R there any organizations that help with financial costs of food?

[CiCi1021]

Struggling with costs of all the special food.  Are there any organizations out there that will assist with costs? 

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, @CiCi1021!

Well, to begin with, most of us have found it isn't necessary to buy a lot of specifically labeled "gluten free" or "Certified Gluten Free" prepackaged food items as long as you are willing and able to cook from scratch. This is especially true since testing by celiac watchdog groups has cast some serious doubt on how consistently food companies are actually meeting gluten free and certified gluten free standards.

It's probably just as effective and certainly less expensive to buy naturally gluten free mainline food products such as fresh meat, vegetables and fruit and prepare your own meals. The only major exception to that in my experience is loaf bread. It's very difficult to make your own gluten free bread products and have them come out decent with regard to texture. The major food companies have invested a lot into that component and have come up with some pretty good stuff that's hard to duplicate for yourself.

[CiCi1021]

What celiac watchdog groups have looked into what you mentioned? Thanks.

[trents]

Moms Across America for one. Here's the article that kicked off long thread and more than one thread on Celiac.com this past summer: 

Our community feels the testing needs to be tightened up. As of now, GFCO allows food companies to do self-testing and self-reporting. Testing is also done We strongly believe testing needs to be done more frequently and there needs to be drop in, unannounced testing by the FDA and certification groups.