Case Study GLUTEN-FREE DIETS A gut feeling for
GLUTEN-FREE MEALS
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With coeliac disease affecting one in 100 people, providing gluten-free meals is perhaps no longer a matter of choice. Morag Lyall investigates this very real issue facing the school catering sector
ast month, PizzaExpress announced that it had created six dishes that meet Coeliac UK’s No Gluten Containing Ingredients (NGCI) accreditation, recognising the growing number
of
people who are diagnosed with coeliac disease or avoid gluten. Since then, ASK Italian has
received an NGCI accreditation and awareness is being boosted through events such as
“Providing special diets
for children in schools is on the increase – and gluten- free is one of many”
Gut Feeling Week, held last month. With more high street restaurants recognising the need to provide for this customer base, should school
June 2013
caterers not be doing the same? Coeliac disease, an autoimmune disease in which gluten – found in wheat, barley and rye – triggers a reaction that damages the lining of the small intestine, affects one in 100 people. This baseline number is extracted from research carried out with seven-year- olds who possess the antibodies for the condition, suggesting that schools are better placed than any other sector to be
sympathetic to the condition. As awareness of coeliac disease increases and more cases are diagnosed, schools could also be put under greater
pressure to offer gluten-free foods from parents.
“The feedback we get from parents
is that it’s a very patchy picture out there,” says Sarah Sleet, chief executive of Coeliac UK, the national charity for people with coeliac disease. She explains guidance on
that
the provision of gluten-free food varies
across no for schools the
country and there is
obligation to
provide these dishes at all. Within Scotland
there is
policy guidance on the provision of food in schools
needs,” says Penny Richards, operational director at Caterlink.
“You may be providing
those options in your school kitchen
already, it’s just that you don’t recognise
they’re gluten- free”
that recommends providing for special diets such as gluten-free. In other parts of the UK it can be left to individual areas or schools to choose how they go about providing for coeliac customers.
Within Caterlink schools, for example,
specifi c dietary requirements are made very clear and involve parents, the child and the school. “This information is
to our teams, who then develop bespoke gluten-free meals that specifi cally meet their dietary
crucial
LACA national chair Anne Bull is also confi dent that schools are starting to listen to the message. She says: “Providing special diets for children in schools is on the increase – and gluten-free is one of many. This may be an indication of the times we live in with extra preservatives added to foods and with children’s immune systems being very different to past generations. “Whatever the
reason is for the increase I believe that it is part of our job as caterers to work with parents, dieticians and children, and young people themselves, to provide food in school that is nutritious and that they will enjoy without being harmful in relation to their particular intolerance.” It is even possible that by providing gluten-free meals school caterers can see increased uptake, as currently many parents of children with coeliac disease prefer to stick to packed lunches. “If schools can offer robust gluten-free
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