Coeliac tourists in Spain

Being coeliac is a bit of a bummer, but when it gets really bad -and we all know it- is when it comes to eating out. When you go to a restaurant you can ask whether they have gluten-free food, and 90% of waiters and waitresses probably won't even know what gluten is.

It's so much harder to find gluten-free food abroad, specially when it's a different language (back to the case where you ask the hotel receptionist where you can buy food for coeliacs, and once again, no idea...).

If you're coming to Spain, you might be renting an appartment. If that's the case, it's easy enough. Just hop over to your local Mercadona supermarket, which has quite a variety of gluten-free food. Even if it's not special food, it is marked gluten-free "Sin gluten" whenever it can be eaten by coeliacs. Another place where it's relatively easy to find special food for coeliacs is in the supermarket of the department stores "El Corte Inglés". In this case, the normal makes aren't labelled (so, you either know Nestlé milk chocolate is gluten-free, or you start reading all the labels!), but they do have special lines of gluten-free food, from bread to pizza bases, some nice little cakes, quinoa flakes, their own brand of choco-krispies...

Now, I've mentioned the "Sin gluten" mark on Mercadona products... that's really easy to spot (here's an image of this symbol on a packet of microwave popcorn, not too good but better than nothing!). But this symbol is only used by Mercadona's own line of products. If you get something from another brand it will almost never have any symbol, although it may have something like the international gluten-free symbol and say something by "Controlado por FACE" (FACE is the Spanish coeliac association in charge of putting together the guide of what you can and what you can't eat, etc). And this symbol is sometimes VERY small...

As far as labelling goes, that's pretty much it. I believe that products have to (or will soon have to) clearly state when they contain gluten. The problem is, that ranges from "Ingredientes: harina de trigo" to "Puede contener trazas de gluten". Although usually everything is labelled in English too, so, if you know what you can eat in English, you're ok...

If you're going to a hotel it can be quite problematic, but on the FACE website there is a list of hotel chains (with the link to their websites) which have a stricter control over the gluten-free food they offer, although the site does advise that the hotel you chose should be warned in advance if you're a coeliac. Although you can also ask at other hotels whether they have gluten-free meals, I would say these are a safer bet.

Also in the same website, there is a (very short) list of restaurants where you can find gluten-free food, although the ones mentioned are actually chains of restaurants, and it seems to be that they don't serve food for coeliacs in all their branches (although I imagine they should in most shops in main cities). Just bear in mind that IKEA is usually out in the middle of nowhere, Telepizza is pretty much in every medium to large town, and VIPS restaurants are only in larger cities. Also, VIPS is actually a chain of restaurants and bars, some called VIPS, others not so obvious (check website for more information), but as far as I can see, it's not really possible to find out online which restaurants serve gluten-free menus!

And last but not least... it seems that FACE can supply the list of can / can't eat foods to any tourist, who can order by phone . Remember, for international calls, the Spain code is +34.