We are trying to make ourselves more aware of Coeliac disease and what it means to those who suffer.
Last year we introduced a range of gluten free hampers, using the best advice we could source from nutritionists and those we know who suffer this condition. However, with no personal experience of the issue, we are grateful for coeliac.org and their planned annual awareness week to try to better inform ourselves.

Things we have learnt from their information available online.
1. Coeliac disease is not a food intolerance. It is the immune system attacking its own tissue when you eat gluten.
2. Coeliac disease affects 1% of people in the UK but only 30% of those have been diagnosed.
3. The only treatment for it is a gluten free diet.
4. It can take between 6 months and five years from starting your gluten free diet to recover from damage previously done.
5. All packaged foods in the UK and the EU are covered by labelling laws which include rules around the allergen information that has to be provided on the label. This means that you can tell from the label whether a product contains ingredients that contain gluten.
6. Barley malt vinegar is gluten free even though barley is a gluten source due to the way it is
processed.