Kokova Magazine

The 2013 Free From Food Awards are already well into their stride with the first judging sessions, for the Christmas category coming up this week. Because of the difficulty of getting Christmas goods in February when the main Free From Food Awards judging is done, the Christmas session is always combined with the Awards' Christmas party in late November. Entrants for the sixteen other categories still have until the 12th December to get their entries in.

Started in Oxford in 1998 when she was a student, Emma Goss-Custard noticed there was a distinct lack in the market for uncomplicated, all natural cakes on the market. Using recipes handed down from her grandmother, she started making cakes that she would deliver to local delis and cafes on her old post office bicycle.

In 2011 the gluten-free beer Estrella Damm Daura won a Gold Medal at the World Beer Championships, a Gold Medal at the International Beer Challenge and the World's Best Gluten-free Lager Award at the World Beer Awards. Beers from all over the world competed in the three competitions, and Daura managed to beat off stiff competition to be named the best gluten-free beer in strong markets such as England and the United States.

The Booja-Booja Company is an independent manufacturer of delicious, organic, dairy-free confectionery. All their products are made by a small, dedicated team on one site in Norfolk but they are sold in delicatessens, health food shops, farm shops, fine food halls and gift shops throughout the UK and Europe. Everything Booja-Booja makes is organic as well as being dairy and gluten free.

Bianca Marton started out by making lovely traditional truffles with double cream but because her brother is dairy intolerant she began to experiment with dairy-free options. After spending a lot of time and effort Bianca created dairy free truffles that are just like traditional cream truffles: velvety smooth as they melt in your mouth - and bursting with taste. We put Bianca's truffles to the taste test to see how they compare.

The PanDan Bakery is a small, family run baking business based in West London, aiming to introduce delicious Malaysian-inspired cakes and bakes to Londoners. The key ingredient used by the bakery is the fragrant pandan leaf. But what is 'pandan' exactly?