The Gluten-Free Mall

The Gluten-Free Mall has been around since 1998. It's been on my list of LI Links since forever, but I've never devoted a blog post to it.

The Gluten-Free Mall has the best prices and selection of gluten-free, wheat-free, casein-free and other allergy-related health foods and special dietary products on the Internet! All of our gluten-free products are specifically designed for people who need to eat gluten-free foods due to celiac disease, autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD, ADHD) or other health reasons. The Gluten-Free Mall offers you low product and shipping costs, and the convenience of being able to choose from hundreds of gluten-free products and have them shipped to your door. Unlike other companies, 98% of our orders of gluten free food are shipped on the next business day.

Our state-of-the-art Gluten-Free Mall warehouse is centrally located and contains hundreds of hand-selected gluten-free foods from dozens of special dietary food manufacturers so that you can, in only minutes, browse through our products and place a single, secure order. To make it into our warehouse, each gluten-free food manufacturing company must demonstrate its total commitment to high quality and excellent tasting gluten-free products. We are truly a "one-stop shop" for your gluten-free and other special dietary needs!

The Gluten-Free Mall was created by Scott Adams, who is better known in the celiac/gluten-free community for founding Celiac.com.

You can also search for lactose-free products on their site.

Sophie Safe Food Guide

It's been three years since I posted about Emily Hendrix's Sophie-Safe Cooking: A Collection of Family Friendly Recipes That are Free of Milk, Eggs, Wheat, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish and Shellfish.

Ms. Hendrix has not been idle since. She recently alerted me to her new endeavor, the Sophie Safe Food Guide.

Sophie Safe Food Guide will expand your options and speed up your grocery shopping. Once you have registered for a free membership, you can set up a profile listing the dietary restrictions of members of your family. Using the profile you build, the Sophie Safe Food Guide will search ingredient lists containing 16002 foods, and match your needs with items that you can find in the grocery store. Not sure if this will be helpful? Try it out...for FREE!

There's also a premium membership for $3/Month or $30/Year that offers a few more bells and whistles.

Tofutti to Announce Three Innovative Products

Tofutti sent out a bit of a downbeat press release, revealing that they lost gross and net revenue since last year at this time.

The good news is that they are expanding their product line into firsts, not just for them, but for the industry.

As announced at our annual meeting in June, we have developed three new dairy-free food products. We will soon release the first commercially available nondairy and gluten-free ricotta cheese product, which is expected to reach grocers' shelves in the fourth quarter of this year. We also intend to release what we believe will be the first dairy-free, sugar-free, frozen dessert than incorporates Stevia as the sweetening agent and a newly re-formulated frozen pizza with a dairy-free, trans fat-free cheese topping. We expect that the latter two products will be commercially available around the new year."

Go to Tofutti.com for more information on all their current products.

Gluten-Free... Nail Polish. What?

Case #1874 from the files of mothers who develop allergen-free products for their kids involves Natalie Bauss and Katy Scheffler. "Scheffler has to pay close attention to ingredients because her family has a wide range of food allergies, including lactose, gluten and yeast," wrote Shandra Martinez of The Grand Rapids Press in an article found on MLive.com.

So they "channeled their passion for organic ingredients and concerns about food allergies into the Keeki Pure and Simple line of products: lip balm, nail polish and polish remover."

Wait. What? Why does nail polish or polish remover have to be gluten-free? (Is there any nail polish that isn't?) Even lip balm. There are some allergens that could produce a reaction from single touching, but I don't believe that even licking all the lip balm off one's lips could provide enough gluten to have a reaction. Even assuming that lip balm contains gluten normally.

And that raises an interesting question. Does any lip balm contain gluten?

You can quickly find sites that say yes.

Suite101: A Gluten Free Diet: There Are Many Benefits To Eliminating Gluten

Also, cosmetics such as lipstick, lip balm, and chapsticks may contain gluten.

Hidden sources of gluten

Lip stick and lip balm contain gluten.

But what kind of lip balm? Which brands?

Searching brings up dozens of brands that claim to be gluten-free. Blistex, no. Carmex, no. Burt's Bees, no. Aveeno Essential Moisture Lip Conditioner, no. ChapStick, no. Ecolips, no. The Merry Hempsters, no. Nivea, no. Savonnerie, no. Badger Balm, no. Boston America, no. Some of these contain warnings that the ingredients may come into contract with gluten or other allergens in the manufacturing process.

Remember, however, that skin contact with gluten is not an issue. Only swallowing a sufficient quantity of gluten is.

So that brings me to Bonne Bell. Most of its brands contain no gluten. However, some do. Here is the list that was given on the Gluten Free Betsy website of gluten-containing products.

Original Lip Smackers
Sun Smackers (Including Clip N Go)
Megastar Lip Smackers
Kool Aid Lip Smackers
F’lip Styles
F’lip Glosses
Lip Lites Glossy Tints Balms
M&M Lip Smacker Balms (New Formula with Castor Oil)
Dasani Balms
Pinky Lip Smackers Balms
Skittles Lip Balms (New Formula with Castor Oil)
DPSU Lip Smackers
All Starburst Lip Balms
Color Kiss Lip Balms
Lip Smackers w/SPF

The Savvy Celiac blog reported a study that states that "The smallest amount of gluten which has been shown by a biopsy to cause damage to a celiac is 0.1 gram per day (Catassi et al.)." On the other hand, the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center sets a higher risk standard,"As little as 1/8 of a teaspoon of flour is enough to set off this abnormal response." That's about 0.3 grams. Both those numbers, while small, are likely larger than the amount of gluten in any one application of lip balm, especially if you don't swallow it all.

The point is a subtle one. Most cosmetics that are applied to skin don't matter if they contain gluten. Gluten does not get absorbed through skin. It must go through the digestive system. Nail polish shouldn't be any worry unless you lick and suck all the polish off.

Lip sticks, or lip balms, or lip glosses, or lip conditioners are more likely to be licked and swallowed. Many brands can be found with no gluten at all. Of the brands that do contain gluten, an occasional application shouldn't be cause for worry, especially if you allow them to flake off.

Gluten-free is mostly a gimmick, selling you products by announcing that they don't claim an ingredient that very few contain in the first place. But that's marketing for you. Making a virtue out of something you never had is an ancient sales technique. Green vendors may be rediscovering its effectiveness, but it's really an evergreen, old as the hills.

Droppa and Droppa Expand Through Bread Factory

Droppa and Droppa started their gluten- and dairy-free baking business in the traditional way, because Joslyn Droppa had coeliac disease. They wanted to do food that was so fresh it didn't even have the presevatives and additives that some people are sensitive to. Their little business is based in Bideford, North Devon, in the U.K.

They're getting bigger, though. The industry newsletter Conveying News reported that:

Droppa & Droppa has agreed a deal to supply its range of products to The Bread Factory.

Droppa & Droppa make a range of 'free-from' goods including gluten, wheat and dairy-free breads which will be provided to London-based The Bread Factory's customers, reports bakeryinfo.co.uk.

The move will increase the production of specialist breads – news which will be welcomed by those in the baking industry.

Jocelyn Droppa, joint-owner of the company, expressed her belief that the deal would help those suffering from allergies to enjoy a wider range of food.

"By supplying The Bread Factory we hope that coeliacs and those who are wheat and/or dairy intolerant can enjoy good baked goods as much as the next person," she told the website.

The Bread factory has six retail shops in London, operating under the Gail's chain, and supplies goods to several of the capital's top restaurants and hotels.

My Grocery Master iPhone App

Nicole VanderPloeg brought her iPhone app to my attention.

I wanted to let you know about a new iPhone application that’s perfect for your readers! My Grocery Master is a first-of-its-kind iPhone application that enables people following lactose-free diets to find specialty food products at grocery stores near their location. Simply type in your zip code, search a food product and "My Grocery Master" will scan its database of the top 100 grocery store chains in the country to identify the nearest store that carries the desired items. In addition, the app will provide convenient driving directions from your location to the selected grocery store.

Whether you’re on the road, visiting a friend, or cooking a meal at home that requires a certain product, people following lactose-free diets can now find comfort in knowing their food needs are at their fingertips.

Here's the direct link to the iTunes app page for My Grocery Master.

Thanks, Nicole.

Some Vegan-Friendly Foods

Geri Maria Harris wrote about the Top 5 Vegan-Friendly Foods Even Carnivores Will Love for a blog in the Houston Press.

We all know that when a blogger talks about the Top 5 anything it really means five things scraped together to fill up space rather than "Top" so I hope none of you are taking that headline literally. That's why I titled this post "Some Vegan-Friendly Foods." Wow. That's exciting, isn't it? And that's why bloggers lie to you on a regular basis. Along with everybody else who has ever written a headline. Truth doesn't jump off the screen and grab your eyeballs. Pity.

Three of the five seem to be worth your time and attention regardless. I've mentioned two of the firms before but one is new and it's nice to have them together like this. Besides, I'll give you links directly to their sites so you can explore them further.

Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza


Pizza without cheese? Doesn't sound too great, we know. But somehow, it is! Amy's starts this scrumptious pie off with a hearty whole-grain rice crust, then tops it off with organic olive oil, tomatoes, and a medley of other veggies that actually taste good. It sounds weird, but it works. We always have to end up sharing at least half of this single-serving entrée.

Uncle Eddie's Vegan: Oatmeal and Chocolate-Chip Cookies

We know there are many amazing vegan cookies out there, but Uncle Eddie's are our personal favorite. They have several flavors to choose from, but we like the substantive texture of the oatmeal blended seamlessly with the creaminess of the chocolate. You can actually pronounce every ingredient listed on the package, which is a plus. We brought some home yesterday and after having a few non-vegan friends over, the bag was totally empty. Not even a crumb.

Rice Dream Chocolate Frozen Pie


All right, so maybe we have a sweet tooth right now, but these things are truly decadent. A heavenly thick layer of creamy "rice cream" is sinfully sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies and covered with chocolate. We tried our first one yesterday while babysitting a niece, and let's just say we were lucky she didn't go after ours once she had finished her own. It was definitely family feud-inducing stuff. We can't wait until it gets even hotter outside and we have an actual excuse to indulge in this delightfully icy extravagance.

Go Dairy Free 2010 Product Lists

The other great lactose intolerance site is Alisa Fleming's GoDairyFree.org.

She's just updated her Dairy Free product lists for 2010.

For the past three years, our popular Non-Dairy Product Lists have connected free-from dieters with thousands of great food options. To keep things current, we spent the past several months updating each listing, and I am happy to announce that the 2010 versions are finally complete. The following are available in an ebook/pdf format in our Go Dairy Free Ebook Store:

▪ 2010 Complete No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns (cross-referenced for soy, wheat, gluten, and egg)
▪ 2010 No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns - Just the Subs
▪ 2010 Complete No Dairy Product List
▪ 2010 No Dairy and No Soy Product List
▪ 2010 No Dairy and No Gluten Product List

We lamented over the loss of some wonderful food manufacturers, but are happy to report that many new foods and companies have taken their place. In fact, the complete product list has grown by 50 pages since last year! ...

Keep in mind, the product lists are not limited to specialty brands either. The complete product list contains approximately 5000 food listings, with categories ranging from cheese and cream alternatives to granola, bread, and frozen entrees.

However, for those of you who just want to know the alternatives for traditional milk-based foods (milk, cheese, ice cream, cream, toppings, chocolate, pudding, etc.), we have added a new condensed version of our complete product list called “Just the Subs.” Still 43 pages in length, this "petite" listing is sure to offer several new-to-you dairy alternatives. It is also cross-referenced to note if the products contained soy, wheat, gluten, or egg ingredients at our time of review.

For more information and to obtain a copy, see our Go Dairy Free Ebook Store.

As the name should imply, these are products that are worth real money. So they are not downloadable free. You have to pay for them. Please do so.

Pamela's Products

Lisa - the Gluten Free Foodie celebrated her first gluten-free cake.

I am so excited that my first Gluten Free King Cake turned out - Ca c'est bon! (That's good!)

I decided to make it easy so I tweaked a few recipes and used Pamela's Products bread mix. This is a combination sweet bread and Challah bread ... YUM! It is not only Gluten Free but Dairy Free and Soy Free too! I used Earth Balance non-dairy non-soy, natural buttery spread and Nielsen Massey Bourbon Vanilla paste to enhance the yeasty flavor of the bread. I purchased the beautiful traditional colored sugars from Williams-Sonoma in Purple (justice), Green (faith) and Gold (power) that represent the three wise men. It is also a tradition to hide a prize - a bean, coin or plastic baby inside the cake to represent the Christ child. The finder of the prize or baby is said to host the following year's festivities. I must get it every year because I love hosting Mardi Gras!

Pamela's Products sounded interesting, so I scouted them up.



They make a variety of gluten-free and wheat-free cookies, biscotti, and baking mixes. Their allergy page says:

Pamela's gluten-free cookies and mixes are produced on 100% dedicated gluten-free machinery.

Pamela's Products have been formulated and produced to be wheat-free and gluten-free. Our products are produced in a facility which also makes products containing: peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs and soy. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding any product in the Pamela's line, please contact us at: Phone 707-462-6605 or email info@pamelasproducts.com.

You can also check that page to see which products are also dairy-free. Most are. A few contain butter, so they probably won't be a problem for those with mild lactose intolerance. The Baking & Pancake mix contains buttermilk, which may therefore have a bit more lactose.

iPhone, uPhone, We All Phone for iPhone

With more than 100,000 apps for Apple's iPhone, no one on earth knows what all of them are. Not even Steve Jobs. And what else does he have to do with his time?

Some other people with more time on their hands can explore the Appy Worlds. Like the Coupon Sherpa. I assume it's the Coupon Sherpa. These days somebody might actually be named Coupon Sherpa. Coup, as we like to say, works for the Hartford Courant. This week, Coup looked for apps that could:

help you build a shopping list, find a recipe that suits your dietary needs, cooking capabilities and contents of your kitchen.

The following nine mostly free apps hopefully will help make the process of shopping and cooking easier and more fun.

Number one on the list is of interest to us.

1. Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)

Select your ingredients, your meal preference and how much time you want to spend cooking and AllRecipes provides the details. Filters allow you to select dishes for vegetarians, the lactose intolerant, gluten-free diets and more. Includes recipe reviews and ratings.

A Very Naughty But Dairy-Free Valentine's Day

We're all adults here, right? (If not, send the kiddies off to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Right now.)

Valentine's Day may be a day for romance, but most adults want to spell romance S-E-X. Trust a college publication to have S-E-X on its mind. North by Northwestern is Northwestern University’s best independent online publication. I didn't say that. They did.

Myrtle Williams did a funny little piece on Carnal Knowledge that would better have been titled Caramel Knowledge. It's all about edible sex toys and enhancements from candy panties, gummy undies, nipple tassels, to even non-dairy body whipped cream. (Actually, almost all the products are dairy-free, consisting of variations on sugar and more sugar.)

Although the column is about adult topics, there's nothing visual to cause serious trauma unless you have to worry about a thong on a manikin. The Love Potions page on which the body whipped cream can be found on is equally visually friendly but definitely NSFW.

Purely Elizabeth Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Baking Mixes

The purely elizabeth company, all lower case, makes "baking mixes free of sugar, dairy, wheat, and gluten," all lower case. It won the Sweetest Thing award, which has capital letters, making it far less hip.



There was, of course, a press release.

Elizabeth Stein executive chef and founder of purely elizabeth is delighted to announce that her line of gluten free, dairy free, wheat free and sugar free muffin and pancake mixes has earned esteemed recognition as the Sweetest Thing for 2009 by the popular newsletter DailyCandy. The newsletter which goes out to hundreds of thousands of readers daily with the latest and greatest products in fashion, food and lifestyle, each year nominates its favorite finds and asks its readers to vote for their favorite picks. This year purely elizabeth earned top billing as the "sweetest" food with thousands of votes pouring in for the healthy baking mixes. ...

This exciting new product line launched in November 2009 includes four inaugural varieties, Ultimate Cacao Muffin Mix, Apple Spice Muffin Mix, Blueberry Maple Muffin Mix and Perfect Pancake Mix (and trust us, you have never had more fluffy or delicious pancakes!) all loaded with health benefits. The mixes have an assortment of wholesome natural and organic ingredients, such as millet flour, hemp seed, chia seed, flax seed, raw cacao, coconut flour and almond flour...

Apparently the writer of the press release thought commas were as unhip as caps. typography free press releases are healthier in the new millennium.

Lactose-Free Butter a Top Dairy Innovation

Geoff Platt, the editor of Dairy Innovation magazine, named his top innovations of 2009 at FoodBev.com.

Why pay attention to Dairy Innovations? Because some of them are new lactose-free products for us.

Bayernland launched a 330ml bottle of buttercream for use in the kitchen, under its Butaris brand label. The pure butter is lactose-free and in a new format designed to attract younger customers.

The format, they say, is designed to attract younger customers.

Bayernland is a German company, so no telling when this innovation may hit the U.S.

Top Ten New Dairy-Free Foods 2009 Countdown

Over at GoDairyFree.org Alisa Fleming writes that:

Each year our review staff samples hundreds of new dairy-free products. We are constantly scouring the shelves for the latest natural goodies to challenge the myth that dairy-free living is anything less than delicious. This year we had so many new innovations to choose from that it was mind-boggling, but we finally narrowed it down to ten wonderful foods. Oh yes, and our selections are completely unbiased, unsponsored, and personally sampled, so you can bet these are foods we happily spend our own hard-earned money on …

Wait. Our review staff? Staff? I've always wanted to have staff. A flunky, even. Maybe a peon. An unpaid intern would be nice. Dear Santa...

Anyway, she's been counting down the top ten and we're finally down to number one.

But first:
10: Erewhon Strawberry Crisp Cereal
9: Food Should Taste Good Tortilla Chips
8: Amazing Grass Berry GREENSuperFood
7: Applegate Farms Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets
6: Manitoba Harvest HempPro 70
5: Clean Cravings Pesto Pizza
4: Amy’s Organic Cakes
3: So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage
2: Go Max Go Candy Bars

And the top choice is:

Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread - Soy-Free

Seriously, why in the world did it take so long for someone to come out with a dairy-free, soy-free butter alternative? For its versatility, ingredients, and performance, this buttery spread easily slides into our number one spot ...

As a trans fat free spread, Earth Balance Soy-Free is heads and tails above traditional old margarine in terms of ingredients, yet it performs equally well in recipes. We have trialed it in baked goodies, roasted vegetables, stove-top sauces, melted atop broccoli and green beans, whipped into frostings, and simply spread on fresh-baked bread, and I am happy to say that it easily passed all tests.

The texture of the new Earth Balance Soy-free is close to identical to your average tub margarine, the mouth feel is rich and creamy, and the flavor is spot on. My only complaint was that it tasted a touch saltier than I am used too, but my fellow reviewer thought it could use a touch more salt … so I think this is simply a matter of taste.

Not all stores are stocking the soy-free version as of yet, but when I asked my local Whole Foods and even my local mega-grocer to bring some in, both not only obliged, but were surprised when the remaining tubs from the batch they ordered flew off the shelves.

You can read more about each selection at Go Dairy Free.

Gluten-Free Asian and European Travel Cards

Translation cards - cards with the words, phrases, and questions you need to know about food sensitivities in other languages - are a handy travel item. I've written about the SelectWisely firm before, in both Food Sensitivities Translation Cards and in Food and Travel Translation Cards.

They're back in the news with a new offering, as the title indicates, Gluten-Free Asian and European Travel Cards.



The inevitable press release tells us more.

The new gluten-free cards have been developed to help people with gluten intolerance improve communication when dining and purchasing meals. All of the cards feature English text describing what foods to avoid along with a picture of a stalk of wheat within the international prohibitory sign (red circle and slash). The European cards also have the English text translated into Spanish, French and Italian. The Asian cards have the English text translated into Chinese, Japanese and Thai. The card is laminated, simple to use and easy to carry, allowing travelers to keep them in their pocket or wallet to use when they are ordering meals at restaurants.
... All cards have English text, a picture and multiple language text allowing restaurant wait staff and kitchen staff who speak different languages to understand.

About the allergy and medical translation cards:
22 types of cards are currently available in the following categories:

Food Allergies
Gluten-free/Celiac Disease
Diabetes Emergency and Pharmacy
Asthma Emergency
Lactose Intolerance
Penicillin Allergy
Smoke-Free
Low-salt Diet
Vegetarian and Vegan
General Emergency
Special Orders

15 common languages are available (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc), plus an additional 40 languages through our Special Order program. The Special Order program provides translations for unique food allergies and medical conditions in less common languages (Catalan, Vietnamese, Khmer, Croatian, Czech, Laotian and more).

Over 130 common food allergens are available including nuts, peanuts, wheat, milk, shellfish, soy, sesame and others. Additional non-food allergens are available for translation including latex, sulfites, MSG, bee stings and penicillin.

'Ntolerance Allergy Free Store

'Ntolerance. Not a typo. A pun. It's a store that sells allergy free foods. As usual it was started and is still run today by people who have a personal connection to allergies. Sue and Mark Egbers founded the store in 2004 after discovering that their son Matthew had coeliac disease. It was taken over by Heather Faulkner, herself a coeliac, in 2008.

What I found really cool about the place - and the reason I'm talking about it here when I don't mention the dozens of other local shops that sell allergy-free foods - is the location. Pukekohe. That's in South Auckland. Which is in New Zealand.

I ran across the shop in an article by Virin Gomber on the Auckland Business to Business website. It caught my eye. I used to write similar profiles of local stores and companies for a paper called Business to Business Newsletter. I'd take off during my lunch hour at work, do a 45 minute interview, and write it out at home.

I'd never heard of a store that sold only allergy-free foods back then in the 1980s. I don't think Rochester has such a store today, although it has a couple of gluten-free bakeries. These specialty stores find it difficult to compete against large organic and natural food stores that carry a wider range of products as well as supermarkets that have huge natural food sections of their own.

Even so, most larger American cities, not to mention college towns that are smaller but have a targeted and interested population, have specialty free-from food stores today.

New Zealand does too, but 'Ntolerance is the only store that sells nothing but allergy free products that I can find. (Apologies if I missed any, but I count on your writing in and correcting me.) It's a tough business. In fact, the Egbers, who had started the store in an industrial area - presumably because costs and rents are typically much lower there - were planning to shut the store down. Faulkner moved the store to a site that had better visibility and higher foot traffic. It worked.

Managing the business on her own at the age of 55 - looking after the supplies, sales, customers’ needs, working six days a week and taking care of her own health condition – she has done exceptionally well breaking even just one year into this business. And she has achieved it even while increasing the product range at the shop.

The website also has changed to better suit customers' needs.

The range of products sold at the shop includes gluten free, dairy free, nut free, egg free, soy free and sugar free foods. Besides retail sales, customers can even order online and get the items couriered to them. The products on the website have colour codes underneath them to make identification easier, to denote suitability for different allergies / intolerances.

These specialty businesses aimed at us, our small slice of the market, can survive only if we patronize them rather than their competitors. Faulkner's success seems to be well deserved for her hard work. Yesterday I wrote about the similar Dairy Free Market, a new online site that is wading into the same waters.

Find these stores. Test them out. See how well they meet your needs. Tell them what you'd like and where they need to improve. The better they are, the longer they'll last and the more satisfaction you'll get from them. And that will help all of us.

Introducing Dairy Free Market

Jeff Eder sent me his press release announcing the creation of an online store that sells nothing but dairy-free products, the Dairy Free Market.

An estimated 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant. With them in mind, Free-from Foods, LLC announces the opening of Dairy Free Market at www.dairyfreemarket.com. The online food store exclusively sells food without dairy, including baking ingredients and mixes, cereal, cheese alternatives, non-dairy chocolate, cookies and snack/energy bars.

Many products sold are also free from other common allergens, such as egg, gluten, nut and soy – perfect for anyone with a food allergy, intolerance, or special diet (e.g., celiac, gluten-free/casein-free, kosher and vegan).

"Our site helps take the guesswork out of grocery shopping," said Founder Jeff Eder, who himself is lactose and potato intolerant. "I created Dairy Free Market for people like me, who want to buy foods that meet their dietary needs without the hassle of shopping at multiple stores, or the frustration of settling for the limited choices on local grocery shelves."

The site offers brands such as Cherrybrook Kitchen, Enjoy Life Foods, NuGo and Road's End Organics - popular among adults and children alike.

Dairy Free Market ships everywhere in the U.S. and currently offers free shipping on orders over $100.

Experience a taste of food freedom at www.dairyfreemarket.com.

While all the foods offered are dairy-free, you can also click to bring up those foods which are also egg free, gluten free, nut free, potato free, soy free, sugar free, kid friendly, kosher, organic, or vegan. No wonder Eder's parent company is called Free-from Foods.

As an online company shipping will be crucial. Here are the site's policies.

Shipping
Most orders ship within two business days from the date of purchase. We ship to any location in the United States via all major commercial shipping companies. You will receive a tracking number for your shipment once your order is complete.

For a quote on shipping outside North America, contact us at shipping@dairyfreemarket.com.

Returns
All sales on DairyFreeMarket.com are final – unless items were damaged during shipment or they expired before your purchase date. In those instances, items that are received by DairyFreeMarket.com no later than ten days from the date of purchase are eligible for full refund.

Have questions about your order? Contact us at shipping@dairyfreemarket.com.

**LIMITED TIME OFFER: SPEND $100 OR MORE AND RECEIVE FREE (GROUND) SHIPPING **

You can read an interview with Eder on the Avoiding Milk Blog.

How do you go about selecting products for your store, what standards do you have?
Dairy Free Market selects dairy free foods that fall into a number of different product (cookies, snack bars, baking ingredients, chocolate, etc.) and lifestyle categories (vegan, kosher, organic, gluten-free casein-free, free from other allergens, etc.) and we therefore spend a good deal of time talking to manufacturers to find the latest and greatest dairy free products out there and hope to share as many of them with our customers as soon as possible. However, the primary requirement of all items sold by Dairy Free Market is that they must not contain dairy of any kind (no lactose, no casein, no whey). In some cases, the products we sell may have been made in the same facility or on the same equipment as milk products (a common issue in the dairy free world), however, we try to minimize those cases and if they do exist, we make those instances clear to customers.

Your selection of foods has been steadily expanding. What new products can we expect to see in your store?
In the coming months, Dairy Free Market will be adding many more dairy free baking mixes and ingredients, some newcomers to the dairy free snack bar world, a sugar free line featuring brands such as Aunt Gussie’s and showcasing the gluten-free products of Nana’s Cookie Company. Dairy Free Market will also be venturing into carrying a line of dairy free cheese! Finally, as we approach Halloween, Dairy Free Market will be featuring Enjoy Life Foods Choco Boom dairy free chocolate bars, as well as NuGo Crispy Cat candy bars - perfect for the non-dairy trick-or-treater!

That Eder will be adding more products is good news. What causes most of these ventures to fail is the lack of choice, especially for true dairy alternatives rather than products like cookies or pasta which are relatively easy to find dairy-free.

Other minor problems that might get fixed include the inability to search for products that are free of multiple allergens and a lack of an ingredients listing on some foods. Most shopping sites evolve as customers comment on exactly what they'd like to see, so if you try them out offer any helpful hints.

Heather Mills Buys Vegan Foodmaker

What is Heather Mills doing with her divorce money? Good things, so stop the jokes right now.

A press release told the world that Mills acquired the Redwood Wholefood Company, award-winning producer of natural plant-based, animal-free foods.

Recently ranked highest in the Ethical Company Organisation’s list of vegetarian foods suppliers for the third year running with an overall score of 95%, Redwood produces more than 50 different animal-free foods under the Cheatin’, VegiDeli and Cheezly brand names at its headquarters in Corby.

Among the many foods produced by the firm are Cheatin’ ‘meats’ in ‘bacon’, ‘chicken’ and ‘beef’ varieties, meat-free ‘roasts’, pâtés, gourmet burgers, ready-to-eat sausages, fish-style fingers and dairy-free ‘cheese’.

Because everything in its range is totally free from animal ingredients and derivatives as well as cholesterol, lactose, hydrogenated fats and GMOs, Redwood foods are ideal for vegetarians, vegans and anyone looking for a healthier and more ethical lifestyle.

The Cheezly soy cheese line and the Fabulous Fudge Factory dairy-free fudge may be most familiar to lactose intolerants. Because I've mentioned them both before in Cheezly "Super-Melting" Soy Cheese and Fabulous Fudge Factory Dairy-Free Confectionery. I'm so ahead of my time. And go, Heather.

Food and Travel Translation Cards

One of the first posts I ever made on Planet Lactose was on the extremely apropos Food Sensitivities Translation Cards services that, as the title suggested, manufactured little cards people could carry in their wallets, pockets, or purses with the phrases they vitally needed translated into the language of the country they visited.

Both firms are still in business. The British firm, DietaryCard.com offers:

4 types of Dietary Alert Card:-

For celiacs and other diners following a gluten-free diet, we offer Classic Coeliac Cards.

For diners coping with a nut allergy or another medical condition necessitating a strict nut-free diet, we offer No Nuts Cards.

For diners with food sensitivities requiring help choosing from menus we offer Custom Card 1.

For diners with severe food allergies requiring help choosing from menus we offer Custom Card 2.

And the American firm, SelectWisely.com, got itself a spiffy write-up by Jen Leo in the Los Angeles Times.

Do your allergies (or your child's) make it challenging for you to travel abroad? Selectwisely.com helps liberate travelers who have food allergies and other health concerns.

What's hot: If you are a traveler who has a food allergy, you can order a translation card that lets restaurant servers and store clerks -- really, anyone who has a hand in serving you food -- know that there's an issue. The site offers cards in more than 25 languages. Its example of what it calls a "strongly worded" card shows variations of "I have a life-threatening allergy to shrimp" in the foreign language (Thai, in the example) and English with a visual aid on one side of the card. If you are allergic to nuts, that specific card will list a variety of nuts. There are also emergency cards for those who cannot eat gluten, who have diabetes or asthma, are lactose intolerant or are vegetarian. Prices for the cards vary from $6.50 to $9.50 (plus shipping), and you get two identical cards sent within one to three business days.

Nice to see businesses to cater to special foods need succeeding and staying available for years on end.

Malta Gets Lactose-Free Ice Cream. Why Not Us?

Americans, if they think of Nestlé at all, might have an image of chocolate bars and other comfort foods. In fact Nestlé S.A. is an insanely huge multi-national conglomerate based in Switzerland, whose products and activities span the globe. The U.S. market sees only a tiny fraction of the brands it makes internationally.

For some people that's a good thing. According to the British newspaper the Guardian Nestlé is one of the most boycotted brands in the world. A boycott has been fitfully instituted against the company since the 1970s because of the way it markets milk-based baby formulas to poor mothers in third-world countries. The vast majority of those mothers would be likely to have healthier children if their breastfed their babies.

Can you put the two sides of the company together? In reality, we do every day. Few of us notice which multinational conglomerate is the ultimate source of the products we fill our shopping carts with. Few of us can keep accounts of the pluses and minuses of their activities in 200 countries or follow the accusations made by activist groups supported or disabused by the business press. Doing so for every one of the tens of thousands of products in a supermarket would drive us all even nuttier than we are today. The modern world and capitalism depend on it being too large for any individual to comprehend.

I'm driven to these thoughts by, of all things, a press release that a newspaper on the island nation of Malta printed as a news article.

Ice creams for coeliacs and lactose intolerant consumers

Coeliacs and lactose intolerant consumers can this year enjoy a wide range of Nestlé ice creams which have been produced to address the needs of such conditions.

The Nestlé gluten-free ice creams, which include the Hello Kitty cup and stick, Indiana Jones cup, Nesquik sandwich and stick and Cremeria Fior di Latte and Lemon Sorbet are the result of specific manufacturing processes studied down to the finest detail, right from the selection of ingredients until the manufacturing stage. Nestlé continues to monitor its processes in all the packing stages, in order to ensure the utmost compliance with the standards that have enabled the company to attain the cross grain symbol. The symbol, which is printed on the product, indicates the product’s safety and guarantees no gluten presence in the product.

The lactose-free range of ice-creams, which include the Cremeria chocolate and vanilla tubs are produced with the same specific manufacturing processes but address the needs of consumers who usually, due to this condition, do not take any milk based ice cream. Although these ice creams have a very low lactose content of 0.4 per cent they still enjoy a genuine flavour and are made with only fresh Italian skimmed milk which is highly digestible.

The gluten-free and the lactose-free ice creams are available in all supermarkets and leading stores throughout Malta and Gozo.

The Republic of Malta, which includes the islands of Malta and Gozo, is home to fewer than half a million people, smaller than the county in which I live.

Yet the Maltese people will have access to a range of lactose-free and gluten-free ice creams greater than everything sold in the United States by all companies combined.

I can't comprehend this. I'm happy for the Maltese, obviously. I don't want to take away their good fortune at the expense of ours. Perhaps they're being used as nothing more than a living test market. These products are apparently available nowhere else in the world. Perhaps these treats, if well accepted, will one day sit on freezer shelves on every continent. (Antarctica excepted, to be sure.) In the meantime what explanation can be given for the fact that the millions of American consumers lack these basics?

Why?