Tuesday 12 February 2013

Gluten Free McDonalds here in the UK?

Well not quite... but you can certainly come pretty close! They're a guilty pleasure, it was very rare that I had a McDonalds even before becoming gluten free but just now and again I'd have that craving. Since becoming gluten free, I thought that surely McDonalds would be off limits?  Of course you can make excellent beef burgers yourself and we've even made gluten free wagyu beef burgers at home but there's a unique taste to a McDonalds Big Mac that you just can't recreate.

Actually though, it's not off limits. McDonalds have an extremely thorough allergen menu available online. As they break down the components of their burgers you can actually see which components contain gluten and which don't. For example, take the Big Mac, only the bread bun has gluten. Asking for a burger without a bread bun does earn you some funny looks but the branches I've visited have been more than happy to provide the rest of the burger! They make it from scratch and usually put it into a breakfast tray clearly labelled. All you have to do then, is add your own bread bun! The fries are also cooked in a separate fryer to anything containing gluten. You can also check the McFlurry flavours available online too, as some of these are gluten free. I obviously can't speak for the cross contamination procedures in place across every branch of McDonalds but I've never had any issues. If you're unsure though, it's probably best to ask.

One day coeliacs might have a full gluten free burger option in McDonalds, it's already available in country's such as Sweden, but for now, at least you can satisfy that occasional craving.
Big Mac created with a gluten free bread bun!