Hi everyone! This will be an ever-evolving post about pre-packaged snacks at the World Showcase countries at Epcot.Updated 10/28/2012United Kingdom:When I recently visited the UK pavilion at Epcot, I checked out some of the offerings at the some of the stores for gluten free/dairy free snacks. I found a few options at The Tea Caddy located across from the Rose & Crown Pub. They not only have a great selection of Twinnings tea but they also have a lot of offerings from the UK. Most of the items are not gluten free (lots of biscuits and flavored crisps), but they do have some candy bars that are gluten free (not dairy free). They also have a lot of gummy type candies that would work for quick snacks. The ones I found are the Robinsons Tropical Fruits and Taverners Wine Gums.
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Robinsons Tropical Fruits |
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Taveners Wine Gums & More Robinsons Fruit Snacks |
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I read the labels and double-checked online for these products. I couldn't find any conclusive information about the Robinsons products being GF/DF but I did find info on the Web that Taveners wine gums are GF/DF. I wouldn't say there are a ton of GF/DF options at this pavilion, but there were some additional GF only options. Weirdly enough all of the crisps (i.e. potato chips) I found were not gluten free. Walkers brand used to be gluten free and there is now a cross contamination warning about these.Japan:At the Japan pavilion, I located a variety of items at the Mitsukoshi Department Store. Because most of the items come directly from Japan, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to figure out the ingredients. Luckily, there are English labels for the ingredients to help out. I didn't note every item that's available there, but here are a few things that appear to be safe (of course, always double-check before consuming).
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Variety of gummies |
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Lots of gummies to choose from! Lychee and Mango sound interesting! |
I initially thought these were all GF/DF, but after investigating online, I'm not sure they are all DF. The Kasugai Gummy Candy is the brand that most of these are. The lychee for example lists the following:Ingredients Corn Syrup (Corn Starch, Water), Sugar, Concentrated Apple Juice, Gelatin, Milk Calcium, Concentrated Lychee Juice, Oblate Powder (Potato, Corn, Soybean), D-Sorbitol, Citric Acid, Pectin, Artificial Flavor, Carnauba Wax, Emulsifier [Glycerol Esters of Fatty Acid, Lecithin (Soybean)]. The Muscat candy also indicated it had milk in it. In general, it would appear the gummies might be GF but not all are DF. Without much information on these candies, I might be a cautious consumer.
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Hello Kitty marshmallows |
I also found some Hello Kitty flavored marshmallows that appeared to be GF/DF but I couldn't find any information that confirmed this 100%.
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Monchhichis! Oh so soft and cuddly! Not food, but they are so darn cute! |
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Overall, there seem to be some options in the Japan pavilion, but I would reserve some caution in consuming these since there is little info about allergies on these.