Feeling batter with wheat-free treat

For many people a bag of salt and vinegar-soaked, crispy fish and chips is a regular treat.

But for sufferers of gluten and wheat allergies the tasty meal is usually a no-go.

Now hope is at hand after a shop opened in Tamworth offering an alternative and last night a group of allergy sufferers from the Black Country embarked on a 40-mile round trip to get their fix.

Denise Morgan, from Great Barr, has not been near a fish and chip shop for four years because she has a wheat allergy. Last nightshe boarded a coach and travelled to Tamworth to sample the gluten-free fish and chips.

"I can't eat anything that has gluten in it, otherwise I have a poorly stomach," says Denise as she tucked into her fish and chips at the Atlantic Fish Bar in Fontenaye Road, Tamworth. "Around eight years ago I started having IBS symptoms but they just got worse and worse.

"My doctor suggested I had an allergy test and the results were a big shock as it showed I also have an allergy to yeast, which means I had to cut out a lot of alcoholic drinks.

"It was awful to feel ill every time I had something like fish and chips which, as a girl, I used to love. We would have it almost every week when I was growing up, so to be told you can no longer have it is tough."

One in every 100 people in the West Midlands suffer with coeliac, a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.

Sufferers cannot tolerate a protein called gluten found in wheat, rye and barley, which is in most foods and beer.

Denise says it is not just the flour and the dairy products in the batter she has to be careful of but burgers and sausages have wheat rusk in them and even the malt vinegar is off the menu.

"With the price of food so high at the moment the cost of gluten-free food in supermarkets is making it worse, especially for pensioners like me," she added.

The trip to the Atlantic Fish Bar in Tamworth was organised by Tracy Saunders who owns Tracy's Pantry in Beverley Road, Stone Cross, which specialises in selling food for allergy sufferers.

Dave, who lives with Tracy in Emily Street, West Bromwich, added: "Whereas Friday night always used to be fish and chip night, now we make our own and we use fresh fish and I make rice pasta."

Sue Lloyd, aged 45, from Dorset Road in Wednesbury, said: "It is such a good idea to have a fish and chip shop which has gluten and wheat free fish and chips – you can indulge knowing that you are not going to pay for it later."

Sean Bloomfield, who runs the Atlantic Fish Bar says they have around 500 extra customers on the Mondays when they have the gluten and wheat-free nights.

"The demand is incredible but I did a lot of research before I started serving gluten and wheat-free fish and chips," he said.

"We make our own curry sauce, the gravy is gluten-free and so are the sausages, burgers, pitta breads and kebabs.

"We always have our gluten and wheat free-nights on the first Monday of the month and people are literally queueing out of the door."

For more information about the next coach trip to the Atlantic Fish Bar contact Tracy Saunders on 0121 567 5570 or go to www.tracyspantry.co.uk