The Gluten free and allergy show in Wellington.
We aren’t in the Wairarapa this weekend! So – trying to make the most of a weekend in the city – we went to the above show. (It’s raining). Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t need to eat a gluten free diet – I eat Lo-Carb, which is a lot harder to do in New Zealand than it really should be. Gluten Free is really quite easy here, with a huge range of products available in the supermarkets, and a showcase of products you can wander round!
The good stuff.
I’m afraid I couldn’t do many taste-tests, because basically Gluten Free still contains a lot of carbs, and more importantly sugar, however – doesn’t stop me looking!
LoveCake: Boy did I want to try the cake samples. They looked so scrummy, rich an moist. The website unfortunately doesn’t actually show the ingredients list, so do make sure you check before buying.
L’affaire au Chocolate. makes and sells dairy,wheat and gluten free chocolates – and brilliant for me, even sells a 100% chocolate bar from France (Pralus brand). At $15 for 100g it works out about the same price as a bar of SchocBlack, so I look forward to trying it out.
SweetSmart: Oh Yes! Sugar Free! And some of their range is sugar free and gluten free. They sell sweets, chocolate spreads (sweetened with Fructose so no good for low carbers), and biscuits. Best thing is they sell DeBron brand sweets which is something that you can buy in the UK but not here – and they promise me that they will be ordering some Sugar Free Marshmallows, which I haven’t seen since ordering the DeBron ones when I was back in the UK. While I rarely eat sweets to be honest, to have the option is nice, and I think this new company may be the nearest we get to the UK’s LowCarb Megastore.
A lot of their products are sweetened with a product called Tagatose, which a quick search on LowCarbFriends suggests is highly laxative – so be warned.
The Protein Bakery: Oh boy – these guys are the Gods of LowCarb Cookies, and they are a Wellington company, born and bred. Unlike a lot of LowCarb (or Gluten free) biscuits or cookies – these are soft. And they really do taste as close to the real thing as i think you are gonna get without flour and sugar. They have been available for years now, and new flavours are being developed all the time. In fact at the show, they have 4 new flavors to try and vote on, including an Almond Cookie, which as far as I’m concerned was heavenly. The cookies with chocolate chips in do have a small amount of sugar, so you need to aware of that, but the flavors without are 100% sugar free, and all are gluten free.
gftreats: Ok, so here I broke the rules a little and did a taste test of something that was Gluten Free but not lowcarb. This company sells Battered Fish, Chicken Strips, Mini Hot Dogs and Donuts, all GF. I made a sacrifice and tried everything but the mini hot dogs (cos I refuse to eat horrid battered sausage with a stick up its back end and call it a hot dog!) I have to say they were really tasty, and the company thoughtfully had a sheet available to check the ingredients, and it seemed to be to fit the bill for GF food nicely.
Now the not-so-good.
To be honest – I skipped most of the main Gluten Free stands, because basically if its bakery stuff, I know it’s no good for me, and those were the stands that were obviously most crowded. And I really dont have a huge amount of patience at shows like this where you have to fight to get to the stand itself.
So in reality, there were only 3 stands that I had a problem with:
AriaFarm sell a brand called “Make A Meal Of It” which is basically “formed” meat, frozen into strips that you can just pour out of a bag and cook. I just kinda have a problem with a show that is basically about healthy eating showcaseing a product that takes perfectly good (gluten, sugar,dairy,wheat,soy,legume,you-name-it free) natural food, processing it and selling it as something healthy cos they managed to do it without adding gluten to it! Now the Meat strips are indeed 96% meat – but – um – call me crazy – why buy “Formed” 96% meat when most supermarkets sell 100% fresh meat in ready cut strips that you can bung in the freezer.
There was also a company there selling, amongst other things, Pork Scratchings and pork Rinds. Now I forgot to make a note of the name, but a process of eliminations means it looks like it was SweetsDirect. The website is unavailable I’m afraid. So what was wrong? Well basically Pork Rinds are about as LowCarb and gluten free as you can get. They are pretty much just fat and protein naturally. And the company had signs up saying they were Gluten Free and LowCarb. Except when I read the Ingredients list, they contains Wheat Flour and Sugar, so were neither Gluten free nor LowCarb. And yet on sale at a Gluten Free show. If nothing else this says that you really must read the labels and not take the companies word!
Kitchen Queens were selling non-stick cooking products, like Magic Baking Sheets – but at stupidly high prices. They were selling a 150cm roll for $50, and 100cm for $35. Lakeland sell 100cm for £9, so if you are in the UK – grab one, or if you are in NZ shop around. Even Kirkaldie & Staines sell it cheaper. It’s brilliant stuff, and I use it all the time, but I’m not going to pay that much when I can get it cheaper.
All in all it was a very good show, and even we managed to buy some goodies, so well worth the $10 fee to get in. It’s open again tomorrow, at the TSB Arena. Only problem – no coffee stand!
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Comments
4 Comments on The Gluten free and allergy show in Wellington.
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Liz Tibbutt on
Sun, 19th Sep 2010 3:15 pm
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Avalon on
Sun, 19th Sep 2010 10:08 pm
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Liz Tibbutt on
Sun, 2nd Jan 2011 1:30 pm
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Avalon on
Sun, 2nd Jan 2011 8:22 pm
Hi Avalon
Great to see you attended the show in Wellington! Just wanted to correct a few things that you wrote about our Bakeliner products.
Our prices are very comparable to the Lakeland products – you just need to compare the right ones! The cookie sheets we sell for $14.95 are the same as the Magic Non-stick Liners Lakeland sell for £4.99 (Ref 5570). The Magic Oven Liners (Ref 3318) they sell for £9.99, we sell for $29.95. The 150cm rolls we sell for $49.95 aren’t available through Lakeland but cm for cm are comparable with their large Magic Non-stick Liner (Ref 5571) because ours is wider and longer.
Yes, once you take the current exchange rate into account, our products are a bit more expensive – we don’t have the buying power that Lakeland has – but our products are freight free so I’m not sure that there is much of a difference at the end of the day.
You also might like to check if our products are more expensive than other locally available non-stick liners. Are they the same grade? The same size? Are they guaranteed for 5 years?
We’d appreciate if you could update your blog accordingly.
Thanks … Liz & Kirsty
Hi Liz, You are welcome to comment, but with all due respect, please don’t ask me to alter my blog 
If you had cheaper products that you sell – perhaps you shouldn’t have tried to just sell me an ridiculously expensive version 
Kirks sell Magic Liner at a comparable price.
And I advise people in the UK to Buy from Lakeland and bring it with them. I’m not changing that advise.
Not so much asking you to change your blog but to get the info correct. Those are the prices we had at the fair but we had a range of products in different weights and lengths so we may have been talking about different products. You might be referring to the silicone mats which were very expensive – I agree! I don’t personally recommend them as I can’t see any advantage over the bake liners but some people like them.
OMG is this for real???
Now you are trying to make out (months later) that I was actually asking about silicon liners and that’s why I was quoted $50??? Jeeze! I asked for the price of the non stick reusable baking liner as explained in my post. I was quoted $50. If you screwed up that is NOT my fault. (From memory – a bit rusty now tbh – I also checked on your website) If I had been asking about the price of silicon liners then I would have blogged about silicon liners.
You said in your 1st comment that you do indeed sell 150cm for $50 (49.95 – I was going for brevity). But somehow my info is “incorrect”???
Seriously – you have made a comment telling potential readers your product line and prices and putting in your own comparisons with Lakeland- basically using this blog as an advert and you have the cheek to take a pop at me because I will not alter the original blog post to make you look better??? I let the comment through, allowing you to correct the duff impression YOU gave out at the show (and honestly – call me thick – but I cant see much difference in what I said and what you said).
Instead of whinging at me – take a moment to be grateful that you were able to correct your cock-up because I allowed you to comment on my blog. You have created an argument out of nothing – and frankly I think you have made yourselves look really silly – but hey – thats not actually my problem.
My advise is still not to buy this stuff from this company (certainly not now!) and to get a load at Lakeland before you come over. Lakeland also do very well at good customer service
(further comments will not be allowed cos Ive got better things to do with my time in 2011).
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