I live in New Jersey and I have a found a few grocery stores (besides the specialty stores) that offer a large selection of gluten free foods. One store is called Wegman's. When I walked down their "Gluten Free" aisle, I wasn't expecting much since I was used to Shoprite's health food section. Usually you can find some pasta, crackers, rice cakes and some other surprise gluten free food. Wegman's? WOW. It really was an entire aisle!!! Besides the naturally (obvious) gluten free foods like fruits, vegetables and dairy items, they carry so many other groceries. In addition to various brands of pastas and crackers, you can find many different types of other snack chips, pretzels, cookies, granola bars, baking mixes, frozen foods and ethnic foods just to name a few. What's really nice is Wegman's labels all items throughout all of the aisles that are gluten free with an orange dot with a G printed inside. They stand behind that little orange dot too-- there is no risk of cross contact with gluten-containing ingredients. Furthermore, on the Wegman's website, you can find information on Celiac Support groups, FAQs about Celiac Disease, shopping for a gluten free diet, and a list of all of their gluten free items in the store. It's great that Wegman's is so gluten free friendly.

Another grocery store here in New Jersey is Trader Joe's. This store is gluten free friendly as well. Trader Joe's is not as big as Wegman's, but it's definitely a fun and different place to get food (my favorites are the Trader Joe's pizza, gluten free French rolls and corn tamales!). All of their items in their store that are gluten free are labeled as well-- a green tag is attached to the prices on the shelves. The food packages also have a coding system. A brown square with a lowercase g means gluten free, and Trader Joe's has lots of Vegan food and Vegetarian foods as well (they have their codes too). Trader Joe's website is great as well-- a list of their gluten free items as well as information on Celiac Disease. Trader Joe's offered a class one Saturday morning (I wasn't able to go) where they took their customers around the store to show them where their gluten free items were. How wonderful!

Finally, another large supermarket is Whole Foods. Again, the foods themselves are labeled gluten free (no special coding system on the products) but there are labels on the shelves here too. You can find a list of gluten free items on the website as well, and you can also read about their "Gluten Free Bakehouse" based out of North Carolina. Whole foods has incredible bakery items that I haven't seen anywhere else. If you need a gluten free cake for a birthday or special party (and aren't baking one yourself) Whole Foods is the place to get it!! Additionally, I love Whole Foods' hot and cold bars. All of the foods offered are labeled with the ingredients and the allergens that are present.

What's great about these three stores is that they are grocery stores here in New Jersey! They aren't those small specialty stores that can be super expensive. As we all know, gluten free food is more expensive than regular food, but places like Wegman's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods make it a little easier for us when we can't order online!

What grocery stores are by you?