IS YOUR MENU ITEM ACTUALLY GLUTEN FREE?
At first glance, when you look at the Australian restaurant and café scene, it may look as if there is a huge range of choice for gluten free diners. These days, most venues mark their menus with helpful ‘GF’ symbols and offer gluten free alternatives with many menu items. But, according to Coeliac Australia, more and more people are finding it frustrating to locate gluten free food that has not been compromised by cross contamination, such as through the use of a shared fryer or toaster.
Of course, while a wider and tastier range of gluten free foods are always welcomed by the gluten free community, diners’ safety should remain a focus when serving food to the public and this includes looking at your kitchen processes as well as its ingredients.
There are many reasons for eating a gluten free diet but cafes and restaurants should be most concerned about those on a medically required gluten free diet. Although it can be frustrating it is always safer to follow strict processes so there is no grey area when it comes to gluten free menu offerings.
Coeliac Australia has an Gluten Free Accreditation Program that is worth looking into. It consists of three main principles:
- Source – ensuring all components on the gluten free menu are gluten free.
- Segregate – ensuring that all the ingredients are free from cross contamination throughout all stages of meal preparation.
- Service – staff training and ensuring clear communication lines between diner, front and back-of-house.
Tip Top Foodservice can help you out with the ‘sourcing’ principle with our range of delicious gluten free breads. We’ve had a lot of feedback that many of the gluten free breads available on the market weren’t good enough – the slices were too small and often they fell apart in your hands. Our Abbott’s Bakery gluten free products have soft, larger slices that don’t fall apart and are perfect for sandwiches.
The loaves are soft and larger than the average gluten free bread, allowing slices that are just like ‘real’ bread. The range is also dairy free and free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.
With six months frozen shelf life, the Abbott’s Bakery Gluten Free range is available frozen through foodservice distributors and includes:
- Gluten Free Rustic White
- Gluten Free Soy & Linseed
- Gluten Free Mixed Seeds
One of the benefits of the Abbott’s Bakery range is it includes more variety than the usual white bread. This enables venues to give gluten free diners a choice of tastier and more interesting breads for their breakfasts, sandwiches and sides. Add some to your order today and feel safe in letting your gluten free customers know that they can eat with confidence from your menu.
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