Saturday, August 12, 2006

Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese


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2 comments:

ChristinaL30 said...

First, let me say that I love your site! We, too, are GFCF for two darling ASD boys (though I can't get DH to stop buying wheat breads, so we've had some infractions!). Your cheese substitutes really caught my eye; that's what we all miss the most (esp 9-y-o, who use to LIVE on pizza!). I wanted to caution, tho, that Tofutti may not be GF. I had occasion to ask when I accidentally picked up their guacamole-flavored cream cheese substitute a year ago. The rep's statement was that, although they don't use anything with gluten, they also don't check with their suppliers or test for gluten. Truly caveat emptor. Maybe, though, if enough customers strongly requested GF status, Tofutti would respond. Whaddaya think?

Kathi said...

Thanks for the comment, Christina.

That is very true - they do not guarantee anything about gluten.

My son is celiac and we are doing the diet for that reason - that he happens to have autism is just another piece of the puzzle that is him.

So, you would think I would be more careful. The thing is that my son reacts to very small amounts of gluten - so we try things like Tofutti and if he doesn't react we keep using them.

The problem with dairy substitutes is that the ones that are gluten free have casein. Here is one that is casein free and they care nothing about gluten. I wish that were different but it isn't. The fact is that we use very little Tofutti in our home.

We have pizza once a week and use
Follow Your Heart brand cheese.

Tofutti has been approached by many consumers about testing for gluten - they work so hard to make sure it is dairy free that they are not interested in adding another test (and pass the cost along).

You can buy home kits and test for the presence of gluten yourself. I know some do that. My son is a canary though - a little bit lets the rest of us know its there - and since our entire household is gfcf we know there are no other infractions to rule out.