Disclosure – I was gifted a Jack’s gift card for purposes of this review but opinions are my own.
Eating gluten free can be hard on the pocket, there’s no denying it. One of the main things I noticed when first going gluten free was how much more expensive certain items where. Sure things like meat and veg are naturally gluten free, but you need to be able to find things like gluten free bread, pasta and biscuits to top up your gluten free essentials. I think it’s also useful to be clued up on how easy it is to find gluten free items at different supermarkets, especially when there’s a chance to get some gluten free bargains. With that in mind, I set out to see what I could find gluten free at Jack’s Supermarket.
What is Jack’s Supermarket?
Jack’s is British discount supermarket chain which is actually owned by Tesco but very much gives off the vibes of thsoe other discount supermarkets we have in the UK…you know, the ones with the middle aisle. You with me? Yep – good stuff.
What do Jack’s Supermarket have to offer that’s gluten free?
One of my biggest bug bears with budget supermarkets is they often have gluten free items on special buys, so it was really refreshing to see that my local Jack’s in St Helens actually has a dedicated “Made Without” section, catering for those needing gluten free items as well as dairy free and egg free items.
First up are the essentials – It was great to see that Jack’s offer their own brands of gluten free pasta in store. The first was a Jack’s ‘Made Without’ Fusilli Pasta (which is wheat, milk & egg and gluten free) which came in at £1.05 for a 500g bag. They offer a Jack’s ‘Made Without Spaghetti which came in at the same price.
While Jack’s don’t seem to offer any of their own brands bread, they did have two branded items on offer, with some Genius Triple Seeded Farmhouse Loaves on display (one of my favourites for toast!) at £1.50 as well as some Warburtons Gluten Free Artisan Tiger Bread at £3.40.
The mix of brands in Jack’s supermarket is really interesting. Like most budget supermarkets, they’ve opted to have a mixture of popular branded products alongside their own-brand items. I used to work (very briefly) in Aldi and in our product training it was explained to us that many households will have some brands they just can’t bear to use the own brand version of – I seem to remember Weetabix was a specific example – not that I’ve been able to eat them for quite some time! Anyway, back to my point – in Jack’s you’ll find a mixture of Jack’s branded items, seemingly quite a lot more Tesco branded items, plus some brand names.
I’ve also noticed some Jack’s items in our local Tesco Extra – have you noticed an aisle in yours?
An example of some of the items where both Jack’s and Tesco options were evident were in the gluten free cereals – I spotted both Jack’s Made Without and Tesco Free From cornflakes. They also had some Jack’s Made Without Choco Pillows in the free from section.
Unfortunately my Coeliac UK app wasn’t working on the day to try the barcode scanner, but I’m going to try and check some of the standard cereals on my next visit – it’s a bit of a hidden gem that many of the Tesco own brand cereals are actually below 20ppm, so if you can pick those up from Jack’s for cheaper than the main stores, you’re onto a winner!
There was a really pleasing number of gluten free biscuits in the Jack’s Made Without section, plus some options for baking.
Jack’s boasts options for their own brands of gluten free digestive biscuits, milk chocolate digestive biscuits, ginger nut biscuits and chocolate chip cookies. A brand name new to me on the shelf were the Bakers Delight Wafer Fingers which I picked up to try – perfect for taking a break 😉
I also spotted some Tesco Finest Free From Dark Chocolate Ginger cookies round in the normal biscuit section. There were a few other sweet treats in the Made Without section in the form of some dairy free chocolate.
I know the nation had become rather baking obsessed in lockdown, so it’s good to see Jack’ stock Doves Farm Freee Gluten Free White Flour, ready for cake baking galore.
Onto some of the savoury items in Jack’s – I’m a big cheese board fan so it’s useful to know you can get gluten free plain crackers. Perhaps this could be an option for dessert after your Sunday dinner – don’t forget to pick up some of Jack’s ‘Made Without’ Sage & Onion Stuffing Mix and Aah Bisto Gluten Free gravy!
I know gluten removed beers can be a bit controversial but it’s worth mentioning that my local Jack’s stocked two gluten free beers – a four pack of gluten free Stella Artois, which I’ve yet to try, and individual bottles of Old Specked Hen Gluten Free Fine Ale.
Does Jack’s offer a gluten free frozen section?
One of the things noticably missing from the other budget supermarkets in the UK are gluten free frozen items, so it was great to find some options here. Jack’s offers milk free, wheat free and gluten free Crispy Breaded Pollock Portions as well as some Breaded Chicken Goujons and Breaded Cod Fish Fingers (which I am too excited to try because who doesn’t love a fish finger buttie?!)
A note for my vegan pals, Jack’s also carry some of their own vegan and veggie frozen products along with some Quorn items – unfortunately none of these seemed to be gluten free as well.
Other items that caught my eye
A lot of shopping for gluten free foods is just a case of label reading, and I did notice that a lot of items that were actually gluten free weren’t marked as such – once you take a moment to read ingredients though you can find plenty of gluten free stuff.
Other posts you may enjoy – a supermarket I’ve found to be really good for gluten free labelling abroad is Mercadona – perfect if you’re going self-catering in Spain)
One little range I was impressed with was the Tesco “Fire Pit” range of barbecue foods. All the marinades seemed to be gluten free which was really good to see. You can choose from stuff like Greek Inspired Pork Kebabs, BBQ Beef Kebabs, Chorizo Sausages, Salt & Chilli Pork Belly Slices and Chilli and Lime Pork Steaks. There are also some Jack’s branded BBQ items including some Sweet & Sticky Chicken Wings and Minted Lamb Kebabs.
Another nice little gluten free range on offer were the Tuk-In brand of curries – these were actually offered as a meal deal but sadly there didn’t seem to be any gluten free small sides.
Would I shop again for gluten free options at Jack’s?
I’d definitely find it easy to do a gluten free “big shop” in the store. It really worth knowing that there’s the option of frozen items alongside the gluten free store cupboard essentials, especially as this doesn’t tend to be available in other budget supermarkets. We tend to zigzag across budget stores to get everything we need, so being able to get everything you want under one roof is super helpful.
How many Jack’s supermarkets are there and where are they located?
You can find Jack’s supermarkets in St Helens, Sheffield, Wavertree, Barnsley, Immingham, Wakefield, Croxteth, Walton, Rubery, Castle Bromwich, Chatteris and Middlewich.
