March 18, 2011

The Other Big One – Dunnes Stores’ Food Allergy Free Section

As promised, a little review on Ireland’s other major food supplier: Dunnes Stores. In my mother’s opinion, the Food Allergy Friendly section of Dunnes is better than that of Tesco’s... I’m sure that that is up for debate but I must say that it’s not half bad for a big supermarket. There is a genuinely top quality selection of milks with the best prices I’ve found in Dublin for Rice Milk (Organic Rice Milk at €2.12 and Rice Milk with Calcium+ at €2.45 which undercuts the competition by about 50c or sometimes even more!) Although I like to support the independents wherever I can, sometimes I just need more realistic prices for my staples…

The predominant theme of Dunnes, like Tesco, is

- Gluten free
- Wheat free
- Dairy free (but possibly more dairy free products? - or maybe it's my wishful imagination..)

They are major stockists of Kelkin products and have a nice selection of Bunalun Organic products too (not that Bunalun is predominately food allergy aware, but it’s still nice to have organic options in a supermarket). Dunnes also stocks ‘Genius’ bread which looks like the real thing! And Soul Bakery products which make some lovely dairy free and egg free breads and sweet breads.

  • Dairy Free Milks - Rice Dream, Alpro Soya in strawberry & vanilla as well as light & original, Soya Soleil, Kara DF Coconut


  • Alpro - puddings (vanilla, chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel) and pouring custard


  • Glutafin - Wheat free and gluten free Bourbon Creams & Custard Creams


  • Sam Mills - Gluten Free Corn Spaghetti


  • Kelkin - Pizza Bases, Buckwheat ‘Corn’ Flakes, Gluten Free Muesli, Rice Cakes (Salt free, Lightly Salted, Multigrain, Chocolate Minis), Madeira Cake, Tea Cakes, Chocolate Snack Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Crunchy Nut Cookies, Lecithin Granules, Organic Flax Seed, Gluten Free Jaffa Cakes,Gluten, Wheat & Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Muffins, Soya Wheat & Gluten Free Corn Crispbread, Cheese Flavour Corn Crispbread, Chocolate Fingers, Oat Cakes, Gluten Free & Wheat Free Buckwheat Flakes (but they contain corn), Gluten Free White Sliced Bread, Multigrain Brown Bread


  • Linwoods - Hemp, Goji Berries, Flax, Flax Mixes, Sunflower & Pumpkin Seeds


  • Linsuit - Golden Linseed


  • Lifeforce - Rice Cakes (Plain, Yoghurt, Chocolate)


  • Kallo - Rice Cakes, Hazelnut & Chocolate Rice Cake Bars


  • Whole Earth – Gluten Free, Wheat Free & Dairy Free Corn Flakes (but unfortunately they contain soya), Maple Frosted Flakes


  • DS – Cornflakes, White Ciabattaa, Brown Multigrain Loaf, White Sliced Loaf


  • Juvela – Fibre Rolls, White Rolls


  • Genius – Gluten & Wheat free ‘Fresh’ White Bread and ‘Fresh’ Brown Bread


  • McCambridge – Gluten & Wheat Free Fruit Soda Bread


  • Livwell – Wheat, Gluten & Dairy Free (although containing Soya) – White Rolls, Hot cross Buns, Multi-seed Bread, Multi-seed Rolls, Sultana Scones, White Pitta Bread, Garlic & Coriander Naan Bread, Sliced White Bread, Ciabatt Rolls, Chocolate Muffins, Chocolate Chip Cookies


  • Bunalun – Corn Rice Cakes, Rice Cakes, Honey Wafers, Wheat Pastas, Sauces


  • The Organic Co – Rice Cake covered in Milk Chocolate, Yoghurt and Orange


  • And don’t forget to try out some of the Soul Bakery offerings, but you will find these in the actual Bread section as opposed to the Food Allergy Friendly Section.

    And can I just take this opportunity to say – why so many varieties of rice cakes?! Seriously! There seems to be more than a quarter of the entire section dedicated to rice cakes (and almost all of them have sesame seeds!)... But at least Dunnes have a wider variety of Rice cakes, like Rice free Corn cakes! Now, that’s my whinge over… so I will carry on with saying that I hope that this free from food allergy, dietary restriction trend keeps growing to include more variety in ingredients because like Tesco products there is a heavy weighting on egg, potato, maize and soya in the bready products… but maybe it will come in time becasue I tell you, there’s a market! – with me at least!! ;)

    Have a fun weekly shop!


    Dunnes Stores
    web: www.dunnesstores.ie
    Locations: Ashleaf (Crumlin), Balbriggan, Beacon Shopping Centre, Blanchardstown, Citywest, Clondalkin, Comelscourt, Crumlin, Finglas, Finglas Charlestown, George's St, Henry St, Ilac Centre, Kilnamanagh, Leopardstown, North Earl St, Northside, Ongar, Portmarnock, Rathmines, Saggart, Stephen's Green SC, Swords Pavilion, Tallaght

    7 comments:

    Food Allergies said...

    What a useful list. Great share.

    Aurea@Survival Guide said...

    Thanks! so glad you find it helpful!

    Paul said...

    We're travelling with a son who has severe anaphylactic dairy, nut, and egg allergies and find you blog very helpful and reassuring. Thanks so much.

    Aurea@Survival Guide said...

    Paul, I'm so glad to be able to help. Its crazy when you travel because you know that some of the locals must be allergic too but you just don't know where to find what you need.
    Let me know if I can help any more!
    Aurea

    Anonymous said...

    I've been diagnosed with early stage psoriatic arthritis. The majority of web sites claim cuttin out wheat and dairy will help. Its good to know that there is a lot you can substitute. Thanks for the info
    Liz

    Aurea@Survival Guide said...

    Good Luck with your journey Liz. I have a friend who it helped a LOT so hope it will work for you too!

    Unknown said...

    This is an amazingly helpful blog.

    I've recently discovered i'm allergic to wheat, which explains my horrendous eczema problem. And I also have Dairy and maize intolerances.
    It seems easy enough to substitute milk products, but not so easy to find wheat AND maize free products. Especially breads. I found found alot of one kind of Dairy-free, wheat-free, maize-free Spelt bread, but i cant find one that is a substitute for a wholewheat and healthy seed loaf. Thinking of just making my own if i have time...