Gluten Free TLV Grocery Store Tips

Zoe Wernick
Feb 22, 2016
6 min read

The Gluten Free won't go hungry at the Shufersal on Ben Yehuda.

When I'm traveling to a new country, particularly one that I am worried might not have many hearty options for me, I always make sure to pack a carbohydrate in my bag. Research can only get you so far, and you never want to be unprepared for a travel meltdown that a slice of bread could solve! But when I was traveling Europe for a couple of months, I knew I couldn't pack enough to get me through the trip, so I packed my solitary loaf and was off.

What I quickly discovered is that it is actually fairly easy to get at least something gluten free everywhere. Okay, maybe you're not going to get the amazing quality of products like in Germany, or the abundance like in Ireland, but the bread I found in Hungary was totally acceptable. And the more I traveled, the faster I got at finding these things within the store. I could be in and out of a foreign grocery store in less than 5 minutes, GF purchase in hand! Being of a competitive nature I actually loved this - my own personal version of Supermarket Sweep, racing against my time from the last country! Occasionally this resulted in purchases that included nuts, one of my other allergies (twice what I thought was caramel from the picture was peanut butter! What the heck, Belgium and Israel!?) ButI realized that there was a pattern you can look for, and here are the tips I have:

- Look for what looks like the health food isle. You'll know it when you see it.

- If you've find sugar free stuff first, whatever they have gluten free is probably next to it.

- The colors of packaging you're used to in the US are similar to what I've found around the world. I find that many GF lines of products are colorful and this helps make the section stand out.

- If you find nothing in the isles, be sure to check their bread section! That's where I found the GF selections in Budapest and Prague.

- Never forget to scan the freezers!

Mostly though, experience is your best friend, so get out there and start scanning!

While the offerings in Budapest were pitifully low, and the selection in Ireland was incredibly vast, Israel finds itself falling on the high end of the selection scale. Despite the slightly lower awareness of Gluten Free restrictions that I feel the general population has here, the grocery stores are a step ahead! Tel Aviv, being a metropolitan city, has a higher frequency and possibly a higher volume of selection, but I have had no trouble finding Gluten Free products in other cities throughout all of Israel.

Here's what you need to know when you're going to a grocery store in Israel!

ללא גלוטן

Ta da! Your new best friend are those 8 letters. Above you see the most important thing that you need to recognize if you don't speak Hebrew! Does it look familiar? That's because it features prominently on the first picture of this post! Translated, it means "Gluten Free," and is pronounced "lilo gluten." Memorize it, write it down, take a picture of it with your phone, print it...whatever you want to do, but that is what you're going to need to know. Gluten free Israeli products are clearly and boldly marked with this phrase, just as it would be marked Gluten Free in the US. Not rocket science, but it certainly does look like scribbles if you're unfamiliar with it :) I remember when I first came here and the Hebrew alphabet was so foreign to me. It was daunting, exhausting, and added another layer of difficulty to navigating around the store. However, knowing the above phrase is what you need to get started and stay away from your allergy safely!

The scope of selection varies store by store. If you're traveling to Tel Aviv, I recommend that you check out one of the stores that is labled on the Gluten Free TLV Map, which all have reasonably sized selections (the Shufersal on Ben Yehuda actually has a really large selection!) so that you can familiarize yourself with the types of products that are offered here. (All the stores on the map are ones I've been inside and have seen their GF section with my own eyes!) You can find everything you need if you're traveling here (sweets, snacks, breads, pita, cereals, oatmeal packets, granola bars), and everything you need for living here (pastas, pizza, coconut flour, almond flour, rice flour, xantham gum, other baking supplies), so don't worry about not having what you need! It just helps to get a good look at the selection that way you know what one store might have and one might not for when you travel outside Tel Aviv.

Once you're inside your grocery store of choice, take your handy little phrase out and start scanning the isles. Most likely there will be two Gluten Free "sections," as there usually are in the US too, one dry and one freezer section. Israel offers products from other countries (they do have my favorite pastry flour from Germany!) as well as having a few Gluten Free lines of their own. So if you're familiar with the bright yellow German Brand Schär's packaging, this may help you when you're searching.

GreenLite Galore!

So, now that you've found the GF Section.........Are you looking to substitute some Gluten Free Pita, Challah, or even Rugaleh? If you aren't, I can't imagine why!!! Not only are the GF options for these Jewish classics available, but they are pretty darn good too! Israel has two main companies that produce Gluten Free products for Grocery Stores: GreenLite and Natural Cakes. My experience has led me to prefer GreenLite, but Natural Cakes is acceptable too. Most restaurants and coffee shops use packaged GreenLite products here as well to have something to offer their Gluten Free customers.

In the freezer section you will find all the different types of bread including the very-important Challah and Pita you've undoubtedly been looking for! Since they obviously come frozen, you can't expect to walk out of the store and into a hummus restaurant and eat it immedately, so plan ahead! They keep reasonably well for a couple of days out of the fridge, but last longer kept cold. Both the Challah and the Pita can be eaten cold (they taste a little doughy this way), but they do taste better if they have had the chance to warm up. The pita, when baked at around 200C for a short amount of time, sometimes even puffs up perfectly, making it really easy to stuff it full of deliciousness. But if you're on the go- the microwave in your room or in the dining room of your hotel will do.

The Gluten Free Challah and Pita from GreenLite. It's artsy because I added the chives, right? Ok, I'll keep working on it.

GreenLite also sells premade Rugaleh and other sweets, as well as frozen pastery sheets. I've yet to try those (I just moved into an apartment with an awesome oven, so I'll definitely do that soon), but if you've used them before, please let me know what you think!

My favorite Natural Foods store, nestled tightly in Shuk HaCarmel.

In regards to the stores themselves, just like in the US, we have chain grocery stores and natural foods stores. (Think like Ralphs and Kroger vs Trader Joes and Whole Foods). The main chains are Shufersal (שופרסל, closed Shabbat) and Tiv Taam (טיב טעם, open Shabbat). What I've found is that inside Tel Aviv, Shufersal actually has many more Gluten Free products, where the Tiv Taam's are usually smaller, and called "Tiv Taam In The City" and have no Gluten Free products at all. Outside Tel Aviv, in normal sized Tiv Taam's, there is a reasonable selection of GF products, but their store tends to be slightly more expensive in general than Shufersal. Natural food stores almost always have GF products to offer, and I've labeled a few of my favorites in Tel Aviv on the map.

One last word of advice! Remember that handy dandy Gluten Free phrase you wrote down?? DOUBLE CHECK that your frozen product from GreenLite or Natural Cakes has it printed on it before you buy! They both offer some other "healthy" carbohydrates that are NOT gluten free. If ללא גלוטן is on your package, you're good to go.

So if you're traveling or moving to Israel - don't dispair! There are plenty of options for you here, and I bet within just a few trips, you'll be navigating the isles like a pro. Happy Shopping!

My favorite grocery stores for GF products in Tel Aviv are below. They are my favorites for two reasons; selection and proximity to my apartment. So there might be others farther away that are just as good or better, but here are my haunts:

Shufersal (שופרסל) - Ben Yehuda St 79, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, http://www.shufersal.co.il/

Nitzat Haduvdevan (ניצת הדובדבן) - HaCarmel St 30, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 6560343, Israel, http://www.nizat.com/

**Note: other products are appearing in our stores marked Gluten Free in Hebrew but aren't always stocked in the Gluten Free Section. If you're moving here, be sure to memorize the Hebrew letters both in block (like I printed above) and in script (like featured on the Bamba bag pictured in the slideshow below) so that you can find all the available products! Thanks to Tami who suggested I mention this!

Enjoy a gallery below of quickly snapped Gluten Free Items and Grocery Store fronts. It isn't particularly pretty, but hopefully it'll be helpful! :)