The Allergy & Free From Show 2012


The Allergy & Free From Show 2012
Yesterday I caught a train to London and visited the Allergy & Free From show at Olympia. I have visited the show before, a couple of years ago, but was tempted back this year by the list of exhibitors. I was like a kid in a candy store. It is thrilling to have a day out tasting food that you can eat safely (don’t judge me I can’t understand how you all get excited about IMATS). To be in a room full of people who will not give you a strange look when you question the ingredients, is an amazing feeling. If you follow me on Twitter you will have seen my excited tweets about dairy free ice cream and vegan cupcakes.

For those of you not in the know my main food allergies are milk and egg. For me the highlights of the show did involve my taste buds but I also sampled skincare. Let me share with you the products which stood out to me. 

Pudology - dairy, egg and gluten free puddings. I sampled the chocolate and was delighted. You would never guess it was a free from dessert. These desserts are also available in Banoffee and Strawberry.

Ms Cupcake “the naughtiest vegan cakes in town” – I only bought one cupcake (what a fool!), once I saw the flavour pumpkin spice I was sold. I became addicted to everything pumpkin spice from my travels in USA, I really wish we embraced the flavour in the UK. Anyway, this was simply the most amazing egg and dairy free cake I have ever tasted, it seriously silenced me for a good five minutes whilst I savoured every last crumb. I am immediately moving to London and taking up residence in the shop especially now I check out the website and discovered they have over 120 flavours.

Inspiral - from what I can tell this is a vegan cafe in London and they also sell their foods online and in outlets across the UK. I sampled the raw "cheesecakes" which are dairy and egg free (vegan). I was so impressed I bought a slice of banoffee crème tart. 

Delamere Dairy - this is a brand I have associated with goat cheese and milk, something which I cannot tolerate. I was pleasantly surprised to see they have launched soya milk and dairy free chocolate puddings. I did not get a chance to sample but can tell you that Asda stocks their soya products.

Clive Pies - I was so happy to see Clive’s Pies, many moons ago I used to buy them from Asda and then they disappeared. The pies are free from gluten, dairy, egg, soya and vegan. I bought my favourite Vegetable Chilli along with Mint Chickpea which I sampled (sounds weird but very tasty).

Bessant & Drury Dairy Free Frozen Dessert - coconut ice cream deliciousness, I tasted chocolate and lemon, totally scrummy (take note Booja Booja) and an excellent dupe for the real thing. Getting this back home was not possible (gutted) I would have ended up with coconut soup.

I also stocked up on some firm favourites like Alpro, Naked bars, Nature's Path, Doves Farm, Lazy Day Foods and Sakata. I had a lovely chat with Amy’s Kitchen. I love their products but they are hard to track down. A few have crept into Tesco and Sainsburys but only the ones containing cheese (no good for me). 

After all the excitement of Free From Food obviously the beauty blogger in me was keen to sample skincare. Skinsmatter.com launched the Free From Skincare Awards at this year’s show. Alex Gazzola from Skinsmatter.com has given me a bag of samples and press releases for the awards. I am going to do a separate blog post on this.

There were two beauty products I was keen to seek out and meet the ladies behind them. I have been tweeting with them for a few months. I bought Niki’s Organic Lavender & Camomile balm and Eden Fresh Therapies Natural Nail Polish Remover (Gold Award winner). These products impressed me at the show and I think they are worthy of separate blog posts so look out for my full review.

Sarah x

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