Shopping list for the UK

Disclaimer: “This is not an official FAILSAFE document but rather a list prepared by members of the UK FAILSAFE email support group and should be used as a guide only. Product ingredients should always be checked before purchase and listing of a product on this document does not 100% guarantee that the product is FAILSAFE as ingredients lists change from time to time without notification from manufacturers”

Supermarkets

All UK supermarkets are very much into “home brands” but unlike Aust these are not cheap or generic brands. Many offer a “premium home brand” an “every day” home brand and a “value or cheaper basic home brand”

This does pose problems as for many products like bread, cereal and biscuits there are not only national branded products for then supermarket home brand and the ingredients can vary from supermarket to supermarket

Organic food is easily available in the UK and most major supermarkets carry quite an extensive range of good value organic meat, F&V, dairy and dry goods

All major supermarkets have good websites with online shopping across the country, but this can be a good way of checking out products

Sainsburys, Tesco and ASDA have a number of large supermarkets which are more like a hyper market and stock food as well as clothing, housewares, toys etc and these are often open 24 hours, however on a Sunday retailers can only trade for 6 hours and most are open 10am – 4pm

The Major supermarkets include

Sainsburys: www.sainsburys.co.uk

Tesco: www.tesco.co.uk

Waitrose: www.waitrose.co.uk

ASDA: www.asda.co.uk

Morrisons: www.morrisons.co.uk

The Coop: http://www.co-op.co.uk/foodretail/index.php?pageid_grp=99

Wholesalers

Suma - the biggest wholefood wholesaler in the country - it's worth buying one of their catalogues and you can see what organic products are available , and get onto the manufacturer's websites to check out ingredients.

Organic box schemes - contact the Soil Association

Products

Cooking Oil – most supermarket brands are not failsafe. Failsafe oils can be sourced from Healthfood or wholefood shops or online

• Clear Springs Sunflower Frying Oil, they also do an unrefined sunflower oil but this can be quite high in salycilates
• Clear spings organic soy oil

organic sunflower oil from Midsummer

• Community clearly states that it doesn't contain any of the following:

colouring, antioxidants, anti-foaming agents. It is however not organic. The brand name is Community and costs 2.12 Euro for 1 litre and is available in some supermarkets
The company details: Community Foods Ldt, Micross, Brent Terrace, London NW 1LT

Margarine

• organic SUMA marg – if you don't have issues with salicylates
• Pure is the brand of Uk equivalent of Nuttlex but it is not failsafe. It contains caraten colours and palm oil which can be a problem with antioxidants.
• For those needing a dairy free oil spread, some failsafers have solidified sunflower oil in the fridge and used it as a spread

Milk: A2 milk is not marketed as such, however, goat, sheep, and buffalo milk is all of the A2 variety. Guernsey cow milk is approx 90% A2 and Jersey milk is approx 50% A2. (taken from research on the internet), so the “Gold Top” brand which is a mix of Guernsey and jersey cow milk may be OK for some and perhaps better than “regular” milk.

Rice Milk – Rice Dream, organic or fortified with Calcium (available at most supermarkets

Soy Milk – Alpro Organic soy milk

Golden Syrup

• Crazy Jacks avail from Health food stores
• Marthets Golden Syrup from Health Food shops
• (Note: the most common supermarket brand of golden syrup is Tate and Lyle and this can be too high in salycilates for some people)

Cereal – Weetabix

- Kallo brand rice puffs

- Waitrose Rice Pops

Frozen pastry - Jus-roll all butter puff-pastry (in the freezer section)

 - Jus-roll all-butter short-crust

Tinned Pears in Syrup widely available. All major supermarkets do their own brand, some like “Summerfields” contain citric acid but other like Sainsburys and Tesco are just pears, water and sugar

Rice cakes These are easily available at any supermarket, the brand which is failsafe is Kallo and they also do organic ones which are yummy.

GF flour - Orgran is avail at a lot of UK healthfood stores and if not your local store should be able to order it, both the SR and the plain. (check for soy in ingredients if you have a problem with soy). There is a brand of GF plain flour Dove’s Farm available at most major supermarkets but Orgran seems to give better results when cooking

Bread - not found a failsafe sliced bread yet - even the organic ones contain vinegar

There are some lovely pita breads however - Newbury Phillips organic pita - ingredients flour and salt. They are not widely available, but can be bought from wholefood shops.

Country Miller Organic rolls available from Sainsburys has no whey or vinegar

Waitrose do a bread by Cranks which is organic and does not contain vinegar or whey

breadmaker – Buy flour by the sack from the wholefood shop and use Dove's Farm yeast (no improver added), again from the wholefood shop

Icecream - Green and Blacks Vanilla ice-cream. Double check as this has been known to list lemon juice in the ingredients

Yoghurt:

· Rachel's organic vanilla and maple syrup flavoured yoghurts

· Soy Yoghurt – Alpro Organic Plain Yoghurt

Vanilla - Nielson-Massey organic vanilla from the wholefood shop

Treats

• Kettle Chips in the UK are failsafe - the manufacturers have confirmed that they do not contain unlisted antioxidants in the oil. They also come in small snack size packets
• From Waitrose supermarkets ;
1. a packaged Madeira sponge
2. flapjack traybakes and slices (contain golden syrup, though, which is probably Lyle's).

Maple Butter is concentrated maple syrup in spread form, which is nice on toast.

Sugar: double check before you select a packet of sugar as there is a range which is made from beets not cane sugar, so make sure it states “cane sugar” on the packet

WARNINGS:  The main FAILSAFE pitfalls in UK:

1) all supermarket sunflower and canola oil has antioxidants in it, so you need to source a brand from a good wholefood or healthfood shop

2)  “Most gluten free products here contain soy, so many struggle at times for a savoury snack other than rice cakes and kettle chips.

3) Sakata rice crackers are not available in the UK, so for those visiting the UK you may want to consider bringing some along or having family post them. This can be expensive but well worth it if you are on a gluten free diet

4) Meat here is aged, so most beef is aged for min 3 weeks and up to 2 months, at the suggestion of the support group we have found a local farm where I go and buy lamb as soon as it is slaughtered

5) There are no known failsafe lollies in the UK

6) E numbers are not used very often so get used to the full chemical names and use a little food additive handbook

7) Labeling laws mean that manufacturers do not have to disclose exact flavours, so packets sometime just say “flavours, herbs or spices” and the manufacturers do not have to disclose exact recipe details as this is considered “protected information”

8) Some brands of golden syrup are too high in salycilates, Crazy Jacks (avail from Health food stores is OK)

9) dairy free butter, the UK equivalent of Nuttlex is not failsafe

10) Plain toothpaste is not available so those traveling here may want to bring some with them from Aust

11) Citric acid can only be bought from the chemist, from behind the counter. You will need to ask for it and specify that you are using it for cooking

12) Medical practitioners in the UK including dieticians in general are not familiar with “FAILSAFE” nor do they seem to have the same knowledge of food intolerances. It can be a good idea to have a letter from your Dr or Dietician explaining your situation.

There are some good things too

1) so many brands are international so the Aust shopping list can be a good start

2) if brands vary, similar products can be found, eg there is no Weetbix but there is Weetabix, similar product and as far as I know failsafe

3) Plain kettle chips come in small packets here

4) Tinned pears in syrup are avail at nearly every supermarket ( this was something difficult to source in Aust)

Travelling  in the UK and abroad:

It is too hard to buy failsafe products in a foreign speaking country as the ingredients may not be in English, so travel with all the basics that you need (rice cakes, rice milk, rice puffs etc and homemade muffins and kettle chips and buy the fresh chicken and pears and veges you need when you arrive or take a cold pack so you have things you need for the short term.

If eating in restaurants in Europe it can be handy to have a statement translated into the language of the country about your dietary requirements or for example “my children have food allergies so do you mind if they eat food that I have prepared for them and brought with us?”. Translation services are available online

Self catering is obviously the easiest way to travel and be FAILSAFE but B&B’s will often cater for special diets and will let you store food of your own in the fridge or freezer. Small hotels (reminiscent of Faulty Towers – they offer what is known as B&B, half board which is breakfast and dinner or full board which is breakfast, lunch and dinner) although they do not have bar fridges in the rooms will store food in the main kitchen fridge and freezer and will prepare special meals with notice – the most important thing is to take along basic ingredients that they may not have e.g FAILSAFE oil, rice milk etc

School:

• All schools in the UK provide “school dinners” for lunch. Student can take a packed lunch, however some private schools may have rules about this. In the state schools up to 50% of students can be having packed lunches
• Schools also provide fruit for the morning snack break, so you may need to ensure suitable fruit is provided from home or another type of snack
• In briefing the school and class teachers it may be worth considering using the words “allergies” as food intolerance can be considered here as less important or there can be very little understanding or them.
• A copy of the introduction section the RPA Food Friendly book can be useful for providing information to UK medical practitioners or teachers as it is seen as being "credible" being from a hospital and has some really good but simple info.

Restaurants:

• Many pubs in the UK have very family friendly restaurants and of course the UK is known for its “pub culture”. However it can be worth while pre checking with any restaurant especially more basic pub restaurants that they are able to provide the food that you require. For example if fresh chicken is not on the menu they may not have it in the kitchen
• Due to safety regulations some restaurants although happy for you or your children to consume food you have brought from home, they will not have it in the kitchen due to risk of contamination and so they will not be able to warm it for you – this is rare but has been known to happen.