Tag Archives: coeliac uk

Domino’s Gluten Free Pizza Review

19 Nov

Well after a delay to the previously stated 5th November launch, the 19th came and it was time to try the Domino’s gluten free pizza base.  Back in my gluten eating days pre-coeliac I was always a Domino’s man when it came to pizza, so I’ve been really looking forward to this one.  Of course the first concern for coeliacs is the cross contamination risk, and it is great that Domino’s have put so much information online with regards their cross contamination controls.  You can read full details here.  They have been working for years with Coeliac UK on this, and from reading the controls that are in place it seems like they are doing everything right.

In the interests of full disclosure I must mention that Domino’s contacted me last week and sent me the press release for their gluten free launch.  They also sent me a voucher to try a gluten free pizza for free, though I was planning on buying one anyway.  The gluten free bases are available to order in-store, online and over the phone.  Their mobile app is still in the process of being updated.  I decided to phone in my order so I could quiz the branch with regards cross contamination.  I had already read the on-line information and the person I spoke to was able to rattle off all of those things when I spoke to them, a good start.  If you look at the menu on the website all items containing gluten are clearly marked with a “G”.

Firstly the downside.  The gluten free base is only available to order as a small 9.5 inch base.  This was actually enough for me, but it would have been nice to have the choice of a medium at least.  However as the bases are coming in sealed packs I can appreciate storage could be an issue if they were larger.  Secondly, only two of the sides were gluten free.  Spicy pork bites and coleslaw.  My branch didn’t serve coleslaw and even though it did have the spicy pork bites these were not listed on the website (UPDATE: Domino’s have contacted me this morning to say they’ve rectified this) .  I did order the pork bites to try and wasn’t particularly impressed, and wouldn’t order them again.  It would be good if Domino’s could work on the sides, at least ensuring all branches stock these two items.  Maybe something like potato wedges which are also on the menu could be re-worked to be gluten free.

Now for the upside, the pizza was amazing!  I absolutely loved the base.  It was light and tasty and a perfect vessel for the topping.  As with Pizza Hut, those who like a thin and crispy base may be disappointed.  I thought it was perfect and was a lot like the Domino’s base I remember from the dim and distant past.  I went for the Texas BBQ pizza, and what a great choice I made.  Tangy BBQ sauce topped with smoky bacon, succulent roast chicken, onions and green peppers.  Having a BBQ sauce rather than a tomato sauce base worked exceptionally well and I loved every mouth full.  After my previous poor topping choice at Prezzo this was a great result.  As for the price £12.99 for a small pizza is a lot of money, but there are always offers around for money off or buy one get one free, and we only ever really used to get takeaway pizza when there were offers on pre-diagnosis.

I’d also recently been sent a sample of a gluten free Lager from Celia, a gluten free Czech lager just launching in the UK.  I took the opportunity to wash the pizza down with an ice cold lager, which was also delicious.  I have to say sitting on my sofa, watching TV with a cold lager in one hand and a slice of takeaway pizza in the other I felt almost normal.  Thank you Domino’s and Celia for that!

So the big question is, where does Domino’s rank in the pizza stakes?  If you’ve already read my Pizza Hut and Prezzo reviews you’ll know I had Pizza Hut ahead.  Well now there is a new leader, for me Domino’s have come out on top.  Really enjoyed the pizza and will definitely be buying again, and being the only one that deliver is a big plus point too.  My branch asked if they could call me for feedback which they duly did.  They were kind enough to offer me two for one or a free side on my next order, to say thanks too.  A great experience over all.  I have however heard from one person elsewhere in the country who had a gluten base mistakenly delivered, so as always be vigilant when ordering.  I am happy to report that three hours on I have had no reaction (UPDATE: Still feeling fine next day so all good).

Which pizza do you prefer in the great gluten free pizza debate?  Please comment below and let me know.

UPDATE 02/02/13: According to the Coeliac UK eXG February email Domino’s have put in place some extra precautions to ensure to ensure the safety of gluten free customers:

– GF pizza’s will no longer be sliced to make them easily identifiable (also cuts out risk from a contaminated cutter)
– Different sized screens to be used to cook gluten free pizzas to make them more easily identifiable in the ovens
– Gluten free notification will appear on confirmation emails and at point of ordering on-line
– A link to the gluten free pizza’s will be visible from the on-line ordering homepage

 

These changes will be enforced by mid-February, and the pizza I ordered today arrived un-sliced.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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A Gluten Free Grumble, Terry’s Chocolate Orange

6 Nov

Well it may be because I’ve had a terrible few days, or it may be because I’ve been fobbed off one time too many, but I think it’s time for my first Gluten Free by the Sea moan.  I always try to keep a positive spin on blog posts on here, so forgive me for having this grumble.  With Christmas looming on the horizon, it’s that time of year when coeliacs and those with wheat or gluten intolerance start to think about those goodies we can, or indeed can’t, have over the festive period.

I was recently chatting to Sarah Carter of the Wuthering Bites blog about how one of my all time favourites, the Terry’s Chocolate Orange, is out of bounds as it “may contain wheat”.  These beauties will soon be stacked high in the supermarkets, and I will look forlornly at them as I pass them by.  No doubt I will tease myself and even read the label, just in case they’ve made them gluten free.  So I decided I would email Terry’s to see if any of their products are safe, or if they are looking into making them safe.  It seems Terry’s don’t even have a website (really?!), but all roads led back to Kraft Foods.  I filled in a contact form, stating my issue and asking for a contact at Terry’s.  This was the reply:

Dear Kevin Gollop

Kind regards,

Blank email, not the best of starts so I replied informing them of this.  The second reply was not much better:

Thank you for contacting us. The recipe for Terry’s Chocolate Orange does not contain wheat. There is however a small risk of contamination as wheat is an ingredient used in other products made in the location. Please refer to the packaging to confirm. I hope this fully answers your question.

OK, so if they’re not going to pass me on to someone at Terry’s as I requested then I’m going to fire some questions back at them:

Thank you for your reply.  As I am a sufferer of coeliac disease I can assure you that I am avid reader of labels.
May I please ask some follow up questions:
1. Does the wheat cross contamination risk extend to all Terry’s Chocolate Orange varieties including bars and segments etc?  If not, which ones are OK?
2. What can the gluten free community do to encourage Kraft to make the Chocolate Orange range safe for people with gluten and wheat intolerance?  Many more companies are now providing gluten free options, such as Prezzo: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/27/09/2012/345503/Prezzo-launches-gluten-free-pizza.htm You will notice from that article that there are up to 9 million people who are gluten sensitive in the UK.  That seems like a huge chunk of potential sales that you are missing out on. 
3. Are Kraft actively doing anything to address this issue?
It took me five days to get my email through as the main UK Customer Services mailbox was evidently full and needed some housekeeping.  I thought my follow up questions were worth asking so I persisted.  You will notice in question 2 I point out how much money they are potentially missing out on, by this point I’d obviously realised that customer care was not high on the agenda so took a different angle of attack.  So today I got another response:
Thank you for your email. Any product that is at risk of containing wheat will be labelled accordingly. Please read the label before any purchase as products may change, however up to date packaging will inform you of those changes. Though Terry’s may be considering a change to further accommodate gluten intolerant or sensitive consumers, we currently have no information available for distribution. However your comments and suggestions have been passed on to the manufacturer.
Call me cynical, but I have the feeling my comments may have been consigned to the bin.  I am not expecting them to drop everything and make their products gluten free on the back of my correspondence, and I have no issue with them telling me to read the label to caveat some useful information.  But come on give me something here.  “Customer care”, I’m not sure that’s what I’d describe it as.  I’ve had a similar experience with Cadbury’s recently after emailing them to find out the situation with Wispa’s (it was noticed the “main contain wheat” warning had been dropped from some packets.  Again a similar response:
Like a number of other food companies we have chosen to separately list all the allergens which may appear in the product in one clearly identifiable yellow box on the back of the wrapper. This is where you will look if you suffer from a specific allergy, such as nuts, wheat, milk, soya or any of the many ingredients which can cause a reaction.  As the web site is updated on a regular basis, the yellow box on our packaging is the most definitive allergen status of our products.  The Anaphylaxis Campaign are in favour of our labelling and consider it Best Practice.
Again all well and good but completely ignoring the question.  They did not have the decency to even reply to my follow up questions, though I do give Cadbury’s credit for their clear allergy labelling if not their controls over wheat in their factories.  I also contacted Mars a few months back as I had eaten a few Snickers and had heard they were made on lines handling gluten.  I merely received the standard wording from their website in reply:

Our policy on allergen labelling is to be clear, within the ingredients list, where a product contains allergenic ingredients as part of the recipe or in trace amounts.  Please visit our nutritional website which provides a full list of ingredients for our products. The information is updated regularly and is for guidance only. For definitive advice, we always recommend that you read the label.  If you have any concerns regarding allergens or intolerances please do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Care team.

Brilliant that they do not provide a link to their nutritional website in this statement, and when I found it the same text is carried and the Customer Care Team were unable to tell me more.  It seems Mars do not even use the “may contain” warnings even when there is a possibility of cross contamination, and none of their products are listed in the Coeliac UK directory.  I now avoid all Mars products completely.  At least with Cadbury’s you can find some things that are safe.

I am just getting a bit sick of big companies just fobbing me off when I make enquiries over their products.  As a coeliac I spend my life reading labels, and if I email it’s because I have a genuine enquiry that the label is not telling me.  These companies really should know what’s in their food and make the information clearly and easily available via the internet.  In this day and age it is surely not too much to ask.  I should give credit to Tetley and Seabrook’s who have at least given me good customer service when I have contacted them.  I can only suggest as many of you as possible contact companies to show them there is a demand for safe gluten free food.  I would also love to hear about your good and bad customer service experiences, please comment below if you have any.

OK so even after a rant I have to try and end with something positive, so hear are a couple of gluten free orange chocolate suggestions thank to Emma Hutchinson (though sadly not orange shapped!):

Organic Orange Chocolate from Plamil
Essential Orange Chocolate from Concious
Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Gluten Free Plymouth News in Brief 30/09/12

30 Sep

Prezzo introduce GF pizza

One thing that coeliacs and people on a gluten free diet always seem to crave is a good old pizza.  I was happy to read this week that the Prezzo chain now have gluten free pizza available in all of their UK restaurants.  I was even happier to discover that tucked away in Royal William Yard we actually have a Prezzo in Plymouth.  I see that Coeliac UK have commented on the story linked above, so hopefully Prezzo have done their homework with regards cross contamination issues.  Has anybody tried the Prezzo GF pizza yet?  Please comment below with your verdict if you have.

Le Bistrot Pierre to open

There is also news of another bistro opening at Royal William Yard in the form of Le Bistrot Pierre.  The restaurant will offer French dishes, and more importantly seem to take gluten free extremely seriously.  There is an impressive gluten free page on their website, and the food sounds delicious with a good range of gluten free choices.  I’m looking forward to trying this one when it opens in Februrary 2013.  Again good to see they have been working closely with Coeliac UK.  Royal William Yard is fast becoming a gluten free hot spot.  Le Bistrot Pierre will join the River Cottage Canteen and the soon to open Las Iguanas as offering great gluten free options at RWY.  Combined with the Prezzo news above I think I’d quite like to move there!

La Tasca closes

Not all good news on the Plymouth gluten free eating out front unfortunately.  News recently that La Tasca has now closed with the loss of thirteen jobs.  Offering Spanish Tapas with clearly marked gluten free options on the menu and even gluten free beer, this was on my to do list but I never made it to try.  There are many other branches throughout the country though, and it’s always good to be aware of gluten free friendly chains when eating away in strange places.

Plymouth Greengrocer adds more lines

Julie and Mark at Plymouth Greengrocer are continuing their amazing work supporting the gluten free community in Plymouth.  They seem to be adding more gluten free products weekly now and if you are living gluten free in Plymouth I highly recommend you pay them a visit.  Recently announced new products from the Foodamentalists are now in store, and the shelves are now brimming with the coeliac community’s favourite Pom Bear crisps.  This week has seen the addition of delicious GF cupcakes from a Piece of Cake Bakery, products from the Warburtons gluten free range and gluten free sausages and sausage meet from the local Paul Bray & Son Butchers.  Also recently added are gluten free brownies from Peck & Strong, and I am pleased to hear that hot chocolate stirrers from my friends at Sweet Devotion are soon to arrive on the shelves.  A fantastic range of gluten free products now available so make sure you stop by and take the chance to support many local businesses.

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