coeliac Disease
- Gluten - my Kryptonite
- What a perfect Crazy Golf obstacle for a Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Hurrah for sensible price reductions

Spotting some gluten free bargains.

I've always had an eye for a bargain. This has been honed even more so in the eight years since I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease.

Shopping for gluten and wheat free food is a hassle at the best of times - not to mention the trouble with gluten free prescriptions - and one of my bugbears is the fact that most supermarkets reduce the price of their free from food incrementally, rather than sensibly! This means that the best you can often hope for is to pay about £1.50 for an item near its sell by / use by date, rather than £2 to £3. It's a rare thing indeed to find gluten and wheat free goodies for mere pence.

That was until I found this great haul in Morrisons this evening.

Over ten quids worth of gluten and wheat free food - for just £1.16. Lovely stuff

There were also some bagels and another loaf of artisan bread in the reduced section, but I'm not greedy so left them for some other poor Coeliac to pick up.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Link:
- Coeliac UK

Expanded free from range at Morrisons

Great to see more gluten free products in the Morrisons free from range.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting gluten and wheat free food and drink. So I was very pleased to see that Morrisons have really gone to town on their expanded range of Free From products.

Look at that, just look at that. What a sight. What a delight

Yowzers! There are plenty of pie options in the fridge at Morrisons in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire. This time I bought a very nice No-G Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie for my dinner, and a Lemon Pie for Emily to try. I had a nibble to and it was marvellous. I've also got a Morello Cherry and Chocolate Tart in the fridge. We've also tried some of the products in the Great Food range before and they are very good too. We'll have to try the Pure products in the future

There is also some new gluten and wheat free bread from Newburn Bakehouse now in stock at Morrisons, including a sourdough loaf

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Morrisons
- No-G
- Great Food
- Newburn Bakehouse

A gluten free burger in a gluten free brioche-style bun!

We're always on the lookout for new and interesting gluten free food and we made a great discovery at Waitrose in Lutterworth, Leicestershire at the weekend when we spotted the packs of brioche style buns made by Just: Gluten Free Bakery!

What a find!

For dinner tonight we cooked up some gluten free burgers from the Co-Operative and put them in the brioche buns. They were delicious.

A fine burger, topped with bacon and cheese and stuffed in a nice brioche style bun. The free from Onion Rings from Tesco were great too. Note the healthy items on the plate

Check out the links below for more info on Just: Gluten Free Bakery.

Links:
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery website
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Twitter
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Facebook

Related blog posts:

- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

The Chilli Shop in Leeds

While we were up in Leeds to watch some live PDC darts and Hal Cruttenden's stand-up tour we stumbled upon a great shop in the Merrion Shopping Centre.

We were making our way to the First Direct arena for the kick-off of the 2016 PDC Premier League of darts and spotted the Chilli Shop. And what a marvellous shop it is too.

Our haul from the Chilli Shop in Leeds. The flyers for the shop also contain a version of the Scoville scale - a 'Survival Guide' to the hottest things on the planet!

As well as 50 free tasters of the world's best chillies there was all manner of other merchandise and snacks to buy.

Two things caught my eye - the first was 'The Museum of Pain'. This exhibits the hottest chillies in the world, some of which are a mind (and mouth) blowing two million plus on the Scoville scale! As a curator of The Crazy Golf Museum it was great to see the owner of the shop, Frank Jay, has taken the time and effort to display the array of chillies, trinkets, objects and info.

The Museum of Pain - it contains the world's hottest Easter Egg!

The second thing that caught my eye was the Chilli Challenge of the 'Hunger Games' where you got to play some darts, but with the caveat that if you didn't hit the bullseye to win the star prize (a bag of the world's hottest peanuts) you had to do a forfeit.

Darts, with a difference

I stepped up and scored a dismal amount that doesn't need to be recorded here. Needless to say that Emily was brave enough and stepped up to take my forfeit of a spoonful of a Chilli and Garlic condiment. I was more fearful of trying it due to cross contamination with all the gluten knocking around from the crackers used for tasters. For once, Coeliac Disease came to my aid!

We did return to the shop the next day and tasted a few other items and picked up some nice bottles of sauce, including the condiment which has a nice kick to it. We also bought a Goan Curry Sauce that is gluten free.

The Chilli Shop is well worth a visit if you're in Leeds. Do check out the Chilli Shop website for more info and details on how to order online.

Links:
- The Chilli Shop website
- The Chilli Shop on Facebook

- The Chilli Shop on Twitter

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Gluten free at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds

Dining out at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds.

2 Oxford Place gets the double-thumbs up from me

Ever since I heard that a 100% gluten free restaurant was opening in Leeds I had been excited to visit. Luckily we got to eat there on Friday. It was certainly well worth the wait.

The kitchen at The Oxford Place is totally gluten free so I was able to dine without fear of cross-contamination. And even better, I was able to order without having to explain I have Coeliac Disease. I haven't done that for well over six months and it's certainly not a regular occurrence!

Delicious food, great drinks, excellent service, 100% gluten free - 2 Oxford Place is brilliant

We'd arrived in Leeds on Thursday but unfortunately found ourselves at 2 Oxford Place between the afternoon and evening opening times.

With my hunger built and a great looking menu I really wanted to treat myself, so when we returned on Friday we went all out, and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich to start. I then had a huge portion of haddock, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce for my main course.

One of my favourite meals. And something I don't get to eat all that often

Even though we were quite full of delicious food and drink (we opted for Prossecco, wine and cocktails - although there are gluten free beers available) we had to treat ourselves to dessert. And what a dessert it was!

Look at that Assiette!

The last time we'd had a meal out together in a 100% gluten free restaurant was at The Galley in Plymouth in June last year. On that occasion we were blown away by the dessert. And the dessert we were served at 2 Oxford Place over six months later amazed us again. The Assiette of Puddings to share at 2 Oxford Place included crème brulee, chocolate brownie, cake truffles, and mini pavlovas.

We're still eating some of the dessert after having had to take it away!

We really enjoyed the whole experience of eating at 2 Oxford Place. The food, service and venue are all brilliant and we would definitely eat there again.

Check out the The Oxford Place website for further details, menus and opening times.

Links:
- The Oxford Place website

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

Schär gluten free

There are many funny things about being a Coeliac, not least being called a 'Celery', 'Celeriac' or even a 'Solero'.

When I checked my post this morning I didn't expect to be given a new first name on a mailer from Schär Gluten Free!?

I'm used to having a wide range of spellings for my surname - but 'Richard' is normally straightforward

I know I'm good at making up Italian sounding words for foodstuffs, but 'Riamo' takes the biscuit.

Schär used to be known as DS Gluten Free and I've been buying their products since I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in 2008. At the recent Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group Food Fair I added my name to the Schar UK mailing list - my handwriting must've been terrible.

The offending mailer and some of the tasty Schar Milk Chocolate Nobbles that are currently residing in my cupboard

Find out more about Schar UK's products on their website. I'm a big fan of their Chocolate Fingers - I find it impossible to not eat a whole box at a time!

Related blog posts:
- Funny things about being a Coeliac
- Gluten free
- Coeliac
- Schar

Link:
- Schar UK website

Note:
- According to a quick search on the internet 'riamo' is a "first-person singular present indicative of 'riamare'". Riamare means 'to return the love of another' or 'to love again'.

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter. You can also now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair 2015

The Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair 2015 will be taking place on Saturday 5th September.

Dozens of gluten free food businesses and hundreds of Coeliacs will be descending on The Weatherley Centre in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire for this year's Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair on Saturday 5th September.

Poster for the Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair taking place on Saturday 5th September

The 2015 event will take place from 10am until 2pm, with a £1 admission fee (that also includes entry into a prize draw).

The group organises a number of events throughout the year, and the last large food fair was in 2013. That event had 30 exhibitors and over 600 visitors.

As well as food and drink available to sample and purchase from many of the exhibitors there will also be refreshments for sale including gluten free fish and chips, sausage and chips, and fritters together with tea, coffee and other gluten free snacks.

If the 2013 event was anything to go by there will be more than enough visitors for the exhibitors to promote to. Other Coeliac Groups in the Home Counties and London areas will be advertising the event, and it will be advertised in Coeliac UK's Crossed Grain Magazine.

I enjoyed the 2013 event and it was nice to catch up with fellow members of the group. It was also great to find out about new gluten and wheat free food and drink (including beers). Most of the exhibitors were offering samples for eager Coeliacs to try out. Although I did notice that some of the exhibitors were not giving out any samples - this always seems strange to me as I like to try before I buy. And I've certainly bought my fair share of those gluten free products from brands that weren't stingy with their samples at the fair.

The Beds and Mid Herts Coeliac UK group has over 750 members in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and parts of Essex. I've been a member since shortly after my diagnosis in 2008 and have found the information in the newsletters to be useful. Attending a newly diagnosed Coeliacs event was very helpful in the early days of living life gluten free. I've also made some great friends from being a part of the group.

For more information check out the Coeliac UK Beds and Mid Herts local group page.

The 2015 Home Counties Gluten Free Food Fair will be held at The Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8JH.

I'm always keen to find out about gluten and wheat free brands that are suitable for people with Coeliac Disease so please do get in touch if you know of any, or are a producer/supplier.

Links:
- Coeliac UK
- Coeliac UK local group page for Beds and Mid Herts

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac
- Gluten Free

A special gluten free delivery from Udi's

It was very nice to recently receive a hamper of Udi's Gluten Free goodies.

The hamper included bagel chips, cake mix, soft baked cookies, muffins and more.

The Udi's Tiger Bloomer was Highly Commended in the Bread Category of the 2015 FreeFrom Food Awards

The Tiger Bloomer is very good - I had it to hold together a tasty filling of jerk pulled chicken and slaw that Emily cooked up. Sorry there's no photo as I'd got in late from a minigolf trip and wolfed it down!

Do check out my Gluten Free Journey blog on the Udi's website.

Udi's Gluten Free have been operating in the USA since 1994 and launched in the UK in 2013. Do visit the Udi's website for further details of their range and stockists near you.

Links:
- Udi's Gluten Free UK
- Udi's Gluten Free USA
- Udi's Gluten Free blog

Related blog posts:
- Udi's
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluteen free?

While in Hastings for the British Minigolf Championships some of my friends and minigolf rivals kindly let me know that Trattoria Italiana on Pelham Crescent on the seafront had gluten free options.

When I went for a look I noticed a funny typo on the menu board!

Gluteen free!

My friend Marion spotted it too. She also asked if Gluteen was some sort of sub-category in the world of Coeliac Disease?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and so appears in a lot of food and drink. If people with Coeliac Disease ingest gluten it causes the body's immune system reacts by damaging the lining of the small intestine. For more information about Coeliac Disease visit the Coeliac UK website.

I often see Gluten spelled 'Gluton'.

Last week was Coeliac Awareness Week in the UK, while this week it's Coeliac Awareness Week in New Zealand. The whole of May is Celiac Awareness Month in the USA and Canada.

During Coeliac Awareness Week I was once again minigolfing gluten free. Last year I played in the BMGA British Minigolf Championships at Strokes Adventure Golf in Margate, Kent. Check out my blog about the experience.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Coeliac UK

Gluten Free Week at M&S

It's great to see M&S celebrating 'Gluten Free Week' in the Luton Mall branch.

M&S's Gluten Free Week is running parallel to Coeliac Awareness Week - 11th to 17th May 2015

As I purchased so much of the gluten free 'Made Without Wheat' range (the gluten free beer was on offer and a chocolate loaf was reduced) the man serving me asked "What's the occasion?", so I told him about Coeliac Disease (albeit not ALL the gory details) and Coeliac Awareness Week.

Much of this gluten free beer, and one of those cakes, is now residing in my fridge and cupboard

Check out the Coeliac UK website for more information on Coeliac Disease. For Coeliac Awareness Week 2015 Coeliac UK is running a diagnosis campaign called 'Is it Coeliac Disease?'.

I'm a big fan of M&S and the gluten free food and drink they stock - not only in the Made Without Wheat section but across many of the other lines in store. More often than not I'll find something new they are doing that is gluten free, which makes shopping a treat not a chore.

The links below have more info on other Coeliac/Celiac days, weeks, and months - there are quite a few special days in May!

Related blog posts:

- Gluten free

- Coeliac
- M&S
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Special May Days

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Link to a product list of M&S products that DO NOT contain GLUTEN
- Coeliac UK website
- Is it Coeliac Disease? online assessment from Coeliac UK
- The Mall Luton website

Gluten free from New Zealand and Australia

Emily recently returned from our antipodes and brought me back some great gluten free goodies.

Bakeworks gluten free Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ernest Adams gluten free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kez's gluten free Vienna Eclair biscuits

The gluten free biscuits were all bought from a Countdown supermarket at the Westfield Albany shopping centre in Auckland, New Zealand.

While at the Southgate Melbourne shopping mall Emily also noted that there were 24 places offering gluten free options for diners!

Searching for dining options in the Southgate Melbourne mall Emily found 24 gluten free choices

On her trip to Spain earlier this year I also got a lot of interesting gluten free snack and treats.

It's always brilliant finding (and eating) different gluten free food as the strict and lifelong gluten free diet can get a bit samey.

Links:
- Bakeworks
- Ernest Adams
- Kez's
- Coeliac New Zealand
- Coeliac Australia

Related blog posts
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Gluten Free

- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac
- Coeliac Awareness Week in Australia
- Sin Gluten

My Gluten Free Journey

Check out my gluten free journey article on the Udi's website.

Enjoying a Coeliac-friendly gluten free meal while in Ayr last summer

Udi's Gluten Free have been operating in the USA since 1994 and launched in the UK in 2013. Visit the Udi's website for further details of their range and stockists near you.

The Udi's Gluten Free Blog also has articles from other Coeliacs / Gluten Free people.

Links:
- Udi's Gluten Free UK
- Udi's Gluten Free USA

Related blog posts:
- Udi’s Gluten Free – more than just mince pies
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluten free Mike and Ike sweets

I've recently found out that some Mike and Ike sweets are gluten free. Great news as I have a really sweet tooth.

Some of the gluten free sweets from Mike and Ike

I haven't found many sweets to be gluten free, so it's brilliant to have new sweets from Mike and Ike to try.

Links:
- Mike and Ike website
- Mike and Ike on Twitter
- Mike and Ike on Facebook

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Gluten free breakfast GfMuffin

A gluten free breakfast treat.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I'm not necessarily bombarded with advertising via mass media, but I do get taunted/haunted/annoyed when I see adverts, posters, billboards etc. for food and drink that is not gluten free.

One advert in particular has caught my eye over the last few weeks. The marketing campaign by a well known fast food chain has posters for their breakfast item on the way to the platform at St Pancras station so I see it fairly often.

I haven't had a fast food breakfast muffin for many years so decided to make my own.

A gluten free sausage and egg breakfast muffin and hash brown on the side. Next time I'll be adding a slice of cheese too

Living on a strict gluten free diet isn't always easy. While the actual eating of only gluten free food is relatively easy, but finding the ingredients and products you fancy eating can be a bit more difficult. So, in addition to not being able to buy a breakfast muffin from a takeaway, I also had to shop around to find the component parts.

The breakfast muffins took a while to find. I have had the Livwell English Muffins before, but looking in my local supermarkets this time I could only find them in Sainsbury's.

We were looking around for gluten free sausages/squares/patties/sausage meat to use as a filling and while in Tesco Emily spotted the new Fair & Square 97% Pork sausage squares from Heck Food. A nice addition to their range.

For a potato-based side it had to be McCain Hash Browns. They are gluten free and a stock item in our freezer.

Links
- Heck 
- Livwell
- McCain

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free
- Coeliac

A lot of gluten free surprises at Lidl

Stocking up on some new gluten free products from Kelkin at Lidl.

A happy Coeliac shopping for gluten free food in Lidl

A recent tweet by the Gluten Free Guerrillas alerted me to some upcoming special offers at Lidl and I was hoping that my local Lidl supermarket in Leagrave, Luton would have them in stock.

I needn't have worried - there were a LOT of great products on offer!

A great range of Kelkin gluten free products in the Leagrave branch of Lidl

As someone with Coeliac Disease it's brilliant to find new and different food to add to my strict gluten free diet, so thank you to the team at Lidl and Kelkin for stocking so many interesting products. Apart from the Porridge Oats and Muesli (as I'm a Coeliac that cannot tolerate oats for medical reasons) and Rice Cakes (I'm someone who can't tolerate them for taste reasons) we bought at least one of each of the products on offer.

What a haul of gluten free food

I've been really looking forward to trying the Kelkin Chocolate Teacakes, I hadn't bought them in other supermarkets as the price has been too prohibitive, but £1.99 is a much more reasonable price. They were worth waiting for.

The whole range of gluten free products on sale in Lidl were reasonably priced and more akin to what people without special dietary requirements pay for their food and treats. Hopefully Lidl will continue to stock gluten free products and/or arrange future #LidlSurprises for Coeliacs.

Our shopping bags contained the following Kelkin Free From products:
- Lightly sea salted Organic Corn Cakes
- Hazelnut & Chocolate flavoured Rice Cake Bars
- Jaffa cakes - a product I've seen before and scoffed many many times
- Belgian milk chocolate fingers
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Penne pasta, lasagne, spaghetti and a tomato & basil pasta sauce
- Corn flakes
- Chocolate flavoured Teacakes

We also picked up the Organic Buckwheat flakes but on reading the label again at home we noticed that it has Oat Flakes in, so I won't be eating that. It just goes to show how very very careful you have to be when buying food - I always double check, but as the Buckwheat flakes were on the end of the aisle away from the main range of products we grabbed it as we headed to the till.

A Lidl update 25 February 2015:
Fellow gluten free blogger Gluten-free Issi recently tweeted that the gluten free specials in her local Lidl had been reduced and were now even greater value. So yesterday evening we headed to our local branch in Leagrave, Luton to see what we could get.

The pasta and lasagna were also reduced, but we've got plenty of those in the cupboard. Unfortunately the tomato & basil pasta sauce was out of stock. We've got a couple left and have found the sauce is great as a pizza topping too 

Check out the websites and social media links below for more information about gluten free, Coeliac Disease, Lidl and Kelkin.

Related blog posts:
- Coeliac
- Gluten Free

Links:
- Lidl
- Kelkin
- Lidl on Twitter
- Lidl on Facebook
- #LidlSurprises
- #Lidlers
- Kelkin on Twitter
- Kelkin on Facebook
- Gluten Free Guerrillas
- Coeliac Disease at Coeliac UK

Nacho nacho man

Five new gluten free tortilla chip flavours available at Marks & Spencer.

There are Jalapeno, Fire Roasted Chilli and Nacho Cheese flavour Tortillas, as well as the Lime Salsa Chickpea & Cumin Tortilla Scoops.

After a great early-Christmas meal at the nearby Brasserie Blanc in St Albans our group of Coeliacs headed to M&S as three of the party don't live near a store and were desperate to get some of the gluten & wheat free Scotch Eggs. I was very pleased to see the new range of gluten free Tortilla chips in stock - as were some other shoppers as they were flying off the shelves!

I've had the lime salsa scoops before and they were very tasty. But nacho cheese tortilla chips are a flavour I've missed over the years as you can't always find gluten free packs available.

There is also a lightly salted flavour in the range. I didn't bother getting a packet of those as I've never been a big fan of less-flavoured tortillas.

In the St Albans M&S you can find the gluten free tortillas in amongst the other 'normal' crisps and snacks, whereas in the Ipswich branch the lime salsa tortillas are in the Made Without Wheat section.

Well, that's my week's budget for Nacho Chips blown in one go

While on a lunchbreak last week I popped along to the M&S in Angel, London and was pleased to see two new products in the Made Without Wheat range - a Quiche Lorraine and a Cheese & Onion Quiche.

Hopefully the Luton branch begins stocking more gluten free products (Made Without Wheat Scotch Eggs hint hint).

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Coeliac UK website

Related blog posts:
- New gluten free products at Marks & Spencer
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Gluten Free blog posts on The Ham & Egger Files
- Gluten Free Finds in London (and beyond) - October 2010

Gluten free chicken and beer

Chicken and beer - a great combination.

Emily's a great cook and makes some delicious gluten free treats - both sweet and savoury. We've blogged about some of them here on The Ham & Egger Files and also posted photos and details on her Twitter feed.

The latest creation Emily has perfected is oven baked cornflake chicken (think kind of southern fried, but healthier if you will).

Southern-style baked chicken coated with crushed Nestle Gluten Free Corn Flakes, served with paprika potato wedges, BBQ beans and an avocado. Washed down with a chilled Estrella Damm Daura gluten free beer. Delicious food, gluten free or otherwise

Since my diagnosis with Coeliac Disease in 2008 I've tried a fair few of the gluten free beers available and Estrella Damm Daura is one of my favourites.

While recently shopping for a gluten free Chocolate Yule Log in Tesco's Free From section I noticed that Estrella Damm Daura were included in a 3 for 2 offer and so twelve bottles of the great gluten free beer were £12 - a great buy for a savvy coeliac like me.

Links:
- Estrella Damm Daura website
- Estrella Damm Daura gluten free beer on Twitter
- Tesco Free From website
- Nestlé Cereals website

Related blog posts:
- Gluten free Ale, Beer and Lager
- New Nestlé Gluten Free Corn Flakes and Honey Corn Flakes

- Coeliac

- Gluten Free

New gluten free products at Marks & Spencer

More new gluten free products in the M&S 'Made Without Wheat' range.

While shopping in Ipswich and Felixstowe we noticed that Marks and Spencer has introduced some new products to the Made Without Wheat range of gluten free items.

We're looking forward to trying them all out!

M&S sell gluten free Pork Cocktail Sausages that are very tasty. They've now introduced them in packs of ten, rather than the large tubs of 30 (and more)

Chicken Chunks and Chicken Breast Fillets are now part of the Made Without Wheat Range at Marks and Spencer

There are now Salmon Fillet Fishcakes and Cod Fillet Fishcakes in the Made Without Wheat Range at M&S

A lot of the Party Food at M&S is marked as gluten free too - as fans of Pork Cracklings and Scratchings we really liked the look and sound of the Crunchy Crackling Straws!

Check out the M&S website for details of the Made Without Wheat range and the other Gluten Free items they offer.

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Coeliac UK website

Related blog posts:
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Gluten Free blog posts on The Ham & Egger Files
- Gluten Free Finds in London (and beyond) - October 2010

Funny things about being a Coeliac #10 - Play-Doh is NOT gluten free

It's not just food that contains gluten - toys do too!

As today - 16 September - is National Play-Doh Day it's worth noting that Play-Doh is not gluten free as it contains dreaded Wheat!

The mind boggles!

Obviously Play-Doh is NOT a food product and is NOT meant to be eaten, but there are cross-contamination risks if Coeliacs touch/use/play with Play-Doh.

A big barrel of Play-Doh. This was as close as I dared get to it

Hasbro, the manufacturers of Play-Doh in the UK, have helpfully put together a warning on the product packaging and also on the Ingredients section of the Play-Doh FAQ & Tips website. Although rather than mentioning the autoimmune reaction - or gluten intolerance - it say that an 'allergic' reaction may occur with use of the product.

The Coeliac UK website has some further information on play dough products and even has a recipe for making your own Gluten-free play dough.

Related blog posts:

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #1 - The labels you get on gluten free prescriptions

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #2 - I live in Luton, but I can't eat Gluten

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #3 - Howard the Celeriac comic strips

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #4 - The look of horror in the faces of waiting staff when you use the word 'disease'

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #5 - Menu fails

- Funny things about being a Coeliac #6 - The different things you get called!
- Funny things about being a Coeliac #7 - Disappearing flight attendants!
- Funny things about being a Coeliac #8 - Being scared of bread!
- Funny things about being a Coeliac #9 - Menu disclaimers

- Coeliac-related blog posts

- Gluten Free-related blog posts