Tasting 205 Allergen-Free Foods For Food Allergy And Intolerance Week! UK

Main Category: Allergy
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 20 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Foods Matter, the UK's only magazine for those with food allergies and intolerances, is launching the first of its 'tastings supplements' for Food Allergy and Intolerance week. With comprehensive details and comments on over 200 allergen-free foods, the supplement forms part of the on-going assessments of free-from foods in the build up to the Foods Matter FreeFrom Food Awards 2009.

Every month Foods Matter runs tastings of different groups of free-from products - the February supplement includes breads and bread mixes, cereal bars, savoury snacks, pies and tarts, sausages, sauces, cheeses and puddings and desserts.

The tables list the products, their manufacturers, what they are free of, what they actually contain, what the tasters think of them, what they cost and where they are available. They also 'traffic-light' E numbers in the ingredients lists to make it easier for readers to identify additives that they might wish to avoid for themselves or their families.

Taster-judges include members of the in-house team, food professionals, people with dairy, gluten, egg, sugar etc intolerances. They also include people with no dietary restrictions at all who can benchmark the products against 'normal' products eaten by 'normal' people.

The tastings are done 'blind' (the tasters do not know what products they are tasting). As part of the benchmarking process, a non-free-from version of the product is often included.

Tasters are asked to comment on each product and mark it out of ten, bearing in mind the texture, taste, aroma and look of the product. They are not told the price of the product although this may be taken into account when the final comments are drawn up.

The 2009 Foods Matter FreeFrom Food Awards are sponsored by Livwell - see http://www.livwell.eu. Livwell are part of the Finsbury Food Group and are the largest supplier to the UK free-from retail market. The awards will be presented during Allergy Week in May at Antony Worrall Thompson's Notting Grill.

For more information on the awards please check http://www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk

Foods Matter