Frequently Asked Questions Find everything you need to know about coeliac disease, the gluten free diet and the work we do.
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Why doesn’t the Membership fee increase cover the cost of the new Guide format?
To cover the cost of producing a printed Food and Drink Guide with over 40,000 products for over 60,000 Members means we would have to increase the fee significantly. Enabling Members to opt out of receiving printed services and use the online versions means we can maintain a value for money scheme that remains accessible to our broad Membership demographic.
How do I opt out of receiving the Food and Drink Guide?
To opt out just follow these simple steps:
- login into your account on our website using your email address and password
- click on your Scrapbook at the top right of the webpage
- select ‘My account’ on the left hand side of your Scrapbook page
- under ‘My preferences’ select ‘No’ for the ‘The printed Food and Drink Guide’
- select the ‘Save’ button to update your preferences.
What about accidental contamination? There have been recall cases in retail over last few years.
Increase in product recalls reflects increase in product availability in retail and most product alerts relate to mislabelling rather than problems with contamination. Both prescribed and non-prescribed products have to meet regulatory standards and in fact most companies supplying to the NHS also provide retail products. Contamination risks need to be properly controlled regardless of supply chain.
I like Juvela foods and they’re not available in the supermarkets. What will happen to them?
We have been talking to manufacturers for many years about the possibility of changes in access to prescriptions and we would welcome better access in retail to all gluten free foods for people with coeliac disease. In the end individual companies will need to make the business decisions on where best to supply their products.
What happens if the Government decides to keep gluten free food on prescription? Do CCGs that have removed gluten free prescriptions have to reinstate them?
The consultation is proposing to change secondary legislation only. The options are for gluten free products to be “blacklisted” ie GPs would be banned from prescribing them on the NHS, or to add differing ranges of products to the prescribing list, or to maintain the list.
The consultation does not propose minimum levels of access, and does not propose changes to the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Therefore, it must be assumed that Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) will continue to have the ability to make local policies in this area.
This means that where prescribing has been ended, that this is likely to continue, and that CCGs will continue to make proposals to adjust policies in this area, if they feel it necessary. The framework being proposed facilitates the continuation of local policy making by CCGs. However, if the outcome of the consultation is to allow the continuation of prescribing we will use the Department of Health response to go back to the CCGs and point out that the Government have clearly accepted that it is legitimate to prescribe gluten free products.
What should I do if a product I have bought contains gluten although it is listed in the Food and Drink Guide?
Manufacturers sometimes change their ingredients without notifying us. Please call us on 0333 332 2033, selecting option 2, or email us on foodanddrink@coeliac.org.uk so that we can follow this up. To assist with your query we will need the following information: brand and product name, pack size, barcode number and the nature of your query e.g may contain statement, contains wheat etc.
Why aren’t some manufacturers or brands listed in the Guide?
We have endeavoured to increase the number of products and manufacturers listed in this year’s Food and Drink Guide by contacting over 200 manufacturers and sourcing product information from a third party, Brandbank. By changing the way we collect the information for the Guide we are pleased to list over 20,000 products. If you can’t find a particular brand in the Guide this may be because they have not provided us with information and have not provided information to Brandbank. It might also be because the product contains gluten.
If you are unsure whether you can eat a particular product you can check the label. For more information on reading labels please visit www.coeliac.org.uk/labels.
Welsh Assembly Member and Coeliac UK Governor Dai Lloyd asked the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport for a statement on gluten-free prescriptions. What was the response?
Vaughan Gething AM said:
Gluten-free products are an essential part of the clinical treatment of coeliac disease. National prescribing guidance was published in 2013 to support healthcare professionals in the management of patients with coeliac disease. Coeliac UK has supported the development of the guidance including the updated version published in March 2016.
Read in more detail at:
30 June 2017
13 July 2016
www.assembly.wales/en/bus-home/pages/qnr.aspx?meetingid=3617&assembly=5&c=Record%20of%20Proceedings
Are there any incentives for pharmacists taking part in the Community pharmacy supply of gluten-free foods scheme?
Introducing a pharmacy led supply scheme allows better stock control of gluten-free foods for pharmacists as well as providing a more flexible service to improve the patient experience.
Pharmacists and GP dispensaries are paid a service charge at six monthly intervals for each patient who accesses the service. When the scheme in Northamptonshire was introduced it was run as an Enhanced Service with funding for this element of the contract coming from Primary Care Contracting budgets.