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Hi everyone!
Below please find the responses I received from people. I am not too
worried now, they are all very reassuring. Hope this helps others too :)
You need to contact the Coelic Society (and yes the Brits spell the disease
with an o after the C--for 5 pounds they will send you a booklet of all the
foods in Britain that are GF in the regular supermarkets--amazing. There is also
a number of health food stores that sell European GF speciality foods. I find
it pretty easy to eat there. Eating out was a bit more of a challenge, but
folks were helpful. I had a lot of grilled fish.
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European travel is heaven for celiacs. They are so much more aware of
celiac disease over there than we are here. In addition there is just a
lot more fresh food and concern about food allergies over there that even
when you are where they do not know celiac, they are just more
accommodating. In England many restaurants have signs that ask you to tell
the host or hostess about food allergies when you are seated. That way
they can send someone over to help you with your selections.
Here are a few personal tips. These work for me but everyone has to do
what is right for them
First, I do not do GF meals on the plane. We have had some mishaps here
and the result is that I feel that if a GF meal is offered or not, you have
to be prepared to feed yourself. Once I pack the GF food my daughter wants
to eat, it seems pointless to have an airline meal too. When you order a
special meal it is not attached to you, it is attached to your flight. So,
if you miss a connection, have a flight cancelled etc. Your GF meal goes
off on your originally scheduled flight. There is really no way for the
airline to bounce meals (one little tray) from flight to flight. Also, we
had an instance where someone ate by daughter's GF meal. They asked if you
had a special meal to hit the call light. We did and so did a number of
people. Some people were served (not us) and there was turbulence. They
stopped the meal service for a bit and when they resumed, no GF
meal. There was just a low-fat meal left and it was pasta. When the
flight attendant looked into it, it turns out that before the turbulence
they served the GF meal to someone (who said he ordered GF but he ordered
low-fat) and he had finished it!!!! The flight attendants were really kind
and they made a fruit plate from some fresh fruit that they had in first
class, but there may not always be fruit. So, I pack my own food.
There are restrictions on the food that you can bring into a foreign
country. You will need to call the consulate to get the most recent
list. Basically, if it is fresh food and has been opened you cannot bring
it in. But, you can bring it on the plane. So, if you bring an apple and
do not finish or only eat half your sandwich you will need to throw the
uneaten food before you leave the plane.
Second, our favorite restaurant in London was Giraffe. We went to the one
near Kenningston Place. They were so nice and helpful and careful about GF.
Third, pubs can be hard. A lot of the food is gluten laden but we were
able to get them to do sandwiches without bread, salads etc. in a number of
pubs. Granted because we were with an 8 year old the only pubs we could go
into were the ones with family rooms. This may have set us up to be in a
more accommodating setting.
Fourth, there are a lot of egg dishes. This is always a good back-up.
Fifth, there are great stores. We liked Holland and Barretts health food
store. But most grocery stores had GF food. Marks and Spenser has their
own GF bread.
Finally, we read a lot about GF food in England being considered a medical
expense and covered by the national health care and therefore free. There
are some hoops to jump through for the food to be free and we never did get
it to work. You need a prescription for GF food. You need to get the food
at a pharmacy (not the grocery store) and it needs to be ordered (so a day
or two lead time).
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I had a great time in London last spring. I rented an apartment and
shopped at Sainsbury, which is like our Safeway. They have a section of an
isle dedicated to gluten free products, so you can buy everything you want,
cookies, bread,.... Also, the E.U. requires products to list gluten on the
label, so you can even safely shop for canned soup! Restaurants are also
aware of gluten, so you can talk to waiters. You'll probably want to move
there after visiting! Also, I flew Virgin and they gave me a great GF meal
that even included a GF bun. I love flying Virgin Atlantic.
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You should not have too many problems in London.Supermarkets,such
as,Asda,tesco and Sainsbury's all have GF food selections,ask at customer
service desk.There are many Health food shops e.g. Holland&Barrett, Some
Pharmacies icluding Boots stock GF products.
The restaurants should understand your needs,they sometimes need to be
reminded about sauces,etc.
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It was a piece of cake to travel there!! The TESCO grocery store chain
has a whole gluten-free section. It is wonderful. The restaurants
were all very aware. We were there last March. The Original Hard Rock
in London cooked my daughter's food in a separate kitchen. The chef
came out to talk to her to make sure that my daughter got something
kid-friendly. They were fabulous. Just remember TESCO. And the food
labeling laws in Europe are so much more progressive. MANY things are
labeled "suitable for Coeliacs" (that is how they spell it there.) It
made traveling there very easy and enjoyable.
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