Free From Food

This is one of the most common mix-ups in free-from shopping, and getting it wrong matters if you have coeliac disease. Wheat-free means a product doesn't contain wheat specifically, but it can still legally contain barley, rye or malt — all of which contain gluten. Gluten-free is a legally defined term meaning the product contains no more than 20 parts per million of gluten across all sources, not just wheat. In practice, this means a "wheat-free" cracker could still trigger a reaction in someone with coeliac disease, even though it looks like exactly what they're after on the shelf. If you have coeliac disease or a diagnosed gluten sensitivity, always look specifically for the word "gluten-free" on the label — not "wheat-free" — regardless of how similar the two claims sound. If you're avoiding wheat for a different reason (a wheat allergy or intolerance rather than coeliac disease), wheat-free products are genuinely suitable, so this distinction really only changes your shopping if gluten itself is the concern.

Vegetarian products exclude meat and fish but can still contain dairy, eggs and honey. Vegan products exclude all animal-derived ingredients entirely, including dairy, eggs, honey and gelatine — so every vegan product is automatically vegetarian-suitable, but not the other way around. If you're vegetarian, you'll have a wider pool of suitable products across both sections; if you're vegan, you'll need to check specifically for the vegan label rather than assuming a vegetarian product works for you. Confectionery is a common trip-up point here — a "vegetarian" sweet often contains gelatine substitutes but may still use dairy-based ingredients like milk chocolate coatings, whereas a genuinely vegan sweet will be dairy-free by definition too. If you're shopping for someone else's dietary requirement and you're not sure which applies, vegan is the safer default, since it satisfies both.

Both are genuinely well-regarded specialist gluten-free brands, but they take slightly different approaches worth knowing about. Schär focuses heavily on ready-to-eat gluten-free staples — bread, pasta and bakery items formulated to closely replicate the texture of their wheat-based equivalents, which suits customers who want minimal adjustment to their usual meals. Doves Farm leans more toward baking ingredients and flours, making it the stronger choice if you bake at home rather than buying ready-made gluten-free bread and pasta. If you're new to gluten-free eating and want convenience, start with Schär's ready-made range; if you enjoy baking and want more control over your ingredients, Doves Farm's flours and mixes are the better starting point. Both brands are well-established in UK gluten-free retail, so neither is a lesser or riskier choice — it genuinely comes down to whether you prefer ready-made or home-baked.

This is a genuinely common situation, and the good news is there's real crossover between our Gluten Free and Dairy Free sections rather than needing to shop two entirely separate ranges. Several brands here, including Nomo, make products that are both gluten-free and dairy-free by default (Nomo's chocolate range is a good example), which is worth checking for specifically if you're catering to both needs at once. A practical approach: start in Gluten Free for staples like bread, pasta and baking mixes, then cross-check the allergen statement on each for dairy content before adding to basket, since not every gluten-free product is automatically dairy-free too. For snacking and confectionery specifically, products labelled both gluten-free and dairy-free (or vegan, which covers dairy-free by definition) will be the most efficient way to shop for both requirements simultaneously without checking every single label from scratch.

This is a fair concern, since "free from" and "tastes and works like the original" aren't always the same thing. Specialist brands like Schär, Doves Farm and Orgran have generally invested more in taste and texture than budget free-from ranges, since it's their core focus rather than a side line — this is usually reflected in slightly higher pricing, but often a noticeably better result, particularly for bread and pasta where texture is the biggest challenge. A few practical tips: gluten-free bread often improves significantly when toasted rather than eaten fresh; gluten-free pasta benefits from slightly closer attention to cooking time than standard pasta, since overcooking affects texture more noticeably. If you've tried a free-from product before and found it underwhelming, it's worth trying a different brand rather than assuming the whole category doesn't work for you — quality varies more between brands here than in most other food categories.