Methodology

Everything on How to Gluten Free follows one rule: evidence, not vibes. This page explains exactly how a place earns its tier, what the dates mean, and where the community's voice fits in.

The tier system: two clean axes

Every listing answers two separate questions, and we never blur them into one score. Provision is what the kitchen structurally is: ★ Dedicated, a 100% gluten-free facility with no gluten on site, or GF-serving, a shared kitchen that offers gluten-free, where the residual cross-contact risk depends on their handling. Confidence is who stands behind the listing: verified by us, reviewed by HTGF, or a community lead awaiting checks. A place can be "Dedicated, pending our check" or "GF-serving, verified".

★ Dedicated is set by How to Gluten Free from that evidence, never from a community report alone. A venue that credibly declares itself 100% gluten-free is categorised as Dedicated straight away, but it appears honestly as "self-declared, pending our check" until we have confirmed the evidence. A community report alone can never award the gold star.

The detail that used to hide inside tier badges (documented protocol, dedicated fryer, trained staff, AOECS, DZG or Coeliac UK accreditation, GF menu) lives in evidence chips. In the app you can filter by them; not every listing has them yet. And one line we hold: "not suitable" is never a label we publish on a named venue. We present the evidence; the conclusion stays yours.

Last verified

Kitchens change. Every listing shows when it was last verified by our team or community, as a plain dated stamp. Listings that haven't been rechecked recently say so honestly: an old verification is presented as exactly that, and never dressed up as current.

How a place earns a listing

• Sources first. A venue's own published protocol, official registers, community reports and our research pipeline all feed candidates in.
• Checks before publication. Operating status, address, and the venue's gluten-free protocol are checked against the source. No listing without a source, no source without a date.
• Evidence gate for the star. Only reviewed evidence moves a listing up a tier.

What the community layer is, and isn't

Coeliac visitors can review places in the HTGF Atlas app. Once a place has enough reviews, it will show a "coeliac confidence" line: lived experience from coeliac visitors, shown on purpose as a separate, secondary layer. No place shows one yet. When it appears:

• It never upgrades or replaces a tier.
• It is never a safety verdict. It measures how visits felt, not how the kitchen works.
• It is clearly labelled as community experience, everywhere it appears.

Recalls and freshness

Our recall tracker follows official authority notices around the clock, shows when each recall was issued, and archives notices older than 30 days, visibly. Recall information is free for everyone, always.

How we order venues

On our free city guides, country pages and territory pages, venues are grouped by evidence tier first. Within a tier, venues with a member profile come first and are marked Partner. Payment never changes a tier, the star, or whether a venue is listed. The map, search and our paid guides have no partner order.

Independence

We accept no payment, comps or sponsorship from restaurants or venues in exchange for listings, tiers or ratings. A member profile changes only the order within a tier (see How we order venues above). Tiers cannot be bought. That's the only way this resource stays worth trusting.