Tag Archives: Dairy Free

A dairy-free hamper full of Plamil products to one lucky winner

Posted on 9 January, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Imagine the delight on your child’s face when they discover they can eat a nut free chocolate spread, or a cake studded with dairy free chocolate drops.

Plamilmake free-from mayonnaise and chocolate products. They specialise in creating award winning food which caters for a variety of possible allergies.

Win a Plamil hamper

Win a Plamil hamper

The company creates top quality food suitable for everyone but particularly designed to avoid certain ingredients. People choose ‘free from’ foods for a variety of reasons whether ethical, religious, or allergy.

All Plamil food is vegan friendly, avoiding animal, dairy and egg products. In addition, their carefully controlled production site means that all their products are gluten free and nut free.

As a competition prize Plamil are offering a generously filled hamper of their goodies loaded with mouth watering tastes and flavours. To enter all you need to do to enter the prize draw is send an email with your name and address (UK addresses only, competition closes 12.1.12). The winner will be announced in the next GoodnessDirect newsletter.

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Posted in Coeliac (Gluten-Free), Competitions, Dairy-Free, Vegan

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See our most popular products at GoodnessDirect’s Facebook shop

Posted on 13 December, 2011 by | 1 Comment

At GoodnessDirect we sell a huge variety of products for those interested in organic or vegan, healthy or restricted-diet food, and for those who care about eco friendly products too.

If you’re looking for a sample of our most popular products then you can find them listed on our Facebook pages in the Shop section, if you’re after something gluten-free, dairy free or fairtrade or raw, it could well be there.

Facebook shop - GoodnessDirect

See our bestselling items on Facebook

It’s a great way to find out what everyone else loves, so take a look…

■ Body & Hair Care
■ Drinks
■ For Baby
■ Freezer
■ Fridge
■ Grocery
■ Household
■ Supplements

There’s such a lot more going on with GoodnessDirect on Facebook – you can make friends with people following a similar lifestyle, you can share tips and recipes, you can find discounts and news and information and competitions and more. So it’s worth joining in.

(There’s even a GoodnessDirect fan page to have a giggle at.)

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Posted in Eco/Environmental, General Food, GoodnessDirect

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Almond milk – I’ve converted

Posted on 15 November, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I am a true convert.

If ever I run out of milk now I use almond milk instead. I’m not sure how many people have tried it but it’s sweeter than milk without increasing the calories and it’s just as refreshing. It comes in a carton and is much better than UHL milk.

Almond milk - Could you convert?

Almond milk - Could you convert?

Provamel, who are frontrunners in the soya milk industry, have just brought out an organic almond milk. They’ve also created an oat milk (think porridge milk) which is also nice but not as satisfying as almond for me.

So there you are, I suspect I’m in a minority on this one along with those who prefer dairy-free, but I’ve always harboured a love of anything almondy and I wanted to share my secret with you.

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Posted in Dairy-Free, Organic, Vegan

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Don’t stop me now… vegan chocolates crack the milk-choc flavour recipe

Posted on 11 November, 2011 by | 2 Comments

A new chocolate is breaking all the rules.

Vegan chocolate has to be dark – that’s the rule. Anything which tries to taste like milk chocolate ends up too oily or watery to compare.

Then came Moo Free and it shocked the world. One television review summed it up…

We don’t know how they’ve done it but Moo Free have created a milky-tasting bar without any dairy content.

It was dairy free, lactose free, gluten free, wheat free, egg free, casein free and vegan. Moo Free’s advent calanders sold out – suddenly parents of children on restricted diets were able to give their children something they would love.

The ingredients were simple and organic : sugar, cocoa butter, rice powder, cocoa mass, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin) and natural flavouring.

MooFree have 3 new flavours

MooFree have 3 new flavours

So where has the milk gone? It seems to be something to do with using rice powder as an alternative although, of course, the true recipe is a closely guarded secret.

There is a social context to this. Leading chefs like Chris Horridge are regularly finding new ways of improving the flavour of foods while cutting back on sugar, dairy and gluten in an effort to feed a rapidly expanding free-from market. It is opening up a whole new world of food experiences and products, introducing ingredients like rice flour, which Moo Free has been able to take advantage of.

Meanwhile, other chocolatiers are working hard to catch up. Organica have produced a much raved about Vegan Milk Chocolate Couverture – it too uses rice as a major substitute ingredient. And another challnger for great tasting vegan milk chocolate may be ‘Celtic Chocolates’ though, personally, I have yet to get my hands on these. Chocolates from Booja Booja and Montezuma are excelent too of course, but here we are firmly back in the dark lands of plain chocolate goods.

Now Moo Free are upping the ante with three new dairy free flavours: Organic Banana Chocolate (Can you imagine? Though, currently, the honeyed glaze isn’t vegan.) Organic Cranberry and Hazelnut Chocolate or Caramelised Hazelnut Chocolate.

Finally, a bit of conspiracy, if you check Moo Free’s facebook page it should be the case that you could see how popular the new flavours are – unfortunately, someone hacked their details and they had to start again – not everything is love and fairness in the world of fairtrade vegan chocolate.

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Posted in Chocolate, Coeliac (Gluten-Free), Uncategorized, Vegan

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New Booja Booja flavours – I’m so excited

Posted on 28 September, 2011 by | Leave a comment

There are 3 new flavours of Booja Booja chocolate truffles.

Is there any more reason you need to get excited?

Booja Booja have created the Rum Sozzled Sultana – a divine flavour explosion, the Stem Ginger – a gorgeously juicy pleasure, and the highly anticipated Banoffee Toffee.

Stunning and ethical in design and taste

Stunning and ethical in design and taste

If you don’t know anything about Booja Booja then you have a brand new world of wonders to discover. Booja Booja make gorgeous truffles and vegan ice cream but these are all organic and dairy free and gluten free, organic – and they taste fantastic!

Not only that you can find them in such exquisite packaging. Booja Booja also have a range called the Artist’s Collection. These are stunning wood-painted chocolate boxes and, in my opinion, now they have a new source of dairy free chocolate, these new truffles taste even better than before.

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Posted in Chocolate, Coeliac (Gluten-Free), Organic, Vegan

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Dairy free cheese you don’t have to store in the fridge

Posted on 21 June, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Engevita is the savoury vegan food with a cheesy nutty taste.

This manna from cheese-heaven comes in dry flakes and has no additives or preservatives, just unactived yeast.

It’s amazing what you can do with it…

Brown off as a topping for ‘cheese on toast’
Add it to a risotto
Cheesify a soup
Whisk up into a cheese sauce for a vegetable lasagna
Create a cheese spread for sandwiches
Make a cheesy salad dressing
Melt over popcorn
Sprinkle onto mashed potato
Dissolve it in fruit juice
Shake it into scrambled tofu or eggs
Some people even eat it straight from the box!

But, even better than that Engevita is one of the richest natural sources of B-vitamins and trace elements, all you need in a spoonful, and now including B12 which is essential for the vegan diet, and a lot of zinc too.

The careful preparation of the yeast also means it is free from candida albicans yeast. It is naturally low in fat and also in sodium – because of this it is a popular condiment for those wanting to limit the salt intake but wanting a little more ‘taste’ on food.

This is a great little flavour enhancer.

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Posted in Dairy Free, General Food, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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New ‘free from’ products from Eskal! Perfect for the party

Posted on 20 June, 2011 by | Comments Off

I love Eskal’s ‘free from’ range with its simple packaging and lovely everyday products. They always seem to be creating new items too…

For those of you who love a healthy snack Eskal have now produced gluten free pretzels. They’re just the thing for your gluten free spread at a party! White coated pretzels (pretzels with yoghurt coating) or chocolate coated pretzels, take your pick!

And for those nights in with a DVD and hot chocolate there’s dairy free, gluten free and wheat free White Marshmallow!

Las, but definitely not least, there’s Lasagne Corte, Penne Rigate and Fusilli. Perfect for your dinner with a lovely homemade tasty tomato sauce. Eskal have made all three  types of Corn Pasta totally Gluten free, egg free, dairy free and GMO free. They are a great alternative to wheat pasta, and 100% natural containing only corn and water. They’re very quick to prepare and easier to digest than wheat pasta.

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Posted in Coeliac (Gluten-Free), General Food, Uncategorized

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Chocolate spread – it’s nut free! Shout about it!

Posted on 10 May, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Plamil have brought out 2 more chocolate spreads! It deserves to be shouted from the rooftops!

Now you can have:
■ Organic Chocolate Spread
■ Organic Chocolate Orange Spread
■ Organic Dairy-Free Alternative to Milk Chocolate Spread
■ Organic No Added Sugar Chocolate Spread

But the more important question is… What will you do with it?

Of course you can spread it on toast, but there are so many other things to do with chocolate spread, it seems a shame to waste the moment. Here are a few suggestions, but what would you do?

Nut free chocolate spread!

Nut free chocolate spread!

Chocolate spread on pancakes
Chocolate spread on cake
Chocolate spread bread and butter pudding
Chocolate spread blended milkshake
Chocolate spread banoffi pie
Chocolate spread fondue
Chocolate spread on banana bread
Chocolate spread on ice cream
Chocolate spread fudge
Chocolate spread on its own…

And being Plamil you can trust that this chocolate is Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet, Kosher, Lactose Free, Organic, Vegan, Wheat Free, Yeast Free and Nut Free – but it does contain soya.

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Posted in Allergy, Chocolate

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Here are the winners of the Free From Food Awards 2011

Posted on 11 April, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Lesley Cutts, GoodnessDirect manager was judge at the Free From Food Awards 2011. She had a great time tasting all the different food.

The awards were announced last week – a selection of the top products from 100s of free-from foods in a diverse range of categories.

Lesley says, “The quality of the food improves each year. It’s close competition and in some cases it’s quite difficult to decide. But it’s great that the awards happen and that more profile is given to free-from and special diets. It’s a great step forward for the industry and those who suffer from dietary restrictions.”

You can read all of the judges comments on the Freedom Food Awards website. We should highlight that specialist niche foods such as RAW foods might not be well represented here, as they are still pushing their way into the market,

Here are the winners and runners up.

FAIR Trophy for the best free-from food 2011
Winner: Doves Farm – Gluten and wheat free white self-raising flour blend
Runner up: Delamere Dairy – Goat’s butter
Runner up: Dietary Specials – Brown Ciabatta rolls
Runner up: Doves Farm – Batter mix and Biscuit crumb

Innovation Award
– Sponsored by Livwell
Winner: Mamma Cucina gluten, wheat, dairy and egg-free vegetable quiche
Commended: Le Sojami Dairy Free Speciality Basil Alternative to Soft Cheese
Commended: Moo Free Praline Chocolates

Dairy and/or lactose free animal milk, butter and yogurt
– Sponsored by Swedish Glace
Winner: Delamere Dairy – Goat’s butter
Highly commended: Delamere Dairy – Semi-skimmed goat’s milk
Highly commended: Woodlands Dairy – Organic sheep milk natural live yogurt
Commended: Lactofree – Semi-skimmed dairy drink

Plant (soya, rice,oat, nut, potato) ‘milk’, spread and ‘cheese’
– Sponsored by Delamere Dairy
Winner: Hain Celestial – Rice Dream
Winner: Le Sojami – Fresh soya paté with olives
Highly commended: Essence of Eden – 100% Organic premium coconut oil
Highly commended: Good Hemp – Dairy-free alternative to milk
Highly commended: Organico Real Foods – Isola Bio spelt drink
Commended: Le Sojami – Dairy-free speciality garlic and mixed herbs alternative to soft cheese
Commended: Tesco – Sweetened soya alternative to dairy milk

Breakfast cereals
– Sponsored by Tesco
Winner: Nature’s Path – Organic Mesa Sunrise
Highly commended: Hale & Hearty – Organic Choco Jungle Cereal
Highly commended: Juvela – Fibre flakes
Commended: Eat Natural – Buckwheat Muesli
Commended: Juvela – Special Flakes with red berries
Commended: Nairns – Oat muesli
Commended: Nairns – Porridge oats
Commended: The Living Food Kitchen – Raw buckwheat granola

Breads and bread mixes
– Sponsored by Tesco
Winner: Dietary Specials – Brown Ciabatta rolls
Highly commended: Marks & Spencer – Made-without-wheat brown seeded bread
Highly commended: Tesco – FreeFrom fresh brown rolls
Commended: Glutafin – Select gluten-free fresh brown bread

Pasta and pizza bases/mixes
– Sponsored by Produced in Italy
Winner: Hale & Hearty – Quinoa and rice penne
Highly commended: Morrisons – Freefrom fusilli
Highly commended: Rizopia Organic brown rice spaghetti
Commended: Farabella – Gnocchi
Commended: Rizopia – Organic brown rice lasagne

Foods manufactured for food service
– Sponsored by Lactofree
Winner: Doves Farm – Batter mix
Winner: Doves Farm – Fairtrade biscuit crumb
Highly commended: Red House Foods – Chicken grill for schools, bread crumbed and battered
Highly commended: Seagreens – Mineral salt
Commended: Doves Farm – Sponge and muffin mix
Commended: Doves Farm – Fairtrade sweet biscuits

Ingredients: flour, stock, pastry, sauces
– Sponsored by Asda
Winner: Doves Farm – Gluten and wheat free white self-raising flour blend
Highly commended: AWT – Gluten-free vegetable stock cubes
Highly commended: Dietary Specials – Frozen shortcrust pastry
Commended: The Black Farmer – Sweet and spicy tomato sauce
Commended: Tideford Organics – Ragu a la Bolognese

Savoury pies, flans, pizzas and ready meals
– Sponsored by Genon Laboratories
Winner: Look What We Found – Spiced lamb meatballs
Winner: The Black Farmer – Premium pork sausages
Highly commended: Honeybuns – Little savoury tart
Highly commended: Look What We Found – Beef and pork meatballs
Highly commended: Musks – Gluten-free sausages
Commended: Fletchers of Auchtermuchty – Original venison sausages
Commended: The Black Farmer – pork, onion and chive sausages

Savoury biscuits and snacks
– Sponsored by Goodness Direct
Winner: Clearspring – Organic rice cakes – Sea vegetable and tamari and Tamari and black sesame
Highly commended: Darling Spuds – Sea salt and Modena balsamic vinegar potato crisps
Commended: Conscious Foods – Mumbai masala munch
Commended: Hale & Hearty – Superbly spiced vegetarian cassava crisps

Scones, sweet tarts and brownies
– Sponsored by the Food and Drink Innovation Network
Winner: Go Free Foods – Chocolate and almond brownies
Highly commended: Morrisons – FreeFrom treacle tart
Highly commended: Sugargrain – Fresh raspberry and white chocolate brownie
Commended: BlueBasil – Gluten-free classic chunky chocolate brownie
Commended: Honeybuns – Snowy Hills cake bar
Commended: Peace of Cake – Blueberry muffin

Sweet biscuits and cookies
Winner: Pourtoi – Raisin chocolate chip cookies
Highly commended: Kent & Fraser – Spicy ginger crunchy cookies
Highly commended: Trufree – Chocolate fingers
Commended: Marks & Spencers – Caramel pecan crunch square

Cakes and cake mixes
– Sponsored by Mrs Crimble’s
Winner: Marks & Spencer – Almond frangipane traybake
Highly commended: Christine’s – Hot toddy cake
Highly commended: Steph’s FreeFrom Cakes – Battenburg
Highly commended: Sugargrain – Zesty lemon polenta cake
Commended: Eat Me Organic – Chocolate delight cupcake
Commended: Sugargrain – Spiced carrot cake with fresh orange icing
Commended: The Cake Crusader – Lemon drizzle cake

Puddings, sweet pies, desserts and cheesecakes
– Sponsored by Hale & Hearty
Winner: BoojaBooja – Stuff in a Tub Hunky punky chocolate
Highly commended: EasyGlut – Crème caramel mix
Commended: Finax – Shake’N Bake Pancake mix

Chocolate and sweet snacks
– Sponsored by Tesco
Winner: Go*Do – Chocolate bar
Winner: Conscious Food – Ginger crunch
Highly commended: Celtic Chocolates – Caramel flavoured choices
Highly commended: MooFree – Chocolate pralines
Highly commended: Tesco – Choc ‘n’ Orange bars
Highly commended: Castus – Be Fruity fruit bars with fig
Commended: Plamil – No-added sugar coffee chocolate
Commended: Pourtoi – Luxury chocolate selection
Commended: Morrisons – FreeFrom fruit and nut bars
Commended: Pack Tunch – Pinapple and coconut snack bars

Christmas products
– Sponsored by Genius Gluten Free
Winner: Sainsbury – FreeFrom Christmas pudding
Highly commended: Livwell – Iced Christmas cake
Highly commended: Mrs Crimble’s – Stuffing mix
Commended: Hale & Hearty – Christmas pudding
Commended: MooFree – Christmas advent calendar
Commended: Sainsbury’s – Freefrom iced Christmas cake

Gluten-free beer
– Sponsored by Asda
Winner: Green’s – Bottle Refermented Blonde Ale
Highly commended: Mongozo – Premier Pilsener
Highly commended: Green’s – Bottle Refermented Dark Ale
Commended: Estrella Damm – Estrella Daura ABV 5.4%
Commended: Green’s – Premium Golden Ale

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Posted in Anti-Candida, Coeliac (Gluten-Free), Diet, Vegan

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The UK’s biggest allergy show is coming soon – bigger and better – and GoodnessDirect will be there

Posted on 30 March, 2011 by | 1 Comment

We’re getting excited about the upcoming Allergy & Gluten Free Show this May. It’s the best chance for everyone affected by an allergy to get the latest information and up-to-date support. And tickets are free.

Here’s a behind the scenes peek at everything that’s going on…

News from the show floor…
The Allergy & Gluten Free Show 2011
Tom Treverton, Event Director

Come and see us...<br> 6-8 May, 2011

Come and see us... 6-8 May, 2011

Working on live events presents certain challenges. Like a number of other professions, months and months of hard work boil down to a brief moment in time, where all elements must seamlessly converge to deliver fantastic experiences for visitors.

Consequently, your working life becomes markedly improved when an event concept falls onto your desk that both energises and inspires. A concept craved for by the sector it represents, one that delivers genuine answers to questions as yet unanswered, and one that resultantly fulfils a ‘need’ sought after by a sizeable chunk of the UK population. The Allergy & Gluten Free Show is one such event.

This year’s show…
It’s taking place at London’s Olympia from 6 – 8 May 2011. This is the UK’s most comprehensive live forum on allergies, intolerances and autoimmune diseases (like coeliac disease), delivering the largest annual gathering of people with these conditions, as well as the leading health professionals that treat them.

We became involved in the show because we recognise the scale of its potential importance. In the UK, approximately one third of the population will develop an allergy at some point in their lives, with around 30 million estimated to have a food intolerance.

However, this major UK health issue is serviced by an alarmingly small number of experts. Poor NHS provision of skilled professionals means that supply does not meet demand, particularly at a primary care level (where insufficient training ensures sub standard advice).

The Allergy & Gluten Free Show 2011 is the only major exhibition designed to plug the knowledge gap, allowing members of the public to discover treatment and product solutions (thus taking control of their conditions) and health care professionals to access a high level of training to improve their service.

What you’ll find there…
First and foremost, this is a show for the public, and we are thrilled with the way the 2011 event is shaping up. Our objective is to make the show something that will both educate and entertain in equal measure; providing the best advice from prominent Consultants, charities, associations and brands, accessible via a diverse range of interactive content platforms.

Food is a massive part of the show. In addition to over 50% of the show floor being packed with ‘free from’ food producers, we are planning three days of…

  • Public seminars from healthcare specialists, including Consultants and Dieticians.
  • ‘Free from’ cooking demonstrations from top chefs.
  • Parent workshops (with strong dietary focuses).
  • Food related product and treatment demonstrations.

We are just weeks away now and the excitement is building amongst the organising team. Thousands more people are signed up to attend than at this stage last year, content programmes are almost complete and we already have more exhibitors than the show has ever attracted.

We are delighted that GoodnessDirect is one of the show’s partners, and will be exhibiting at the event (stand 42).

Indeed, via our partnership visitors to GoodnessDirect.co.uk can attend the show free of charge. To generate unlimited free tickets, visit www.allergyshow.co.uk/go/goodnessdirect. Simply enter a few details, click ‘submit’ and print out a personalised show ticket (worth £10!). his process can be repeated infinitely to produce additional tickets for friends and family.

See you on the show floor!

Tom Treverton, Event Director

Key details
Event: The Allergy & Gluten Free Show 2011
Date: 6 – 8 May 2011
Location: Olympia 2, London, W14 8UX
Tickets: Free, courtesy of GoodnessDirect at www.allergyshow.co.uk/go/goodnessdirect

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Posted in Allergy, Asthma, Coeliac Disease, Digestion, Hayfever, Health, Skin

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