WOO! A RARE find: biscuits that have all of Sidney’s allergy bases covered. While scouring the FreeFrom aisle in Waitrose yesterday I came across these newbies (to me, at least): TruFree Digestive Biscuits.
Amazingly, they’re wheat free, gluten free, egg free, dairy free and nut free (though not soya free). I double checked on the nut and dairy thing with the manufacturers, who happen to be part of the Dietary Specials lot.
The biccies are made in a nut free factory although legally, apparently, they can’t describe themselves as ‘nut free’ because they don’t actually test the product for nuts. Ditto they don’t test for dairy so can’t officially lay claim to the statement ‘dairy free’ but there there are no dairy ingredients used in the digestives and no hidden animal by-products – so they’re effectively vegan as well. Sounds good enough for me.
There’s a whole range of allergy friendly biscuits by TruFree, including bourbons, rich teas and custard creams, but check the packets on all before you buy: some may be made in a nut containing facility. There’s an eminently sensible guide on the TruFree website, which states:
We do not claim TruFree products are nut free. However the warnings on pack will vary according to the facilities at the manufacturing site used for that product:
Made in a factory that uses nut ingredients – nuts will be on site and may be used in the same manufacturing line.
May contain traces of nuts – no nuts are used on site but a risk from an ingredient supplier has been identified.
No warning – no risk has been identified at either the manufacturing site or our ingredient suppliers.
So pleased to have found these biscuits. They don’t taste bad, either – a little grittier than your usual digestive and they wouldn’t fool anyone in a blind challenge with a McVitie’s but they’re palatable enough, good dunked in a cuppa and now I can make my easy party special: fridge cake, allergy free and suitable for Sid! Will get going on a batch when I get the chance/can be faffed and post the recipe here…
TruFree Digestive Biscuits, £1.75 a pack, from Waitrose, ASDA, Holland and Barrett, Goodness Foods, Simply Free or online via Dietary Specials here
yesnobananas 
Not sure about the nut-free claim – only the term ‘gluten free’ is defined by law among the allergens (so far) so can’t see why they won’t make the claim if made in a nut-free factory.
Good point. Fear of legal action? Or uncertainty around ‘dangerous’ levels of cross contamination…? Hmmm… Guess it’s a ‘better safe than sorry’ issue, given the paucity of statutory guidance?
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Yes, I imagine it’s that. When we have a definition for peanut-free (being lower than a certain mg per kg) then there’ll be a standard for them to aim for which may increase their confidence if they find they can ‘pass’ tests for that level.