FAQ's
Q: What ingredients do you use in your breads?
A: Our breads contain: rice, tapioca, potato, xanthum gum, guar gum, eggs and linseed. All breads are dairy free except for the cheese bread.
Q. Why go Gluten free?
A. We talk to so many people in our store every day who are gluten free for many different reasons. Some have Coeliacs disease, some are Gluten intolerant and a large number of people choose not to involve gluten in thier diet as it simply makes them feel better.
Q. What is Gluten?
A. Gluten is a protein composite found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. It is what gives baking it's fluffy texture, and aids in the rising of dough. These qualities are why it can be found in a wide range of foods.
It is also extracted from grains and used as a pure 'gluten, which is commonly used in vegetarian imitation meats. About 1 in 10 people have an intollerance to gluten, and 1 in 100 people are Coeliac, or have a gluten allergy.
Q. There is so much confusion in the media out there - Is going gluten free bad for me?
A. There are a number of arguments out there and people make alot of claims about removing gluten being bad for you with no evidence to support this. The reality is that a healthy diet is made up of a balance of various foods, and if removing gluten from your diet is so terrible than we should all be rather concerned for most of Asia.
What you choose to eat is your choice and no one elses, and you are the only one who will suffer the consequences if it is not right. So follow how you feel, eat what makes you feel healthy, happy and at your best and if that involves limiting or removing gluten than we would love to help.
Q. My child has multiple allergies. Can you make a cake for them?
A. Most of the time, yes! Email or phone us so we can talk through the options. All of our gluten free cakes are also nut free as we don't use nuts in our kitchen either. Many of our cakes are also dairy free, and we can do a small selection of cakes both gluten, dairy, nut and egg free.
We only make cakes for order and need three days notice for cake orders to ensure our kitchen has time to make them, as it gets very busy at times.
Q. Do oats really have gluten in them? What are 'wheat free' oats?
A. Oats naturally contain a very small amount of gluten. Oats are usually processed with wheat, which adds to the amount of gluten found in most commercial porridge or oats. 'Wheat free' oats are oats that are not processed with wheat, so while wheat free, they are not gluten free. Many people with a gluten intolerance can tolerate oats as the type of gluten they contain is slightly different than the gluten in other grains. However, the NZ Coeliac Society recommends that it is not safe for those with Coeliacs to eat oats. Because we are a Coeliac friendly store, we do not stock any products with oats in them. Click this link to read more about the gluten in oats.
Q. Why is Gluten free Food so expensive?
A. Unfortunately, this is partly a result of being in a small market (NZ is a tiny, isolated island), and partly to do with ingredient prices. Suppliers usually have to make their products in smaller quantities and often cannot bulk buy ingredients like their counterparts in regular mass-production based companies. To ensure the ingredients are gluten free, they often cannot buy cheaper versions of gluten free products because of the risk of cross contamination.
For the distributors, (like us) the turnover is smaller as a much smaller percentage of the population require our products. Because of this, higher mark-ups than at regular grocery stores are needed to cover overheads.
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Please send us your questions so we can answer them!
mitch@glutenfreegrocer.co.nz