And why we need change. You cannot have failed to hear about the tragic death of a young fifteen year old girl, Natasha Ednan-Laparouse, who ate a baguette at Pret, Heathrow airport and died from an anaphylactic attack to unlabelled sesame. Pret have just announced a second death... and I'm not joking... I only wish I was. Until laws change please all exercise extreme … [Read more...]
To ‘bold’ oats or not to ‘bold’ oats – that is the question
Hot on the heals of my last blog about oats, gluten and allergen labelling I had a look at some of the oat based products in my larder and others online. It would seem that there is a split in the market. Many companies are labelling oats in bold but just as many are not. Of the products I buy and had in the house none had oats labelling in bold, including the Nairns and … [Read more...]
Is gluten an allergen and do oats contain gluten?
At the recent judging session for FreeFrom Eating out Awards we had a heated discussion about oats and whether they came under the Top 14 allergens banner. I thought that oats were not in the Top 14 allergens but others disagreed.It turns out I was wrong. Very wrong. I know that oats don't contain gluten and many coeliacs can tolerate oats. So why would they be in the … [Read more...]
100 unknown chefs and me on Radio 5 Live
If you didn't read my rant last week in response to the Telegraph article about the letter from 100 top chefs up in arms about the new allergen regulations, where have you been? Social media has been buzzing with irate allergics and coeliacs but not much from the supposed Top Chefs in question. First of all, the chefs and restaurants who complained were not top chefs. The … [Read more...]