Welcome to the Kati Keksi monthly newsletter, bringing together the latest content from the Kati Keksi website as well as highlights from social media including Facebook and Instagram.

Hey there,

As a de facto leader in the gluten free community my inbox gets notifications on a daily basis.

There are a few themes to the queries that pop up, and of course the occasional gripe.

The main one seems to be Coeliac Australia's advocacy, or lack thereof.

While their social media campaigns seem to have taken a different tack of late, historically, they have often failed to read the room.

The way I see it advocacy needs to be visible, effective and sustained.

A once-off post, or a weeks-long campaign isn’t going to cut it for a chronic disease with no cure.

A petition without any follow-up isn’t going to change the day-to-day lives of people who are constantly having to explain their needs.

What does advocacy look like?

A lot of things I do as part of running my socials pages and website I wouldn’t do just for myself.

I wouldn’t go to Woolworths just to check if a biscuit flavoured chocolate was gluten free (it was). I wouldn’t stand at the Coles fridges and pick up 30 ready meals to see what I can eat (over half of them).

But because what I do can benefit thousands, even tens of thousands, living with coeliac disease or needing a gluten free diet, it provides extra motivation.

An extra push.

It's what helps me get past gluten free fatigue.

You know the one, where you can’t be bothered picking up another product only to be disappointed.

Where you’d rather walk past a new venue than have to ask about gluten free options and potentially explain coeliac disease and cross contamination. Again.

It’s exhausting.

So when I can do something on behalf of a few thousand others, I don’t mind.

Even when I am knackered. 😅

Most recently I’ve been corresponding with Mr Chen’s. More than a few of us have been caught out accidentally buying, or worse, consuming wheat dumplings due to their incredibly similar packaging design.

A member of the QA team reached out to me, I was asked to provide my opinion on what good gluten free product design looks like.

With any luck it’ll lead to real change and hopefully prevent people from glutening themselves in the future.

Community crusades

I’ve had big fights in the past, some on my own and some with the help of you all.

Two years ago you might recall the gluten free expo in Sydney had a write up by Time Out with the title “Calling All Bloaters: The gluten free expo is coming back to town.”

Are you fucking kidding me?

Between myself, Ben Hampton (GF Family) and Melanie Persson (The Very Hungry Coeliac) we generated a groundswell that resulted in scores of emails sent to Time Out.

The headline was changed, nothing clever just “Gluten-free expo” and social media posts were removed.

It shouldn’t come down to a handful of influencers to make change happen, but Coeliac Australia didn’t step up.

Perhaps they were afraid to lose the coverage?

What matters is that the three of us, along with the GF community, did step up.

Quietly working away

A private battle I had last year was with lolly manufacturer Darrell Lea.

The Lifesavers brand of banana lollies used to read as gluten free - provided you interpreted the glucose syrup (wheat) as gluten free.

But I was skeptical. What was all the white stuff coating the lollies? Starch is quite typical in lolly moulding, surely it was corn starch and not wheat starch.

With no starch listed in the ingredients I decided to find out.

I wrote to the manufacturer asking what kind of starch they used and they shot back rather promptly that it was wheat starch and not suitable for coeliacs (I didn’t even mention coeliac, I think they had my name on file 😬).

Under FSANZ guidelines (our food safety standards) when wheat starch is used as a processing aid it doesn’t have to be declared.

Their response was that it was compliant and that was that.

It didn’t sit well for me and I decided to do something about it.

The first thing I did was write to Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia who confirmed that they advise those with wheat allergy that wheat glucose syrup is acceptable but wheat starch is not.

Ok, so coeliacs and wheat allergy folk are on the same page.

From there I submitted a formal complaint to the state food authority.

I argued that while the product was strictly compliant to the letter of the standard it did not meet the spirit of the standard - keeping consumers safe.

Here’s part of my submission.

While the product does list wheat & gluten as allergens, the only wheat ingredient listed is glucose syrup (wheat). Wheat starch has not been listed.

In both the coeliac and wheat allergy community it is well understood that glucose syrup from wheat does not contain gluten and does not contain wheat allergens. Further it’s exempt from declaration under the Food Standards Code.

What this means is that coeliac or wheat allergy consumers would view this product as suitable to consume as wheat glucose is an accepted exemption.

If the product was correctly labelled, listing wheat starch, then both coeliacs and those with wheat allergy would not consume this product.

What resulted was a thorough investigation and ultimately no finding of wrongdoing.

It was a shame because it really did not factor in how coeliacs and those with wheat allergy interpret ingredient lists.

Then a few months later, this happened.

So despite there being no finding, and me being dismissed almost instantly by the brand, five months later the product had a new ingredient declared.

What a win.

Challenges continue

Speaking of big battles, I've had one this year that's been going on now for six months.

It's not a fight on behalf of coeliacs, but for myself alone.

Last month I got to speak to the head of the organisation in person. At face value it didn't feel like the most productive chat.

However a few days later I received a long overdue follow-up to my email. A complaint I had sent over 6 months prior.

Coincidence? 🤷‍♀️

The matter isn't yet resolved, but it's an example of advocating for yourself.

I could have let it slide. I could have let it go after being ignored.

But there some things that are worth fighting for and standing up for yourself should always be one of them.

While I'm told the issue is being looked into, I'm not holding my breath but I'm waiting for a response.

I guess I'm somewhat naïve in thinking that the next email won't take another six months to arrive.

Whatever the result, it will be a rather interesting story to tell you in a future newsletter.

Kati x

Latest posts on katikeksi.com

Not up to date with the website? Here's what I've been talking about this month.

Gluten Free Advent Calendars

Cadbury is the same every year no matter what but there are a few new ones for 2026. As always, if you need dairy free - buy it now.

GF Christmas Chocolates and Treats

Honestly Aldi is probably the best spot for random gluten free treats at Christmas which is interesting as they are terrible at Easter. This is last year's guide that I've been busy updating with new finds for 2026

Most popular content on Facebook

What's been big on Facebook this month?

• There are three new chocolate blocks at Woolies, including milk choc and dark mint.
• I asked what your best gluten free discovery was.
• Christmas chocolates are coming through, including these cute little white chocolates.
• ​Christmas cookie decorating kits are back at Woolworths.
• More Christmas content - Woolworths has brought out maple pecan tarts. I am soooo keen but I haven't found any yet.
• It turns out there are two types of Mingle taco mix - spicy and non-spicy, who knew?
• We had a big ol' chat about the GF noodle soup with legendary status - Trident. (recipes, serving ideas too!)

Instagram @kati_keksi

Do you follow me on Instagram? I tend to post different content there compared to Facebook so it's worth checking out both.

Here's what little I've been sharing this month. I've actually been pretty inactive on FB and my website too. Hopefully I'll do better in November.

• The biggest surprise find was Biscoff style white choc! I even swore in my internal monologue when I found it.
• All the new gluten free products for October in my monthly summary.

New product alerts

Here's just a few of the new gluten free products I've seen in the last month.

• ​New gluten free cones are finally here - they were announced nearly two months ago!
• You can buy a 270g sack of UK Roses chocolates at Kmart. No may contains for gluten!
• ​Woolies hash browns have a new recipe and no wheat.
• There are not one, but five new breads on the market all by an Irish brand called Promise.
• Aldi has two knock-off Viennetta options, including caramel.
• The first of Woolies' summer BBQ range is rolling in. So far I've just seen this pork one.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook where I post everything I find, and if you prefer, follow me on Instagram for a monthly reel summary.

Article from the archive

Did you know I started my website back in January 2022? There's so many articles, including shopping guides that you can read. Here's one I picked for you.

Five more gluten free swaps

The second of three in my swaps series. This article covers gluten free options for couscous, Up & Go, Milo, Worcestershire sauce and Smarties. Updated just this week with new product changes.

Thanks for reading! If you want to support my work you can Buy Me a Coffee ☕.