Gluten Free: Are You Missing Out on Potential Customers?
By Bryn Pears | Silly Yak Foods Pty., Ltd.

It’s Friday night, the football’s on the telly and the boys have gathered at Dave’s place to watch the game. The beer and chips are all that is required until quarter-time when talk turns to growing hunger and home-delivered pizza. “Uh, fellas,” says Pete, “Remember, I can’t eat pizza.” “Yeah, gluten, right,” says Dave, “Forgot. Whaddaya reckon boys? Chinese?” There are grunts of assent and out comes the menu and a few moments later Dave’s on the phone ordering fried rice, noodles, etc.

You might not realise it, but by not offering a gluten-free alternative, you’ve just lost another sale. Not just Pete’s pizza, but five family sized pizzas, drinks, garlic bread and a couple of desserts. All because Pete has coeliac disease. Research has shown that up to 1 in 100 Australians has coeliac disease, 1 in 10 Australians suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome and many more suffer from either gluten- or wheat-intolerance. Many, if not most, of these people live on gluten-free diets. Anecdotal evidence suggests that where one person has special dietary needs the entire group will choose to eat at a restaurant which can cater to that person.

By not offering a gluten-free alternative you could be missing out on up to thirty gluten-free sales per week plus the pizzas, desserts, drinks, etc., that would have been purchased by the group as a whole. By now most of us realise that the gluten-free market is out there but we tend to think of it as complicated and expensive to capture. In reality you can service 98% of glutenfree customers simply and with little added expense. HOW ? So how do you provide a good gluten-free offering to stop Pete and his friends ordering Chinese? It’s actually quite simple:
• Find a good gluten-free pizza base
• Identify existing toppings which contain
gluten • Work out an appropriate gluten-free menu
• Manage cross-contamination
• Manage customer expectations

FIND A GOOD GF PIZZA BASE
There are a number of quality alternatives on the market. The first big decision is to choose between a flour premix and pre-manufactured bases.

The cheaper option of the two is premix and you might well be tempted to choose premix purely on that basis. But before you rush out and buy a bag of gluten-free premix you should consider the following:
When will you make them up? Gluten-free premixes are fiddly to use and require quite a lot of care to get right. Do you really want to make them up on the spot? In the middle of a busy Friday night?

Where will you make them up? Crosscontamination with regular pizza flour is probably the single biggest issue in offering a gluten-free alternative. Do you have an appropriate location, completely free of all traces of conventional flour, where you can make up your premix?

How will you manage storage? Do you have somewhere to store your made-up bases which is completely free of all traces of conventional flour?

How will you manage waste? Most gluten-free premixes have very short lifespans (and many must be made up on the spot).

Will you get any support? Premixes are generally bought through distributors and the manufacturers provide little support in their use.

Buying a pre-made pizza base is considerably more expensive than premix but has the following advantages:
Pre-made bases are easy to handle - there is no requirement to make them up. Rather, they can be stored in the freezer and used as needed, at a moment’s notice.

No cross-contamination. Most pre-made gluten-free pizza bases are provided in sealed impermeable packaging, meaning that they are immune to cross-contamination until the package is opened. This allows you to store them in the freezer with other products.

No waste. As you can store the pre-made bases in the freezer and use them straight from the freezer as required, there is no guesswork about how many you might need and no waste.

Good product support. Most manufacturers of gluten-free bases are keen to work with pizza restaurants and ensure that their products are presented to the best possible advantage.

IDENTIFY EXISTING TOPPINGS WHICH CONTAIN GLUTEN
As well as the base, some of your existing toppings may not be gluten-free. Generally the manufacturer will be able to tell you whether or not a product is gluten-free. In most cases if the product does not contain wheat, rye, oats or barley it will be gluten-free. Key things to check for gluten include the following:
• Ham and other processed meats (although many of the major brands are now gluten-free)
• Pre-shredded cheeses (the anti-caking agent may be wheat flour or wheat gluten)
• Some sauces (e.g. BBQ sauce)

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