Gluten-free Anzac biscuits: A comparison

Anzac Day (25 April) is a remembrance day for the fallen Australia and New Zealand soldiers. As with many other holidays, there is a special treat associated with Anzac Day: the Anzac biscuit.

Although Anzac biscuits are available year-round in grocery stores, you will see an increase right after the previous holiday (Easter).

Anzac biscuits are made with wheat flour and rolled oats, which are not gluten-free due to contamination during growing and processing. Gluten-free alternatives are either made with other ingredients or uncontaminated oats. Very recently, there has been a change in recommendations regarding oats and Coeliac disease, by which uncontaminated oats may be consumed monitoring for symptoms.

Some supermarket allergen-friendly brands (e.g. Coles I’m Free From) have their version of gluten-free Anzac biscuits. Other food manufacturers that specialise in allergen-friendly products also have offer gluten-free Anzac biscuits which are available in some supermarket and/or health food shops. Finally, specialty bakery such as Deeks also offer an alternative to the iconic biscuit.

Price

The price per biscuit varies greatly between brands. The cheapest ones from the list below are Leda, followed by Coles. Some brands (e.g. GF Oats) offer different pack sizes, which means different price per unit.

Product	Pack size	Price	Price per biscuit
Britt’s Organic Bakery Gluten Free Anzac Cookies	10	$6.00	$0.60
Coles I’M Free From Anzac Biscuits	10	$4.20	$0.42
Deeks Health Food Soldier Biscuits	?	$8.20	?
GF Oats Anzac Biscuit	2	$4.10	$2.05
	10	$13.79	$1.38
	25	$26.89	$1.08
Leda ANZAC Biscuits	20	$4.99	$0.25

Nutrient content

The tables below show a comparison between gluten-free Anzac biscuits per serving (1 biscuit) and per 100 grams. The latter is useful when comparing equal amounts of different foods. However if you are going to eat biscuits, chances are that you are going to eat a whole one (or more), making the comparison per serving more useful.

Product	Serving size (g)	Per serving
		Energy (kJ)	Protein (g)	Total fat (g)	Saturated fat (g)	Carbohydrate (g)	Sugars (g)	Sodium (mg)	Dietary fibre (g)
Britt’s Organic Bakery Gluten Free Anzac Cookies	20	378	0.9	4.2	3.0	11.9	7.4	18	0.6
Coles I’M Free From Anzac Biscuits	15	325	< 1	3.6	2.5	10.6	4.8	55.95	0.3
GF Oats Anzac Biscuit	20	397	0.9	4.2	3.7	13.4	4.0	42.4	1.0
Leda ANZAC Biscuits	25	494	1.0	6.5	2.9	13.4	6.3	36	1.7

Product	Per 100g
	Energy (kJ)	Protein (g)	Total fat (g)	Saturated fat (g)	Carbohydrate (g)	Sugars (g)	Sodium (mg)	Dietary fibre (g)
Britt’s Organic Bakery Gluten Free Anzac Cookies	1890	4.3	21.2	14.7	59.5	37.1	87	6.7
Coles I’M Free From Anzac Biscuits	2034	3.9	22.4	15.4	66.0	30.2	349.7	2.1
GF Oats Anzac Biscuit	1983	4.3	20.9	18.7	66.9	20.0	212	4.9
Leda ANZAC Biscuits	1976	4.0	26.0	11.5	53.5	25.1	142	7.0

Ingredients

Reading ingredients lists is always a good idea, regardless of whether you have food sensitivities or not. For example, they can give you an idea on how processed the food is, if it contains ingredients you prefer to avoid, if it contains added sugars, etc. Having said that, hopefully you are eating hot cross buns as a once-a-year Easter treat so you should not worry about their healthiness or lack of thereof.

• Britt’s Organic Bakery Gluten Free Anzac Cookies: Organic millet flour, organic white rice flour, organic besan flour, organic palm fruit oil, organic raw cane sugar, organic coconut, organic rice malt, organic buckwheat flack, organic buckwheat flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, unsalted butter, organic sorghum flour, guar gum, bicarbonate soda, filtered water. Source: https://brittsorganic.com/page/product/gluten-free-anzac-cookies
• Coles I’M Free From Anzac Biscuits: Gluten free flour [maize starch, modified tapioca starch, rice flour, sorghum flour, soy flour, thickeners (415, 412, 464), potato starch], butter (19%) (milk), brown sugar, golden syrup, sugar, desiccated coconut (5%), puffed rice, corn flakes, puffed quinoa (1.5%), puffed amaranth, iodised salt, emulsifier (soy lecithin), raising agent (sodium bicarbonate), egg powder. Source: https://www.coles.com.au/
• GF Oats Anzac Biscuit: Gluten-free flour mix (30%), (tapioca starch, preservative (220, 227)), rice flour, potato starch), steamed rolled Aussie GF oats (18%), coconut sugar*, desiccated coconut*, coconut oil*, rice malt syrup*, water, sodium bicarbonate. *Organic-certified ingredients. Source: https://gfoats.com.au/
• Leda ANZAC Biscuits: Gluten free flours (tapioca, chickpea), rice bran oil, sugar, coconut, golden syrup, treacle, quinoa flakes, natural flavour, raising agent (sodium bicarbonate), salt. Source: https://ledanutrition.com/shop/anzac/

Gluten-free Anzac biscuits: A comparison

The factors that determine which gluten-free Anzac biscuits to eat this Anzac Day (or any other day of the year) vary person to person. In this article we have covered price, nutrient content and ingredients. We have also covered a small sample of products available in Australia. Last but not least, availability and taste are also very important factors to consider.

If you prefer to make your own biscuits, below are a couple of recipes for you to try:

• Gluten-free Anzac biscuits
• Anzac biscuits with protein

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