The Beginner's Guide To Gluten Free Office Snacks

"Gluten free diets truly go against the grain."

Julia Child

Just to be clear:  Julia Child probably never said that. But, in any case...

Being gluten free has risen in popularity over the last few years, not just because it's trendy but also because it's helped a lot of people. 

Whether you have someone in your office suffering from Celiac's Disease or someone just trying to maintain a gluten free life because it makes them feel better, we’ve got you covered.

We know the decision to cut out an amazing food group, like bread, isn't made lightly, and we're here to support you.

What does it mean to be gluten free

Generally speaking, a gluten free diet means excluding foods that contain gluten (duh), which is a mixture of proteins found in wheat, barley, and oats. Avoiding gluten is more complicated than just cutting these things out of your diet. 

Gluten-sensitivity can be as intense as not being able to eat something that was processed in a facility that contains gluten. That ain't no joke! That’s why we take every precaution when sourcing items for your gluten-intolerant peeps and catering your product mix to support their needs!  

Here’s how...

Navigating the glutosphere in your office snack program

At Crafty, our Procurement Team is constantly searching for new gluten free products, and we tag all of our approved gluten free products so that you can easily find them with a quick search.

When we launch a new program, our team dives into understanding the right types of products for your office. In a nutshell, here is the process our team goes through with every implementation:

1. Identify any allergies or dietary restrictions - this can be done via survey or simply by asking our main point of contact, if they have that info on hand.
2. Filter our product portfolio for Day 1 - our Procurement Team has the ability to include or exclude products based on different characteristics.
3. Filter our on-going product recommendations - our Account Management team will ensure their new product recommendations keep these allergies or dietary restrictions in mind.

That said, we wrote this article to help anybody find the right gluten free products for their office, whether they work with Crafty or not.  So, let’s take this category by category, and we’ll show you how we make sure our gluten free friends are looked after:

• Coffee & Tea
• Fruit & Vegetables
• Dairy
• Pantry
• Alcohol
• Beverages
• Catering

Office Coffee & Tea

Yes please! The good news about this category is these products are naturally gluten free. No need to give up on your caffeine fix, hot or cold, to maintain your diet. Thank you universe for making sure one and all can enjoy these delicious drinks!

Fresh Fruit & Vegetables

This is another home run for our gluten-intolerant friends. All fruits and veggies are naturally gluten free when enjoyed on their own. Eat up, and feel good :).

Dairy

Again, we’ve got another category that is naturally gluten free! All milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. is good to go for gluten! So far, this diet is awesome!

Office Pantry

So, here is where we might run into some problems. Pantry is, of course, a big category of products, so there are still tons of options for our gluten free pals. 

Potato-based chips? That works! Popcorn? Sign me up! Bars? A lot of them are A-OK! 

Where we need to take pause is snacks that use flour. Be careful with pretzels, pub mix, or Sun Chips. 

For inspiration, here are 10 of the more popular and delicious gluten free snacks we carry!

1. GFB Bars
2. Seaweed snacks 
3. Kettle Chips 
4. Beanfield's Beans and Rice Chips
5. Epic Jerky Bars
6. Jonesbars
7. Kind Bars
8. Pirate’s Booty Popcorn
9. Van’s Gluten Free Waffles
10. MadeWith Foods Vegetable Medly Chips

Alcohol

The nice thing about alcohol is you have a lot of options here! 

Beer, unfortunately is across the board not gluten free. But, there are alternatives! Cider is naturally gluten free and there are some delicious ones out there. Wine is naturally gluten free, and many kinds of spirits are as well. Bourbon, whiskey, tequila, gin, vodka, rum, cognac, brandy, absinthe, mezcal, scotch, and vermouth are all gluten free as well! There are a ton of options, so no one will won’t be left out of the party!

Office Beverages

You can pretty much drink any beverage that Crafty sells. Because flour and wheat are not added to drinks (...we’re having trouble coming up with a scenario where that would taste good...), you are pretty much free to fly in this category. 

Corporate Catering

As we do with all other dietary restrictions, we first make sure to ask how many people have restrictive diets and what are the restrictions. From there, we work with our catering partners to make sure there is something for everyone to eat a full and satisfying meal. We also make sure that everything is properly labeled so that you know exactly who is able to eat each dish. No stomachs left behind!

And that’s basically it! Thanks for going on this gluten free ride with us :) if you have any questions, as always, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help.