The Best Gluten Free Breads Ranked | Vegan

Last year, I did a post ranking the best gluten free pastas and at the time I suggested another one down the line for breads. I’m not going to lie, this took a lot longer than I expected due to availability. A lot of GF breads have egg in them, meaning that the number of options available that are both gluten free and vegan is limited. Add in that I live in a small town in the north east, where the words free from are normally met with a blank expression, it took me a while to get my hands on some of the ones I wanted to try. Thankfully, Ocado finally started delivering in my area earlier this year which has made this process a whole lot earlier.  

Fun fact: I used to order the Ocado order to my mother’s office which was 80 miles from home because that was still easier than trying to find everything I wanted locally. Then she changed jobs in November, closer to home…I had to say goodbye to Ocado. Sounds trivial, I know, but it was a sad moment for a food blogger… 

Anyway, this list contains a few big name brands you’ve probably seen in most free from aisles and one or two that are less common. I’ve opted to review a brown/ wholemeal seeded loaf from each brand to try and keep this as fair as possible. 

The Best Gluten Free Breads Ranked

Schar Gluten Free Seeded Deli Style  

For a long time this was the only gluten free bread I liked, and it’s still one of my favourites (one of the three I get). This is one of the only gluten free breads that comes as a full sized slice, so it gets major plus points for that. And it makes great toast. But there’s a part of that feels like this bread is the gluten free equivalent of liking McDonald’s but knowing it’s terrible for you. Although there’s nothing that majorly stands out as unhealthy on the label, it’s not uncommon for the use by date on this bread to be three to four weeks after the purchase date. So it’s clearly not that fresh and delightful.  

Schar are probably the biggest brand for GF foods (they are to gluten what Alpro is to dairy), but this particular loaf isn’t available in a lot of places. This is a more premium option for them, they sell lots of smaller loaves at cheaper prices which are very readily available, but this one is harder to track down. All major supermarkets in the UK stock Schar products, so you may be lucky, but Ocado is the only supermarket in my area that sells this particular loaf.  

In terms of how it feels, it’s a little rubbery to the touch, but not as much as some others. I don’t think this is the greatest bread as plain bread, but as toast it’s incredible, which is why it’s on the favourites list.  

This is a small loaf at just 250g, but if you’re the only GF person in your household that might be an advantage.  

Price -£2.00 for 250g (£0.80/100g)/ 5 slices per packet.  

Toasted 5/5  

As bread 2/5 

Value – Price per slice is terrible, but price per 100g isn’t bad. I’d say this one is the better option there’s only one person eating it. Not the absolute best value for money but it does gain an extra point on value because you probably wouldn’t have to freeze it.

BFree Brown Seeded Loaf  

This is one of the three in my acceptable category, but it’s my least favourite of my three. It is, however, the easiest one to get. In my area this is available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado whereas the other two are only available from Ocado in my area.  

Unlike the previous one, this one goes off very quickly. And by quickly, I mean three days in the cupboard and it’s usually green quickly. Which means I usually have to freeze it as soon as I get it. And defrosted bread never tastes as good as fresh bread. So unless there’s a few of you that are GF in your household, this isn’t the best option.  

As toast, this one tastes pretty good. For bread, it’s not that great. As I hope you can see in the picture, it doesn’t look so fresh, which is a real shame considering how quickly it goes off. The photo was taken one day after purchase for reference.  

Price per 100g is on the more reasonable side for GF bread, and it is full sized slices rather than a mini loaf so it gains a point for these reasons.  

I get this loaf fairly often because it’s more readily available to me than the other two. But if the others were more readily available, I probably wouldn’t pick this one.  

Price – £3 per 400g loaf (£0.75 per 100g)/ 9-10 slices per loaf. 

Toasted 4/5 

As bread 2.5/5 (edible but do not recommend) 

Value – Middle of the road, there are better options but this one isn’t bad value for money in terms of cost per slice or quality of bread.  

Gradz Bakery Gluten Free Dark Bread with Seeds 

This, so far, is my favourite gluten free bread. It’s the most similar to ‘real’ bread in my humble opinion. It actually tastes fresh, it toasts well. And it’s expensive. However, unlike many of the other offerings I’m sharing today, this one might actually be worth it. It’s an eyewatering £3.85 per 400g loaf, so it’s only for those who really want bread. It’s a full loaf that has a normal shelf life of 4/5 days. You can freeze this one, however I don’t like doing it. As it’s the only one that tastes good fresh, it’s worth trying to eat it that way.  

Price- £3.85 per 400g loaf (£0.96 per 100g) /12 slices per loaf 

Toasted 4/5 

As bread 4.5/5 

Value – Controversial, probably not worth it because no bread is worth that much money. However, if you really like bread and miss gluten bread a lot, it’s worth it.  

Schar Wholesome Seeded Loaf 

This loaf contains honey so it is not fully vegan. 

Pure plastic. This doesn’t feel like bread at all, it’s rubber. But it’s the cheapest option and available from every supermarket and most smaller places, like Co-ops, which is why I’m including it.  

As bread, this isn’t worth it at all, as I said, actual rubber.  

For toasting purposes, this bread is passable. But this is a smaller slice, like the mini loaves you get in regular bread. So, even though the taste and texture isn’t so bad when toasted, this one doesn’t have much substance to it. It’s the kind of loaf I’d keep in the freezer as a just in case situation, but wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it.  

Price – £2.50 per 300g loaf (£0.83 per 100g)/ 11 slices per loaf (small 27g slices) 

Toasted 3/5 

As bread 1/5 

Value – Poor, don’t bother.  

Fria Gluten Free Fibre Sliced Loaf 

This one is a little different as it arrives frozen. So, talking about how fresh it feels is slightly redundant. I haven’t tried this one as bread, it’s not worth defrosting it, so I can only give a toast rating for this one.  

I almost don’t know how to rank this one. It definitely doesn’t have that typical rubbery GF bread texture, but it doesn’t taste like delicious, fresh bakery bread either. This almost tastes like really cheap normal bread. Doesn’t have the greatest texture, a little heavy, but still like real bread? I hope that makes sense!  

As it comes frozen it may be a better option for households that don’t consume much bread or only have one GF person.  

Price – It was around the £3 mark. Sorry, but due to Coronavirus, Ocado have shut down their website so I can’t see it listed or access my online receipt to double check. I’ll update when I can get back into my account! 500g loaf (£0.60 ish per 100g) / 13 slices. 

Toasted 3.5/5 

Value – Actually pretty good value in terms of cost per 100g (assuming I’m remembering the price correctly) and not a bad texture depending on your preferences for toast. Not the greatest if you’re wanting bread rather than toast, but not a bad one to have in especially as it lasts a year in the freezer! I’d get this again but wouldn’t replace my first choice.  

Overall  

What a shock. My favourite is the more pricey option. Unfortunately, I think when it comes to gluten free products, you do see a quality increase with a price increase. I’m yet to find too many options that are affordable and ~almost~ as good as the real thing.  There are many more options in terms of buns and pittas, if anyone would like to see another best gluten free breads post for those products, let me know in the comments!

Have you tried any others that I haven’t mentioned? Any hidden gems I need to try? 

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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