Free From product developer Amy shares the insights and focus driving Asda range customers with allergy requirements can rely on

Free From Product Developer Amy Phizacklea is working to make Asda's allergen-friendly food “as good as the version with gluten, dairy or egg”, while keeping prices down and widening choice.

Amy has more than 10 years of experience developing products for people with special dietary requirements, and joined Asda at the start of the year.

She's responsible for Asda's Free From range, which has gone down a treat with judges at the Free From Awards, who gave gold awards to 13 products in the range.

Here Amy writes about how a combination of customer insight, market trends and long-term partnerships with suppliers is driving her mission to keep improving options for Free From customers.

"I first started working in free from in 2016 and I think it's a fascinating area – it's a job where you can make a real difference to people's lives.

"Six percent of the population have some kind of diagnosed allergen dietary requirement and there are a lot more people self-diagnosing, with apparently 50% of Coeliacs undiagnosed. See data here in the House of Lords library.

"People who don't have special dietary requirements, like me, can take for granted being able to eat what you want. Too many people with food allergies don't have a choice what to buy, so I feel the responsibility to give them good quality products at an affordable price – gluten-free, dairy free and egg free – and to keep pushing to improve the quality to the point that you can't distinguish between the Free From product and the equivalent with allergens.

"The supplier base is interesting too. Most of our suppliers are smaller companies who are as passionate about Free From products as we are. With most of our suppliers it's a continuing relationship. You don't chop and change, you work with the experts, and all our suppliers are experts in developing good quality new products in an allergen-controlled space."

"My role involves looking after all the own brand Free From range, across the chilled, frozen, ambient and bakery categories. I work with the buying team to improve our existing products and develop new products. We identify gaps in the range, identify new suppliers for where the gaps are, and what we can do better.

"We always want to have feedback and there's always changes we can make, so staying really close to the customer base is really important.

"We benchmark against the rest of the market and non-Free From products and work to raise the profile of Free From in the business. We also try to understand what customers want, and where we can make the biggest difference, so we will go to events like the Allergy and Free From Show at the NEC and talk to suppliers at the Free From Awards.

"We also try to speak to people in Asda who have dietary requirements, or whose friends and family do. People are very passionate about this area as it's their everyday reality and not something where they have a huge amount of choice, so it's important to get feedback and apply that where we can. That covers both existing products and what they would like to see.

"We have a couple of windows a year for new products and make improvements throughout the year. We try to continually improve the product and keep a close eye on customer reviews, and social media is a really important way to see what's trending and what's getting people excited.

"The Free From range is growing all the time and by September 2026 there will be 160 own brand products in total.

"I really love our tropical granola, which won a gold award at the 2026 Free From Awards. There aren't many interesting gluten free granolas on the market. This one's so good that I buy it even though I can eat equivalent products made with gluten.

"Our gluten free doughnuts are a favourite too. Asda is the only retailer with a free from frozen doughnut. They get really good feedback, because you can cook them in an air fryer, they are really good for flavour – they taste just like fairground doughnuts – and are great value for money as well at £1.45 for six.

"The yogurt flavour coated raisins are really nice as well. They're free from milk, cereals containing gluten, and eggs.

"In general terms there's a lot of grown-up dairy free chocolate but not so much for kids to enjoy. There are a lot of kids who are dairy free, as they have dairy allergies that they later grow out of, so we try to push our range to give them things they will want too. These are great for lunchboxes or a little treat after school."

"An example of how we're constantly looking to improve our products is our Free From sliced bread. We have recently relaunched it and the recipe is really good. It's gluten free, milk free and egg free and £1.85 for a 535g loaf.

"It's a bit of science creating gluten free bread. It's about the mix of flours and replacing the gluten with ingredients that make the bread as soft as possible.

"Making gluten free bread uses completely different technology to bread with gluten. People have been baking bread with gluten for thousands of years, whereas gluten free bread is relatively new. It's improving all the time and has moved on so much in the last 10 years. I remember gluten free bread being like a brick and now it's amazing.

"Alongside improving the quality, our focus is on keeping the price down. But the ingredients are different, volumes are that much lower and the process required is very specific. You get a lot of waste, which can't be helped, as it's a less reliable process."

"In terms of allergens, everything is risk assessed. We try to use factories that don't handle allergens and if they do handle allergens we have really strict rules around how they should operate. There's allergen testing of ingredients and finished products, so there's a really strict and clear process in place. It's a combination of cross-contamination controls and testing so we can be really sure that when we say something is gluten free that it really is.

"For most customers choosing a product the decision is mainly about price but for free from it's choice. If it's there you can buy it. If it's not, you can't. So we want to offer more choice, as well as improving the quality of what's available to buy.

"Every week we are testing lots of products. We will test against other retailers, as well as the Asda products containing gluten. We want our Free From products to be as good as their equivalents outside the range – both in terms of quality and price efficiency. A lot of work goes into getting a different flavour match, so we have to keep an eye on other categories as well.

"The ultimate goal is having Free From products that are as good as the version with gluten, dairy or egg. I want Asda to be the first place people go to for allergen free products and to know they can rely on the range being the best and at as good a price as we can get."

"Seeing what customers say about our Free From products on social media is really important, so we can see what matters most and how we can make life easier for them. It's really rewarding when you see people saying how much they love our Free From products. Here are just a few I've seen recently:

Play on TikTok

• "My favourite GF products from Asda, as a coeliac of 7 years" – TikTok from @coeliackatie

• "Gluten free items that I love from Asda" – TikTok from @glutenfreediary_x

• "My Asda's making Free From a main character" - TikTok from @glutenfreechelsea

• "After the disaster of last month's cereal from M&S I made the most of the great selection in Asda. I susually stick to hoops or cornflakes, so decided to treat myself this time 😋 They did not disappoint"– TikTok from @blackrosebex

• "Asda freefrom aisle finds" – TikTok from @coeliacsinger