Business & Tech

Naturally Free Food Finds its Niche in Smithtown

Gluten-free food store created to provide shopping haven for those with special dietary needs.

  A Smithtown resident confronted with the challenge of finding gluten-free foods for her family has turned it into a business to make shopping easier for others.

   Christine Mitchell is preparing to celebrate the second anniversary Naturally Free Food, a 100 percent gluten-free food store off Singer Lane in Smithtown next door to the Millennium Diner. Mitchell said while shop has become a haven for those on a gluten-free diet and other special dietary needs.   

Mitchell said she started Naturally Free Food five years ago, after a family member was diagnosed as being intolerant to gluten. It turned her weekly shopping routine upside down as she hunted for gluten-free food.   

“I found myself traveling to five different supermarkets to get everything that I needed,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have one place where it’s all gluten-free and you don’t have to spend an extra hour in the supermarket to find what you like or travel to five different supermarkets.”  

It was a ‘little idea’ that Mitchell took action on. A self-described entrepreneurial spirit, She had opened several of her own businesses in the past in house cleaning, catering, and even a craft business. 

She looked into renting the historic barn that formerly housed the Irish gift shop and found out Smithtown’s historic schoolhouse was available for rent. Its original doors, windows and cupboards add a quaint, cozy charm to Naturally Free Foods.    The house’s shelves, tables and aisles are stocked with a wide variety of gluten-free food from basics staples of pastas and pretzels to gluten-free cannoli shells handmade by a former chef from Buono Sera. 

Mitchell said many of her products are those her family has taste-tested and approved of, but she also takes recommendations.

   “I take customer recommendations on carrying a product when they say, ‘ Oh you just have to carry this’,” she said.   

Alongside these stock items, on-site cook Amelia Zicaro whips up gluten-free meals, cupcakes and other baked treats in Naturally Free Food’s kitchen. She also produces her own line of Waistline Friendly Meals, cooked with less butter, oil and portioned that she labels with a calorie count and estimates the Weight Watchers equivalent in points.  

Together, the pair said they’ve guided many who are new to the gluten-free diet, from adults to young children.  

“If there is a kid, I have a book I lend out that shows kids what’s gluten-free because at first it’s overwhelming,” Mitchell said. 

She advises most to find gluten-free pantry items including bread, bagels, pasta, cereals and breadcrumbs for cooking. Then advises to look for a gluten-free soy sauce for cooking.

  “There are so many things that people often don’t think of,” Mitchell said.  

Naturally Free Food carries several cookbooks on gluten-free meals and desserts. Zicaro hopes to start up her own weekly meal program. Zicaro said once customers started learning they were creating gluten-free food, they started asking for egg-free and dairy-free foods for vegans - now available and can be requested for larger orders. These items can be difficult to find in supermarkets. 

“You can get some of these items in a grocery store, but it’s not a gluten-free haven. What’s nice is when you come here, you know you don’t have to look. Whatever we have, you can have it’s gluten-free,” Zicaro said. 


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