Gluten free and Free From at IFE

The International Food Exhibition (IFE) is a two-yearly trade show held at Excel in March of every odd year, and is usually a good showcase for both free from food, and vegan and vegetarian food, in which I also have a keen professional and personal interest. Here are some of the highlights from 2015's show.

New gluten free, no nuts and no dairy bars from Oh My Goodness were launched at the show. Four contain gluten-free oats and are essentially flapjacks: the Buttery Oat Bar and Fruity Oat Bar were both good, but the Merry Berry was not so much to my taste. There’s also an Appletastic flavour, as well as a Chocolate Brownie bar, which wasn’t bad, as far as non-fresh brownies go.

It’s great that these are labelled ‘no nut’ and don’t carry any peanut or nut warning, but there are some minor labelling issues (‘oats’ not in bold; ‘for allergens, including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in bold’), which I hope get resolved. Always good to have more snack bar options.

See the Oh My Goodness site for more info.

I’d tried and very much enjoyed some Consenza products before - among them the Teff and Raisin Crackers, from Whole Foods Market, possibly - but hadn’t realised their range was as extensive as it is. They do flours, crispbreads, ready meals, cereals, cakes, fish fingers, ice cream cones, snack bars, pancake mixes, and much more.

 It's a brand that looks as if it should do well, with appealing packaging, and some strong savoury options, which are much needed. I can no longer find any products at WFM online, but you can get a selection of them on Amazon (including some of the excellent crackers, such as the Cheese and Pumpkin) and Ocado stock some too.

For more information, see the Consenza site here.

Ape Snacks are dried coconut curls which come in ‘lightly salted’ and ‘slightly peppered’ varieties - peppering coconut struck me as unusual, but it worked, although the coconut curls were quite small - possibly due to breaking up during transportation. Gluten and dairy free - and (buzzword alert) paleo too.

See Ape Snacks' site here.

I really liked the look of these soy bean and black bean pastas from … Sweden, believe it or not. Not yet available in the UK, though. By A la Eco.

The A La Eco site is here.

Currently looking for wider distribution were Simply 7 quinoa, lentil and hummus chips, all gluten free. These were delicious and are available in a number of flavours, including Cheddar, sour cream, jalapeno, bruschetta, tomato basil and many others.

Some are vegan, but some contain dairy. I found several on Amazon, but only in bulk, and they don’t appear to be easily available elsewhere yet.

More information on the Dolfin UK site here.

Kintaro's new Nut Clusters (above) were also pretty good. They come in Black Sesame and Cashew nut, Hot and Spicy, and Almond flavours, and are vegan, gluten free and dairy free. They should be coming to Holland and Barrett, if I remember correctly, quite soon, but are presently available via their own site.

See I Love Bite's page on the Nut Clusters here.


Chris Ridge of RGF Foods, who I met at the show, told me he’d spent well over a year developing his range of products for food service - and quite a range it is too, including sweet treats, ready meals (including gluten free spaghetti bolognaise), soups, snacks - and a GF beer (left).

It was clearly important to him that he could provide an across-the-board range of products. At the time of writing, the website and social media accounts are just holding pages, but as they were just launching at the show, this could be a range to watch.

The RGF Foods site is here.

This Gluten Free Pantry trio, on the Olives et al stand, looked good, but I’ve not been able to find them online. I was told they were newly launching. Crumble Topping, Sweet Pastry Mix, and Savoury Pastry Mix, in handy pouches.

Link to Olives et Al is here.

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