This is a guide for tourists coming to Tenerife who are also celiacs. We know from experience that it’s at first difficult to know where to even find gluten-free food, and which stores have the widest selection.
Awareness about celiac disease in Tenerife is among the highest in Europe.
Still, gluten-free food is not sold on every corner. While most supermarkets and larger shops sell at least some gluten-free items, some establishments are clearly better than others.
WHO ARE WE? Three out of four Smart Travel Family members are celiac, so we know firsthand about this condition and the challenges and dangers coming with it. We lived in Tenerife for a year in 2022 and 2023, and this and other articles are a reflection of our experience.
The best supermarket for gluten-free items in Tenerife, hands down, is Alcampo. However, gluten-free goods also sold in SuperDino and Hiperdino, Mercadona and Lidl. The absolutely poorest selection is in Aldi stores. If you want frozen gluten-free cake, the 5 Oceanos chain carries at least two varieties.
Here’s what you can expect in each of these stores. The shops are arranged from best to worst. Each section also links to a dedicated article that provides much more detail about the gluten-free assortment on offer.
Alcampo (known as ‘Auchan’ outside Spain)
Alcampo has the best gluten-free food selection in Tenerife. Period.
But there is also a problem. Alcampo has only two stores on the island – in La Laguna and in a location between La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz. Plus, there’s is an internet order pickup location near Los Cristianos. However, if you want to stock up on gluten-free food, it’s worth the drive.
Here’s a list of what gluten-free items are on offer in this chain. There is a very wide selection of Schar products, but there are also plenty of other brands: Gerble, Gullon, Gallo, Alcampo GF line, Sinblat, Noglut, Nestle, Bsan, Yatekomo, La Santina, La Cocinera and others.
- Bread.
- Flour and gluten-free gofio (roasted corn flour).
- Several types of breakfast cereals.
- Hamburger buns.
- Fresh and frozen pizza (not only gluten-free, but also lactose free), many varieties, as well as pizza bases for DIY pizza. Frozen bagels and similar dough products.
- Frozen churros, doughnuts, etc.
- Many types of pasta, both from gluten-free wheat and corn flour, as well as couscous.
- Bread crumbs.
- Baguettes.
- Hotdog buns.
- Gluten-free oat flakes.
- Gluten-free beer, many varieties: Ambar, San Miguel, Cruzcampo, Mahou, Estrella Galicia, Daura.
- Tortilla wraps, lasagna pasta “plates”.
- Crostini and other types of toasted bread.
- Crackers, salinis, etc.
- Many types of cookies, several brownies, etc.
- Guaranteed gluten-free potato chips.
- Guaranteed gluten-free chocolate.
- Ice cream waffle cones, as well as gluten-free ice cream in waffle cones.
- Puff pastry dough.
- Frozen chicken nuggets & fingers.
- Yatekomo instant noodles.
- Frozen lasagna, tortellini.
- Cheese croquettes with and without filling.
We also have to point out that some of the items were very reasonably priced like Alcampo frozen gluten-free baguette for 0.68 euros. You could get a loaf of Schar and Gerble bread for around 2 euros.
SuperDino and Hiperdino
Even the smallest SuperDino stores had at least this selection of gluten-free foodstuffs.
SuperDino and Hiperdino stores hold the second place when it comes to gluten-free food assortment in Tenerife. If you can’t go to an Alcampo store, Hiperdino or even the smaller neighborhood SuperDino will be a safe bet.
Together with Alcampo these stores are a “head above” the competition – neither Lidl, nor Mercadone nor Aldi come even close to offer of these supermarket chains.
Here’s a list of what gluten-free items you can get in most in SuperDino and Hiperdino stores:
- Fresh pizza from Casa Tarradellas.
- Schar bread, hamburger buns, paninis, etc.
- Pasta.
- Cookies from Schar and Gullon, a few other pastry sweets.
- Corn cereal and gluten-free wheat cereal.
- Granola bars.
- Flour.
- Gofio (roasted corn flour).
- Broth base for soups.
- Yatekomo instant noodles.
- Guaranteed gluten-free candy.
Mercadona
Mercadona stores in Tenerife were an interesting case when it came to GF items.
While the selection was not very wide, we kept returning to Mercadone 1-2 times a month as they had either some unique or greatly priced gluten-free goodies.
Our family favorites were their cookies, but there were a number of other items as well:
- Fresh pizza, not only gluten-free, but also lactose free.
- Bread.
- Gnocchi.
- Hamburger buns.
- Pasta.
- Tortilla wraps.
- Chocolate chip cookies, and other cookie varieties. We particularly liked the Mercadona Hacendado brand chocolate-coated cookies.
- Crackers.
- Cupcakes.
- Cakes. This was a specialty of Mercadona. We found no other supermarket chain that would offer regular gluten-free cakes (you could only get them at artisanal bakeries).
- Guaranteed gluten-free tuna. To be honest, we were not even aware that tuna has to be certified to be gluten-free, so we think it’s just a marketing gimmick. But nice to know.
Mercadone did have a dedicated gluten-free shelf, but about 50% of GF items were spread throughout the store.
Lidl
The GF selection in Tenerife Lidl stores wasn’t too impressive.
However, the good thing about Lidl is that you could get many of the same items as on the European mainland.
Main GF items on offer in Lidl:
- Lidl GF bread.
- GF flour.
- Cookies from almond flour.
- Rice crackers.
- Gofio (roasted corn flour, a Canary Islands specialty). Carefully check the packaging as only a few brands are certified GF.
While Lidl Spain has a dedicated webpage about GF items in their stores, there’s a notice that not all of these items are available in the Canary Islands. We probably saw a third of items in Tenerife, compared to what’s listed on the website.
Aldi
Your chances of finding gluten-free goods in Aldi are the slimmest in Tenerife.
It almost seemed that the store hasn’t thought about this demographic at all and GF items landed on its shelves by accident.
Aldi does not have a dedicated GF shelf. Rather, coeliacs have to walk around the store and look for known GF items, or check the contents of goods to see if they might be gluten-free.
We noticed the following gluten-free items in Aldi:
- Breakfast cereal.
- Frozen Ristorante pizza (2 varieties).
- Guaranteed gluten-free potato chips.
- Rice crackers.
While Alcampo and SuperDino stores carried the gluten-free Yatekomo instant noodles, Aldi carried Yatekomo produce but not the GF variety.
Also, weirdly, we could not find GF pasta in Aldi.
5 Oceanos
If you go to 5 Oceanos, check the refrigerators around the fruit section. The chances are they will have at least these two frozen cakes – see below.
The frozen goods store 5 Oceanos, which is quite widely spread on the island, is heavily specializing in meat and seafood. We regularly visited this store to stock up on frozen fruit. While fresh fruit are widely available in Tenerife, both locally grown and imported, sometimes you just wish for something that cools you off during all that heat. Nothing beats a mango smoothy.
Both cakes are produced by Almondy, a Swedish company. The cakes were also sometimes available at Alcampo and are regularly sold in cut-up format at the Ikea store cafeterias both in South and North of the island.
Where to find additional information?
When we were on the island, we got lots of new ideas about gluten-free places to visit from the Facebook Tenerife Gluten-free Group. We suggest you join the group as well before your trip to the island to get the most up-to-date tips.
You can also ask specific questions in the group, for example, about the hotel you plan to stay at. However, before you ask a question, please have the courtesy and search the group archive first.
Do you have an update about gluten-free offers in Tenerife’s supermarkets? Is something not correct? Please leave a comment and we’ll happily update the article for the benefit of our dear gluten-free community.
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