The 2013 Awards, presented by celebrity chef Anthony Warral-Thompson, saw Pizza Hut take the gong for the Best Gluten-Free Pizza in the ‘manufactured for foodservice’ category, having introduced the new offering last October.
“We are thrilled to be recognised with this prestigious award, as it really reflects our commitment to providing good-quality menu choices for a range of customer dietary requirements,” said Pizza Hut’s head of food Chez Gawen.
“As well as the using separate ingredients and utensils to make our gluten-free pizzas, we have a wide range of options in our unlimited salad offering that cater for gluten-free and dairy-free diets, so that our guests can always find something to their taste.”
Pizza Hut’s pizzas were developed in association with Coeliac UK - the national Charity for people with coeliac disease - following extensive research into customer needs; ensuring that the product reached the No Gluten Containing Ingredients (NGCI) accreditation.
Coeliac UK’s chief executive Sarah Sleet said: “We are pleased for all of the winners of the Awards which prove just how excellent gluten-free food can be. We’re particularly excited that one of the first restaurant groups we have worked with to reach our accredited standard has won an award.
“The business opportunity in catering is definitely there with a new market worth £100 million up for grabs and our work in training and accreditation is helping access that market and drive up standards overall.”
Best Gluten-Free Beer
Meanwhile, the FreeFrom Food Awards saw CELIA lager pick up the title of ‘Best Gluten-Free Beer’.
Despite only being launched into the UK market in 2013, the CELIA gluten-free Czech craft pilsner is going from strength-to-strength, with co-founder Nick McNally claiming ‘we get a lot of excellent feedback from gluten-free consumers, bars and restaurant owners’.
Fellow co-founder Martin Vozar added: "I would like to see CELIA featured on the menus of prestigious hotel chains and high end supermarkets nationwide with the CELIA website becoming a “go-to” gluten-free restaurant guide."
The gluten-free beer is served at the recently-opened Truscott Arms in Maida Vale.
"We are delighted to be serving CELIA", said the pub’s owner Andrew Fishwick. "It's wonderful to have a beer that we have found is enjoyed by both coeliacs and those not of a gluten free diet. It's proven very popular with our regulars, many of whom are very surprised that it is in fact gluten free.”
The FreeFrom Food Awards took place on 16 April at the Royal College pf Physicisians in London. For a full list of winners, click here.
The awards tie in nicely with our Special Feature this month. Whether it’s offering a gluten-free menu, catering for customers with nut allergies or providing additional calorie information, our series of articles, guides and multimedia content will guide your business through exactly what’s required in the world of dietary requirements, with all of the details and advice you need to understand how to tap into a potentially lucrative, and widely untouched, marketplace.