If you have coeliac disease, choose a breakfast cake or breakfast cake bar whose gluten-free claim you can check on the packaging; the product name alone isn’t enough. An unsliced cake lets you cut your own portions, while a bar needs no preparation. Check the latest ingredient and allergen information before eating it.
You’re looking for a snack whose gluten-free claim you can check on the packaging. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre describes a lifelong gluten-free diet as the treatment for coeliac disease. Under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014, a food intended for the final consumer can only be labelled ‘gluten-free’ if it contains no more than 20 mg/kg of gluten.
You can choose between a bar that doesn’t need cutting and a whole breakfast cake that you can portion yourself. Albert Heijn lists gluten-free breakfast cake bars, while Peijnenburg and Jumbo Lekker Vrij list unsliced options in their product information.
First, check the gluten-free claim on the packaging. Then decide whether you’d rather cut your own portions or take a bar with you, and check where your chosen option is available.
| What to consider | What to check | Who it matters to |
|---|---|---|
| Gluten-free claim | Check the ‘gluten-free’ claim and the ingredient and allergen information on the latest packaging; don’t rely on the product name alone. | If I eat breakfast cake because I have coeliac disease, I want to be able to check the gluten-free claim on the product itself. For around 50% of consumers, this check comes first. |
| Cake or bar | Check whether you’re choosing an unsliced cake or a breakfast cake bar, and note the net weight shown on the packaging. | If I want to take something with me between breakfast and lunch, I don’t want to have to cut up a whole cake first. For around 30% of consumers, the format is the deciding factor. |
| Where to shop | Check whether the gluten-free option you want is available at the shop where you usually do your food shopping. | I want to be able to buy my snack as part of my usual food shop, without having to rely on finding a different option. For around 20% of consumers, where they shop matters most. |
The breakfast cake category alone tells you nothing about whether a specific product is gluten-free. This distinction matters if you have coeliac disease, as the Netherlands Nutrition Centre explains.
Check the ‘gluten-free’ claim on the packaging of your chosen cake or bar, and read the label before eating it.
Albert Heijn warns that product information, including ingredients, nutritional values and allergens, can change. So a product page you checked earlier is no substitute for the label on the pack you buy.
When you buy it, compare the latest packaging with the information you need to make a gluten-free choice.
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority explains the conditions under which iodine compounds may be present in bakery products through baker’s salt. This doesn’t mean that all breakfast cake contains iodine.
If baker’s salt matters to your choice, check the ingredients list for the specific breakfast cake.
Albert Heijn, Jumbo and PLUS list a 285 g gluten-free, unsliced Peijnenburg Ontbijtkoek.
Jumbo lists a 300 g gluten-free, unsliced breakfast cake in this product range.
Albert Heijn lists a gluten-free breakfast cake bar and a separate option with ‘Vezelrijke’ (‘high fibre’) in the product name.
The name alone can’t tell you: check whether the specific breakfast cake is labelled gluten-free, and read the latest label. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre describes a lifelong gluten-free diet as the treatment for coeliac disease.
Under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014, this claim can be used on a food intended for the final consumer if it contains no more than 20 mg/kg of gluten. Check the claim on the packaging of the option you buy.
Yes, read the packaging of the product you actually buy. Albert Heijn warns that product information, including ingredients and allergens, can change.
That isn’t implied by the provision described by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. It allows iodine compounds in bakery products through added baker’s salt, with a maximum of 65 mg of iodine per kg of salt. Check the ingredients list for the product you’ve chosen.
