Failsafe shopping list in alphabetic order within 9 supermarket categories

Always read labels: ingredients change!

  • This list updates those in any of the Fed Up books and the Failsafe Cookbook. We try to make sure the products below are failsafe
  • Mention here is not an endorsement of any particular food or company, nor, obviously, is there any fee paid or collected. It’s here to help you.
  • Please do not use this information as a means of starting failsafe eating until you have read any one of Sue Dengate's books or seen a dietitian.
  • For recent changes and new failsafe products check the latest Failsafe Newsletter. You can subscribe to our free newsletters (email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with ‘subscribe’ in the subject line)
  • For regions and countries outside Australia, your local failsafe group may have a shopping list - see under General category.


In the list below, you can eat anything that doesn’t have a bold warning in the paragraph.

Warning ingredients may vary in the different packs of the same product e,g, Pampas frozen puff pastry in sheets is preservative-free but dispenser rolls contain preservatives; Crisco sunflower oil in large packs such as 15L contains synthetic antioxidant (320, BHA) but is BHA-free in smaller containers.

Mistakes it is important to stick strictly to your supervised elimination diet – 2 mistakes per week or a daily small mistake can be enough to stop the diet from working.

Reader report: I am about to embark on the strict elimination diet for the 3rd time, but I am trying to pinpoint what went wrong the 2nd time round - was consistently bloating but not as severely as normal - versus the 1st time round when I felt fantastic. Using your salicylate and amine mistakes information sheets and the product updates on the fed up site, I have so far picked up the following errors: Coles Pears in Syrup snackpacks (contained pear juice), Simply Wize Crusty Bread (maize flour), Dovedale Rice & Chia Bread (Chia seeds), and the wrong Cenovis multivitamin (Once Daily Women's Multi, contains evening primrose oil). Thanks for all of your help and detailed knowledge, I think I would have been doing many more things wrong in the diet without having the fed up site to look at. - Belinda, by email

You are welcome to contribute to this page - please email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let me know if you want your name to appear as well. My mailing address is PO Box 718 WOOLGOOLGA NSW 2456 Australia. Note * means according to the RPAH Elimination Diet Handbook with Food & Shopping Guide 2009, available from www.allergy.net.au

Freezer

Beans, green frozen

Cakes eg • Sara Lee Pound Cake (frozen) • Sara Lee croissants (frozen) • Coles croissants (frozen)

Frozen fruit and vegetables: green beans, Brussels sprouts, frozen chips, fries and hash browns (no annatto 160b), e.g. Woolworths, Logan Farm (but not Logan Farm frozen chips/fries as they now contain annatto 160b). Some brands contain unlisted antioxidants, see further below (Not suitable for your supervised elimination diet: green peas not minted, frozen mango pulp, frozen corn cobs)

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Ice cream, icecream, ice-cream (no colours, no natural colour annatto 160b, no flavours other than vanilla, caramel, honeycomb, butterscotch or toffee; chocolate flavoured ice cream may be suitable for people who do not react to amines) e.g.

  • A2 vanilla icecream is failsafe as they use 160a beta-carotene
  • **WARNING** No longer failsafe as it contains coconut oil! Nestlé Peter’s Original vanilla (AND NOT Light & Creamy Classic or French vanilla). Use Sarah Lea vanilla or Bulla original vanilla. For dairy-free (also low fat) use So Good Vanilla Bliss.
  • Nestle Peters Dixie Cup vanilla ice cream
  • Nestlé Milky Bar

Reader reports: 160b annatto in Nestle products? Failsafers have reported some reactions but Nestle have confirmed that that colour 160b is not used in Nestle Peters Dixie Cups and Nestle Peters Original Vanilla icecream by formulation.

  • Norco Natural vanilla
  • Sara Lee French Vanilla
  • UPDATE Bulla real dairy Vanilla icecream – both dark blue and light blue containers have curcumin or turmeric (100) but the colour of the light blue container is very white so very little must be used. According to feedback, it seems to be well tolerated.
  • NOT Sara Lee Honeycomb and Butterscotch **WARNING** Sara Lee now adds colour annatto 160b to their Honeycomb and Butterscotch ice cream – thanks to Kristie in Canberra.
  • Toppa Hokey Pokey
  • Pure Chill organic vanilla

Reader Review: Pure Chill organic vanilla ice cream from Coles is the least of all the evils as far as ice creams are concerned, just the simple ingredients you would use if making it at home and all organic (contains dairy and egg) – thanks to Diane

  • Dairy Bell organic vanilla from Coles
  • New Zealand Natural Classic Vanilla ice cream made from all natural ingredients, available in Coles supermarkets

Reader review – My daughter reacted severely to NEW ZEALAND NATURAL ICECREAM, further investigation has shown a new supplier of the cones ( waffle). They now contain artificial colours 102 and 110 in Australia. Rather peeved – thanks to Michele

  • Dairy Bell organic vanilla from Coles

Reader report: Despite previous failsafer reports that this ice cream may have contained unlisted preservative 211 in the natural vanilla flavor, we are assured that is not the case - thanks to Kathleen and Jen

  • Home Ice Cream www.homeicecream.com comes to your street Australia wide. Some of the products are failsafe, all contain milk & may have traces of nuts, some are gluten free, some contain chocolate (for non-amine responders), caution some products may contain artificial colours:
    • Vanilla Ice Cream Cups in a plastic cup, 6.8% fat, Product code 61
    • Natural Vanilla Ice Cream 2 litre tub 5.7% fat, Product code 5
    • Embrace Nostalgia Butterscotch Brickle 1.2 litre tub, 6% fat, Product code 88
    • All Natural gluten free Caramel Sundae, 9.8% fat, Product code 62
    • (Not suitable for your supervised elimination diet* • for people who can tolerate moderate amines (white chocolate) or high amines:
    • White Hearts vanilla ice cream with white chocolate on a stick, 17% fat, Product Code 98
    • All Natural Chocolate Milk Ice Confection on a stick, gluten free, 4% fat, Product Code 18
    • Vanilla choc coated on a stick, 16% fat, Product Code 1)
  • Sanitarium So Good Vanilla Bliss dairy free also appeals to people who want a low fat ice dessert and is even preferred by many to dairy icecream.Detail below.
  • Woolworths Hokey pokey icecream is failsafe, it has natural honeycomb flavour.

(Not suitable for your supervised elimination diet: for people who tolerate amines: additive-free chocolate ice creams and desserts)

Warning: flavours including ‘Natural vanilla flavour’ may contain preservative 211 (sodium benzoate) and other additives including colours under the 5% labelling loophole. Not all vanilla flavours contain this additive and it is not permitted in organic foods. You can phone the manufacturer to ask.

Warning: vanilla flavour is the safest flavor for failsafers. Chemically there's no difference between vanilla and vanillin (artificial vanilla).The main problem the size of the dose – the recommendation used to be 2 drops of vanilla per day but because vanillin is cheaper it is often used in larger amounts. When diet isn’t working, it is best to avoid commercial vanilla flavoured products. Other problems in flavor additives can include unlisted preservatives and colours under the 5% labeling loophole.

Ice cream, dairy free

  • Sanitarium So Good Vanilla Bliss - detail below
  • see many recipes in the Failsafe Cookbook

Pastry (no preservatives 281, 202, 223,synthetic antioxidants 320, other nasty additives), e.g.

  • Pampas Puff Pastry, Butter Puff Pastry and Reduced Fat sheets (Wheat flour, water, margarine (vegetable fats and oils, water, salt, emulsifiers (471, soy lecithin), food acid (330), flavour, antioxidant (306), colour (160a), salt, food acid (330)). Coles, Borgs and Woolworths Puff Pastries are also now failsafe. Warning NOT Pampas or Borgs Shortcrust or dispenser rolls which contain preservatives 281, 202 and/or 320 for use in cafés; Pampas Filo pastry contains sulphite preservative 223 as a flour treatment agent but is otherwise free of nasty additives for those who can tolerate small amounts of sulphites, it is the lowest in fat, at 4% about one fifth of the butter puff pastry)

Borgs organic pastry is failsafe. It has unbleached flour, butter, salt and water as its ingredients. After looking through every other brand and finding 202 in them, I looked at the most expensive and found it to be ok – thanks to Heather

  • Trangs Spring Roll Pastry
  • Pampas Spring Roll Pastry (ingredients: wheat flour, water, vegetable oil, salt, maize starch), at 6% fat is much lower in fat than Puff Pastry

  • Careme all butter puff pastry, sour cream shortcrust pastry made with butter and sour cream, vanilla bean; sweet shortcrust pastry with egg yolks and real vanilla www.caremepastry.com
  • GF pastry in gluten free section

Peas, frozen no mint (Not suitable for your supervised elimination diet • for people who can tolerate limited amounts of glutamates)

Potato products such as oven fry frozen chips, fries, hash browns and wedges may contain unlisted antioxidants - see Antioxidant Warning if the oil content is less than 5%. According to RPA, these can be tolerated if eaten occasionally in small amounts. That does not mean every night or even two nights in a row!

  • Warning Birds Eye Hash Browns and Potato Gems (potato, canola, corn starch, salt and dextrose) may contain small amounts of sulphites 223 and antioxidant BHA 320, possibly undeclared on the label under the 5% labelling loophole. We have received conflicting advice from the manufacturer. - thanks to Kerryn and Cara for checking with the manufacturer
  • ALDI frozen fries contain 6% oil and therefore have to list antioxidants (they’re failsafe) but are not as heart healthy. ALDI Seasons Pride Frozen French Fries (potatoes 94%, sunflower oil 6%, antioxidant 330 citric acid) these ingredients are all failsafe but the fries look fairly yellow ­ it's possible that they are not made from white fleshed potatoes ­ approach with caution and see our recipe for Easy potato chips.
  • Woolworths Homebrand straight-cut chips and Woolworth Select French Fries are failsafe (potatoes, sunflower oil, citric acid as antioxidant, processing aids are sodium pyrophosphate (E450i) and antifoam).
  • The McCains range have finally removed unlisted synthetic antioxidants.
  • Coles frozen chips (straight cut, crinkle and frrench fries) are also failsafe.
  • Warning Logan Farm Guilt-Free Fries in crinkle cut and straight versions are NOT failsafe due to annatto 160b colour. Are they using up old packaging? See blog

SUCCESS! McCain Foods quietly removed BHA 320 from all their products from December 2010. FIN has campaigned for years about their use of this antioxidant which did not have to be declared on many products like oven-fry chips because of the 5% labelling loophole – thanks to Cara and George

Warning Many Birds Eye frozen varieties of potato contain synthetic antioxidant BHA 320. Read the label. 

Commercial hot chips (fries) can contain enough synthetic antioxidants to cause problems if eaten once or twice a week. Make your own:

Easy potato chips recipe: Preheat oven to 200°C. Use big potatoes (must be white fleshed and brown or white skinned, not e.g. pink), peel thickly and cut into chip shapes. Place on an oiled oven tray and spray with canola oil. Bake for about 20 minutes depending on oven, until brown.

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Soy icecream: So Good Vanilla Bliss from Sanitarium is low fat (2.9%) and gluten-free and preferred by many to dairy icecream. So Good Vanilla Bliss icecream will again be available from July 2023 from independent retailers (IGA, Metcash, Ritchie) and by October from Coles and Woolworths! The Chocolate flavour will follow if demand justifies it, so get buying all those who have been asking us to chase Sanitarium.

Warning Home icecream dairyfree product NO MOO is *not* failsafe because it contains unlisted gallates (310) in the vegetable shortening.

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latest update July 2023