'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.

The Simple Food Movement

Michael Pollen, the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, has a number of rules, or rules of thumb, that he suggests people who want good, healthy food should follow.

One of them suggests suggests "avoiding products with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce."

Those extra ingredients are the ones normally found in processed food, which is pretty much every food that is found in a can, box, or container. The ones that fill up all the aisles in all the supermarkets of the world. Ingredients you can't pronounce may be emulsifiers, or stabilizers, or preservatives. Although sometimes they are vitamins or probiotics or good old fashioned sodium bicarbonate.

Pollen is not one of the crazies who runs around screaming that "chemicals" are in our foods. As sodium bicarbonate proves, everything, even familiar ingredients found in every kitchen, is a chemical and a chemical name doesn't mean something dangerous or scary. Pollen is an enemy of large agribusiness practices and of the fast food lifestyle Americans practice.

He has followers. As Janet Helm reported in the Chicago Tribune, corporations, ever sensitive to trends and fads, are jumping on the "Simple" bandwagon, featuring foods like:

Five, the new line of Haagen-Dazs ice cream that's made with only five ingredients -- including well-known kitchen staples (milk, cream, sugar and eggs). Then, Pillsbury introduced Simply cookies that are based on a similar premise: "Made just like you would make at home, same ingredients, same process."

Many food companies are scrambling to simplify ingredient lists and find naturally sourced alternatives to create what has been dubbed a "clean label." And when they do, they proudly declare "no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives" on the front of the package. That has become one of the most popular claims made by new foods and beverages, according to the market research firm Mintel.

I'm torn on the issue. I don't care about the trendy foods. They won't last. Literally so. Foods without preservatives spoil faster, have to be made in smaller batches, cost more, and can't sit for months on kitchen shelves. That's why companies started putting preservatives into foods in the first place. I absolutely guarantee that they'll be doing so next year after this trend has passed.

The larger trend that includes the "locavore" movement - eating foods grown locally - as well as fresh foods, more fruits and vegetables, and whole grain foods will likely take hold of a segment of the market. There's not much to complain about here. I've been eating locally raised organic meats, for example, and they are far tastier than the normal supermarket varieties, even though they are available at supermarkets as well from farm markets.

How do local farms, small bakeries, and specialty marketeers manage to feed the 300,000,000 people in this country? They don't. They can't. Programs have been started in Detroit and New York to get fresh produce into inner cities, areas in which supermarkets and groceries have smaller and more expensive selections than anything suburbanites will see at their worst stores. These worthy efforts aren't more than a dent in the larger problem. The people most in need have the least opportunity. The Simple movement will be adopted most enthusiastically by the well-to-do. Just what we need. Another large wedge between classes.

Of far more importance to our small community is the simple fact that creating dairy-free and other specialty items for people who avoid some of the commonest "simple" ingredients in our cooking lexicon is almost impossible to do with just a few ingredients. Getting similar taste, texture, and "mouthfeel" requires a set of ingredients to imitate the originals. Those ingredients probably include emulsifiers and thickeners. And because they are made in small batches with the full expectation that they won't fly off the shelves like Oreos or Spam, they need the preservatives to keep them from rotting in the package.

The Simple movement doesn't address our special needs. Adding more free fruit and vegetables to our diets may be sound advice but "well-known kitchen staples" like milk, cream, and eggs aren't found in all our kitchens. Unless we plan to cook and bake every item we eat, we will rely on packaged foods and those packaged foods will not be Simple.

Don't eat just Simple. Eat Smart. Smart is what is right and best for you. Smart always wins.

New Line of Indian Dairy-Free Cookies

India is a huge country with a billion people and seemingly a billion culinary traditions. Some Indian cuisines avoid milk, some incorporate it heavily. The British colonization also left a long history of western-style food choices and adaptations.

Sunira foods, part of the Chamaria Group, recently introduced a new line of special diet cookies. The press release, which I found on ImagesFood.com, said that Sunira:

recently launched hi-fibre, eggless, wheat free cookies. The newly launched range is available in two delicious flavours including chocofudge cookies and butter cookies under the brand, Heal‘thySelf.

Formulated with special care and nutrition, these cookies contain vitamins and minerals. In addition, the chocofudge cookies are also milk free. Other offerings from the Heal‘thySelf range include Healthy Atta, Sorghum Sooji, Dalia, Gluten free Maida (which also makes bread) and Cake Mixes.

Some of these other products are also dairy-free, according to their website.

More Free-From Foods Coming to Grocery Stores

According to the news broadcasts, not only did the Peanut Corporation of America distribute peanut products contaminated with salmonella, but it did so deliberately, often redoing tests until it found a portion of a batch that was salmonella-free and passing the whole batch off as good.

With all the constant and hyperbolic mockery that people have gotten for insisting that schoolrooms, airplanes, and other public facilities be totally peanut-free, who's having the last laugh now?

Anyway, the future belongs to specialty foods, foods that are "free from" some allergen.

Hollie Shaw of The Financial Post wrote an article about "this year's Grocery Innovations Canada trade show, an annual Toronto-area exhibition of upcoming packaged foods in Canada," which I found on the StarPhoenix site.

Some specifics from the article:

The response to O' Doughs, a year-old line of gluten-free breads whose ingredients include potato, rice and chick pea flour, "has been outstanding" said Ari Wineberg, president of the North York, Ont. company.

And U. S. Natural foods giant Hain Celestial Group Inc. recently relaunched its Arrowhead Mills line of boxed pastas, cakes and cookie mixes - which had always been gluten-free - with large 'gluten free' lettering on its new packaging.

"It's a marketing opportunity," said Brian White, director of national business development at Hain Celestial Canada. "Retailers have been creating a gluten-free segment within their stores."

Major producers have also been treading gradually into the hypo-allergenic food space, although the smaller food producers note many of the larger corporations use preservatives or neglect to label other major food allergens properly such, milk, eggs, soy, or sulphites.

Organic Grocery Deals

The OrganicGroceryDeals.com website is a small community that is trying to connect people who are looking for special foods and the stores that carry them.

Hello Guest!

Welcome to Organicgrocerydeals.com! We are a small friendly community of people that are interested in learning more about purchasing organic foods, living healthy and being environmentally conscious. If this is your first time here please feel free to register and join this fun community. No matter if you are totally green or just want to try and incorporate a little more green into your life you will be welcomed.

It's all about taking it in baby steps and learning as we go. We want to foster important conversations about green living as well as help our members save money in their quest of going organic.

So come on in and join the fun!

Site Features
Coupon Database: Find out what new coupons are out in the stores, the Sunday Paper, online printable coupons and more!

Newsletter: Join our newsletter and have timely articals [sic] and tips on green living as well as community news delivered right to your email inbox.

Target Coupon Generator: Do you shop at Target stores? Find Target store printable coupons here and combine them with manufacture coupons for even more money savings!

Forums: We have forums on many topics from shopping at stores like Whole Foods to your local drug store. Find local info on farmers markets and co-ops, learn how to go green on everything in your life and world!

And much more!

Their forums include:

Natural and Organic Stores
These stores are largely dedicated to providing almost entirely natural and organic foods and household items.
Sub-Forums: Earthfare, Trader Joe's, Rater Joe's, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Whole Foods/Wild Oats Whole Foods

Conventional Stores with Organic and Natural Products
Here are the stores our members have requested. These stores are largely conventional, but also cater to an organic market. Don't see your favorite store listed? Request it!
Sub-Forums: Albertsons, Big Y, Kroger Companies, Meijer, Publix, Safeway Companies, Shaw's, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Superfresh, Wegmans, Drug Stores, Other Conventional Stores CVS

Big Box Stores with Organic and Natural Products
Sub-Forums: Costco, Fred Meyer, Target/SuperTarget, Walmart

Online Organic Stores
Find links to online retailers who specialize in organic and natural groceries.
Sub-Forums: Amazon, Diamond Organics, eFoodPantry.com, WellnessGrocer.com, Online Deals and Coupon Codes

Here's How Tiny the Milk Alternative Market Is

It's great being able to walk into a supermarket or health food establishment and find shelves and sections of fairy-free and other specialty food products these days. It sure wasn't like that 30 years when I first learned I was lactose intolerant.

It's kinda hard to appreciative how good we have it today. Few of the alternatives have really great taste. Variety is limited. Most stores don't stock all the flavors. Many companies sell regionally rather than nationally. Those in live in rural areas surely have less availability than those living in large cities.

Our good fortune is relative. And precarious. Although you can't usually tell from the packages of food, the companies that are in the milk alternative industry are mostly somewhere between tiny and on-the-brink. With a recession coming on, or here, or a looming possibility, some of your favorite companies might go under.

I was reminded of this by a stock analyst's report on Lifeway Foods. I've posted about the company several times, most recently in Grab Your Own Frozen Kefir Boutique Franchise.



The analyst is dubious about the company's stock price. I have absolutely no knowledge of whether this is a good evaluation or not. I was more struck about the fuzzy chart that appears about halfway down the page, TABLE I: DAIRY AND HEALTH/FUNCTIONAL FOOD PUBLIC COMPARABLES.

If you blow it up large enough to read, you can see it contains some of the major names in the field, including Hain, Dean, and Tofutti. Dean is the largest company mentioned, and its market cap - the total value of all its stock - is about $3 billion, and that includes many conventional milk companies and products. For comparison, Kraft, the maker of Cool Whip, has a market cap of $60 billion. Nestle's makes Coffeemate and its market cap is about $150 billion.

Tofutti, which has been in the business for 30 years, with good years and bad, and makes nothing but milk alternative products, has a market cap of $12 million. That's $0.012 billion. Kraft could buy Tofutti out of the change in the vending machines at its headquarters.

I hope Tofutti lasts another 30 years, at least. But I wouldn't be a bit surprised to read that any specialty foods company is having serious problems in today's economies. We're a tiny niche market. Those are hurt first and worst.

Don't start to panic yet. But see what alternatives to the alternatives might exist for you, just in case.

Be Free For Me - Coupons for Special Foods

Photo by John Wilcox

Kathleen Reale discovered that she had celiac disease in 1994. As with so many others of us who have to turn to a special foods diet, she became frustrated with the lack of appropriate information and variety.

As Donna Goodison wrote for The Boston Herald, Reale has now created BeFreeForMe.com.

Her free Web site is targeting the country’s estimated 3 million celiacs and 12 million-plus people who have food allergies. It has signed more than 1,000 members since it launched last week amid Celiac Awareness Month. Reale’s goal is to have 5,000 members by the end of the year.

Those who join BeFreeForMe.com - which also will include online links to savings and samples as well as recipes, articles, product reviews and a blog by Reale - will receive a monthly newsletter and quarterly coupon books. Reale hopes to have offers from 48 product manufacturers, retailers and restaurants in the first book that will be sent by mail early next year.

The savings should be an enticement for prospective members, because many gluten- and allergen-free foods tend to be expensive, according to Reale. A box of gluten-free cereal can cost up to $5.50, and a loaf of gluten-free bread can be upward of $6.

There's a sign-up page at the site where you can agree to receive Reale's materials.

Free Samples & Coupons sent to your home / Newsletter
Samples & Coupons sent periodically throughout the year - direct to your home. Product Review and informative email Newsletter sent to your inbox monthly.

Receive a sample pack of a new nut free cereal and try before you buy, go ahead and buy a new kind of gluten free pasta with that $1.00 off coupon, want to try a new dairy free cookie? Sure! These are some examples of how BeFreeForMe can help you sample & save!

BeFree FreeBe
Sent periodically throughout the year to your inbox.

Emails full of tidbits and tips on gluten free and allergy free offers found online. All based upon your personalized dietary preferences.

Ask BeFreeForMe
Sent weekly to your inbox.

Got Questions? We got the answers: Whether it’s what to do to prepare for a nut free sleep-over or the secret to making a delicious gluten free turn-over. You ask and we’ll answer. BeFreeForMe will answer one of our member’s questions every week.

Free Thought
Sent Monday through Friday to your inbox.

Daily quotes and inspiration to free ourselves. Solitude, laughter, peace, or enlightenment delivered to your inbox daily.