Joe’s Bakery now selling gluten free range

An award-winning Bristol bakery is now offering its customers gluten-free food for the first time.

Joe’s Bakery on Gloucester Road has been run by Martin and Jane Hunt since 1990.

Recent years have seen steadily rising numbers of people diagnosed with either Coeliac disease, which means they cannot digest gluten – a protein found in wheat and most other cereals – or a less severe gluten intolerance, which still means that regular food containing the protein can upset their digestive systems.

However, while the effects of gluten on a significant part of the population are well-known, the choice of food without the protein – which in essence provides the ability of dough to rise – is fairly limited.

Now Joe’s Bakery has a selection of gluten-free baked goods available to its customers after teaming up with Bath-based Bath Bakery.

Earlier this year Bath Bakery launched an entirely gluten-free range, called Batch#5, to meet rising demand for such products, going as far as to build an entirely separate production facility where the range of baked goods – including cakes, wraps and pizza bases – are made.

“We wanted to be able to offer our customers a gluten-free option, however we did not have the space to set up the production processes required.” said Jane Hunt.

“When the opportunity came to team up with Bath Bakery and stock a range of their Batch#5 gluten-free products it made perfect sense,” she added.

It is the first time in its entire 35 year history that Bath Bakery’s food has been sold in a retail outlet in Bristol. The company’s managing director, Mark Slevin, said: “Since its launch in April the Batch#5 range has been extremely popular and we’ve had an incredible response from customers.

“There are a lot of similarities between us and Joe’s Bakery, which also has a superb reputation for producing high quality food, and I am very pleased for Martin and Jane to now be stocking our delicious, hand-made gluten-free goods.”