Drumsticks!

Barratt's shrimps are gluten free!

So I don’t know about you but personally I’m a huge fan of sweets (or candy if any Americans are reading this!). Since I was kid I could easily have gone without crisps and chocolate if it meant I could delve into a big bag of pic n mix. I think we should all take a moment of silence here to remember Woolworths….

The ability to buy a bag filled with not only all of the best sweets in the world but also those which we hand picked ourselves,using the scoops of course!, was extremely exciting. This activity of sweetie choosing never lost it’s charm..until I was diagnosed as celiac that is. The fun of scooping was now overshadowed by the threat of cross contamination.

Bananas and shrimps, fizzy cola bottles, white mice, those little rainbow sprinkled white chocolate things, pink pigs, gummy cherries, allsorts, jelly babies, fried eggs, teeth and fangs, dolly mixture and so the list of tasty sweets goes on. The crazy thing about it is that many of these great sweets are in fact gluten free. If only there was a way to buy bags of our favourite sweets without them having come in contact with those which aren’t gluten free.

Enter A Quarter of. Coeliac sweetie lovers do not fret! I recently discovered a great website which does exactly this.  What excited me most is their ‘Gluten Free’ search button to help us see what’s safe. When you click on ‘Find sweet that are ‘gluten free’  247 products come up. 247 people! Included in this selection are hard sweets such as kola cubes, rhubarb and custard and gummies like turtles, caterpillars, sharks and pythons. I was over the moon to see my favourite sweet of all time, the foam shrimp, is also on the gluten free list. Last week, a quarter of sent me a few samples of my old favourites. Included was a bag of foam shrimps and fortunately they are still as delicious as I remembered! Foamy, sweet, scrumptiousness! The Jelly Babies and foamy bears were pretty awesome too. Oh how I love my sweeties.

A quarter of, you may be the best website there is, other than this one of course. Enjoy fellow sweet toothed celiacs!

Skippy

Welch's Grape Jelly

I was craving a PB & J sandwich as I hadn’t had one in a while. Back in Scotland I eat an amazing peanut butter from an organic store in Glasgow but since being in the States I haven’t known which varieties I could eat. It was the same with Jam (or Jelly as they call it here).

Which popular Peanut Butter brands in the US are gluten free?

Jif (from a phone call to JM Smuckers): A recorded message told me that “JM Smuckers use label disclosure of potential allergens and when protein is present from an allergenic source, we disclose the presence of milk, peanuts, tree nuts, soy beans, egg, shell fish, fish and wheat.

Their website doesn’t mention whether their products are gluten free but from looking at labelling it looks as though all Jif Peanut Butters are.

Skippy (from their website):  All varieties of Skippy peanut butter, Skippy Natural, Roasted Honey Nut, and Reduced Fat peanut butter spread are gluten-free.

Peter Pan (from their website): All varieties of Peter Pan Peanut Butter are made without adding any potential gluten-containing ingredients such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats.

My favourite of all the peanut butters here in the US is Santa Cruz Organic Peanut Butter. There is no added sugar like many of the popular brands, leaving it all natural and delicious. It comes in both light and dark roasted and both creamy and crunchy. I love them all and they are all gluten free.

Which popular Jelly (jam) brands in the US are gluten free?

Smuckers (from a phone call to JM Smuckers): The same as Jif above. Looking at labelling it looks as though Smuckers jelly is gluten free although their website doesn’t specifically mention this.

Welch’s (from their website) All Welch’s products are gluten free.

Smucker's

Peter Pan