Gluten free foods are flying off the shelves – find out the top reasons shoppers like you are going gluten free
Recent reports of the gluten free (GF) market growing to $4.2 billion had the SupermarketGuru wondering why, with an estimated 1 percent of the population (or about 1 in 133) necessitating the strict avoidance of gluten due to celiac disease, has the category seen such huge growth. In an exclusive
SupermarketGuru.com quick poll, a sweeping majority (71%), have purchased gluten free foods within the past three months and 54 percent expect to continue to regularly buy GF foods.
Most believe shoppers are buying gluten free products because they believe they are healthier. The top five reasons the consumer panel buys gluten free are: “feel better eating gluten free,” “household member has celiac disease,” “allergic to wheat,” “helps digestion” and, “doctor or nutritionist suggested.”
Melinda Munro, a
SupermarketGuru Facebook fan added, that, “since it wasn't an option in the survey, I just wanted to note that the GF items I purchase are also free of other allergens. We don't buy them [because] they are gluten free but because they are also peanut and tree nut free.”
Gluten free foods are those that do not contain the protein gluten (and other reactive proteins) which exist in all forms of wheat including: faro, durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, and einkorn, and all related grains including: barley and rye. Gluten can be found of course in baked goods, pastas, as well as in unidentified starches, binders, fillers, and malts. It can even be found (as an additive or ingredient) in cold cuts, soups, soy sauce, teas, and jelly beans.
If gluten containing baked goods are off the menu for gluten free eaters, then what are the most popular gluten free foods? Pasta ranked number one at sixty seven percent, followed by bread, crackers, cold cereal, alternative baking flower, snack foods and cookies, all produced in the absence of gluten of course.
The supermarket is the primary source of gluten free foods for the consumer panel, as sixty percent site that’s where they make the majority of their purchases, followed by health foods stores at 18 percent.