Mother Earth Popcorn...Gone

A favorite snack of ours has been Mother Earth Popcorn. Very tasty and with none of the added rubbish that is in many other snack foods.

Lately, though, it has become very hard to find in supermarkets. A visit to their website at www.motherearthfoods.net ominously does not show the popcorn as one of their products!. A quick email was sent and the following reply was received:

"Sadly the Mother Earth popcorn is no longer being manufactured."

Interestingly, Mother Earth is a brand of Cadbury-Schweppes with the products being manufactured in New Zealand. No reason was given for the product withdrawal.

It's a shame that the popcorn is no more. We will miss it.

UPDATE There has been plenty of interest in this blog entry and I am not surprised.
If you would like to enquire/complain yourself, then email:

consumer.services.asia.pacific@ap.csplc.com

The Impact of a Gluten Free & Dairy Free Diet on Autism

I stumbled upon on interesting article in the Brisbane Times newspaper regarding the impact of a gluten free & dairy free diet on children with Autism, ADHD, asthma & allergies.

Brisbane Times: "A Fresh Approach" Anne Susskind 10 May, 2007

Uncle Rick's available now

At last it is good to see a few of the Uncle Rick's/Patties staples starting to appear in my local Coles supermarket.

I bought Partie Pies, Big Meat Pies and some Sticky Date Puddings all of which are dairy free and appearing to be fructose friendly.

We've also noticed a new section on the Patties website specifically for the new gluten free range from Uncle Rick. The site is new and still needs some work as there is no ingredient lists. See www.patties.com.au/glutenfree/

We hope that lots of people will buy these products and spur them on to extend the product range to include pizza bases and pikelets which we are really missing at our house.

Uncle Rick & Patties Update

In an earlier post (Where is Uncle Rick?) we mentioned that Patties (and the old Uncle Ricks) were launching their new gluten free, dairy free range on the 16th of April to be made available via Coles. Well, the 16th came and went and we still hadn't seen anything in store.

However, we have been advised today (30th April) by Coles that the products will start appearing in store from Monday the 7th of May, 2007. (Just one week away)

We'll be on the lookout for them. Let us know if you see them and what you think.

New Products from Freedom Foods

Whilst wandering the aisles in Coles recently we discovered the newly released range of gluten free products from
Freedom Foods www.freedomfoods.com.au

All products are gluten free and some are also dairy free. We tried out the frozen Crumbed Chicken Tenders and found them to be very tasty. (We'll be sure to keep some in the freezer)

The Freedom Foods website contains excellent nutritional information about the products. Read what's in the Crumbed Chicken Tenders here.

Dairy Free Easter Eggs 2007

With Easter upon us, traditionally my local Easter Bunny has a tough time finding chocolate treats for me that are dairy free.

He (The Easter Bunny) has found an excellent source of dairy free Easter chocolates from a local Melbourne company called Alpha Confectionery based in Balaclava.

The make a range of Easter chocolate eggs that are free from all animal based ingredients which makes them attractive to vegans also.



You will find very little mention of Alpha on the Net and they are hard to get on the phone. The main stockists are: David Jones, Myer and Chocolate Box stores.
(Easter Bunny tells me that David Jones in Bourke St. had plenty of stock prior to Easter but that another suburban David Jones had very little left a week prior)

Outside of Easter, Alpha sells a range of products including chocolate coated plums and apricots. (which I can't eat due to a sulphur allergy)

Easter Egg Ingredient List:

• Sugar
• Cocoa Mass
• Cocoa Butter
• Lecithin (322)
• Vanillin

Note: I have no connection with Alpha other than as a customer who is happy to be able to enjoy a real Easter egg at this time of year.


I also noticed this year that Target had a range of dairy free and nut free Easter eggs as well. These were Simpsons themed (and a few others) which is great for kids with allergies.

The eggs were from Kinnerton, a UK based company and were made in the UK also. http://www.kinnerton.com

As the packaging says: "dairy free, nut free, and suitable for vegans".

Also check out http://www.kinnerton.com.au for details of some other nut free and dairy free items that we did not know about.

Related Links:

• Dairy Free Easter Eggs - 2012
• Dairy Free Easter Eggs - 2008

Where is Uncle Rick ?

I have been a customer of Uncle Rick's Wheat Gluten & Dairy Free Bakery for some years. (Ever since it was just at the Berwick location. A bit of a hike for me. Glen Waverley is where I usually visit)
Sad news has arrived over the last few months that Uncle Rick's is no more, having now become part of the Patties group.
Any visits to http://www.unclericks.com.au/ now redirect to http://www.patties.com.au/
(There was also an advert in the most recent Coeliac Society publication)
We wish Rick, Rhonda and the whole of the gang all the Very Best with the new venture. (I have no idea if they will still be involved with production at Patties or not)
Some of my favourite Uncle Ricks products are:

• Pies - The team at Uncle Ricks are very aware of fructose malabsorbtion and some of their pies do NOT contain onion.
• Pizza Bases (The best around, I think)
• Pikelets (I should have stocked up on these!!)
• Lamingtons

I am assuming that the pies will live on at Patties but I am worried about the availability of the other items which are regularly eaten by several members of my family.
Drop us a line at glutenfreevictoria@gmail.com if you have any news on the whereabouts of Uncle Rick and his excellent products.
Note: Again, I have no connection with Uncle Rick's other than as a satisfied customer. (Maybe EX-customer now)

Update:

A quick call to Patties found out the following:

• Rick & crew are still involved and work out of the Patties gluten free facility in Bairnsdale
• 16th of April will see a national release of 10 products to be made available via Coles.
  (You can find some Patties products in Richies and other independant supermarkets)

The 10 products are:

• Sausage Rolls
• Pizza Rolls
• Vegie Rolls
• Lamingtons (Hooray!)
• Apple Pies
• Sticky Date Puddings
• Meat Pies (Hooray again!)
• Party Pies
• White Bread
• Grain Bread

It will be up to each supermarket Manager as to which products they will stock. Ask the Manager if they don't have what you want.

Unfortunately, we weren't aware of Uncle Ricks closing down until after the fact and weren't able to stock up on our favourites. This was disappointing to us.
**Update**: Rick & Rhonda were at the 2011 Irresistible Gluten Free Show.
Keep an eye on what Rick is up to at http://www.rickgrant.com.au/