Crossed Grain

4 | ANNUAL REVIEW Authoritative support and quality services • We grew our community to over 65k members , welcoming nearly 2k members who came back to the charity. We introduced a new two year membership and December’s new joiner rate was the highest it’s been in four years. • Digital service improved with half our members now benefitting from our Gluten Free Food Checker app. The Home of Gluten Free Recipes is more popular than ever with nearly half a million page visits. • To better support young people, we developed a Moving On pack with our under thirties group, GUTs. Since its launch in September, 525 packs were sent out, to high praise. Thanks to the James Tudor Trust for supporting the project. • We grew our community in Wales , welcoming over 1,400 people to our largest ever show, the second Wales Gluten Free Food Show. Media including the BBC, ITV and S4C covered the show. 2019 Plans • Revamp our website and redesign our venue finder app - Gluten Free on the Move. • Introduce more filmed content in our Home of Gluten Free Recipes, helping members master the techniques of cooking without gluten. • Launch our Live Well Gluten Free magazine on food and lifestyle and relaunch Crossed Grain magazine focused on charity activities. Good quality gluten free products • To gain valuable insights we surveyed our members on shopping habits to inform future work in this area. Nearly 5k members responded. • Over 3,000 products and over 200 companies are now using the Crossed Grain licensed trademark on their products – the extra mark of safety for gluten free products. 2019 Plans • Use the Shopping Habits survey to engage further with food professionals on new developments in gluten free food. • Bring industry experts together around key gluten free issues and business opportunities with a Gluten Free Business Boot Camp in June 2019. Unrestricted eating out • So that eating out keeps getting easier , we pushed our online training and guidance for caterers which had 1.2k downloads and exceeded our online course target with over 1.3k sessions taken. • We exceeded our single site target with 22 new venue sign ups to our GF accreditation scheme, taking us to 3,200 accredited venues across the UK so you can find choice on your high street. • We ensured the robustness of our GF accreditation scheme by undertaking 290 audits . 77% of sites achieved an A rating and a further 16% a B. Only 2% of audits recorded a fail and all passed in the required retake within two weeks. 2019 Plans • Redevelop our online catering module and review our catering guidance materials, deliver eight newly accredited restaurant chains and 20 individual outlets. • Use the results of our eating out survey to inform our influencing of policymakers and the catering industry. “Coeliac UK helped us ensure that we had everything in place to manage cross contamination and our gluten free customers are massively important to our business.” Adele Carnell, Owner of Filmore & Union, GF accredited venue chain We took nearly 18,000 calls on the Helpline in 2018. “They are a life saver, any and all questions answered and the app is great! Worth every penny of the subscription.” Rachel