Gluten-free products: Fad or fixture?

The global gluten-free market is set to grow by $1.2 billion over the next five years to be worth over $4.3 billion, predicts Datamonitor

---

Research by the independent market analyst reveals that the Australian gluten-free market will be worth US$98.6 million - growing at one of the highest rates in the Asia-Pacific region, second only to Korea. "There is a wider audience for a gluten-free diet, greatly outnumbering those suffering from coeliac disease. Combined with this, the numerous symptoms associated with celiac disease have increased concern amongst non-coeliac sufferers, therefore further increasing the available market for gluten-free products," says Mark Whalley, consumer analyst at Datamonitor. Indeed, the gluten-free movement has benefited from the growing number of Australians who are avoiding food and beverages because of allergies or intolerances. Datamonitor research revealed that nearly one-fifth (18%) of Australian consumers avoid certain food or drinks for allergy or intolerance reasons either 'most of the time' or 'all the time'. This helps to explain the growing market for gluten-free products, despite only 1% of the population suffering from coeliac disease. The allergy/intolerance confusion One potentially huge market inhibitor is that many consumers do not understand the difference between an allergy and an intolerance. Allergies impact upon the immune system, causing the body to reject what has been ingested. Consuming something that triggers an allergy can potentially be fatal. This makes it a dietary necessity to eliminate all offending foods from a consumer's diet. Common allergens include eggs; fish; milk; peanuts; shellfish; soy; tree nuts and wheat. On the other hand, intolerances affect the digestive system. The consumer may not be able to produce enough of the required chemical or enzyme to properly digest the offending food, which can cause symptoms such as nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. As the effects are generally less serious than those caused by food allergies, the consumer only has to moderate consumption rather than abstain completely. Although focusing on US consumers only, a January 2010 Harris Interactive survey of 1,013 adults for HomeFree looked at allergy/intolerance confusion. The survey confirmed HomeFree's hypothesis that US consumers have a significant shortfall in knowledge regarding these matters. The results show that: Less than half (46%) identified eggs and wheat as common food allergens Nearly half (43%) incorrectly identified gluten as an allergen 57% incorrectly believe it could be an immediate life-threatening emergency when somebody who is not supposed to eat gluten eats a brownie and has a physical reaction Only 3% could correctly identify all four listed common food allergens (nuts, dairy, eggs and wheat) without making any incorrect identifications In the UK, there is similar confusion. Research published by the Sunday Times in 2007 revealed that 12 million people claim to have an allergy or intolerance but fewer than a quarter can verify this with a medical diagnosis. Furthermore, many consumers (incorrectly) self-diagnose online and more than one in three (39%) think it is 'trendy' to claim a food allergy. Risk of plateau Datamonitor believes there is a risk that the gluten-free market will suffer in the same way that low/no-carb products did over the second half of the last decade. With a number of consumers also wrongly self-diagnosing themselves as coeliacs, as well as gluten-free being somewhat of a 'vogue diet' - therefore susceptible to a rapid decline in popularity amongst non-coeliacs - it is possible that long-term growth will be negatively impacted. "In fact there are already signs that the gluten-free market may plateau in the future, as the growth we predict over the next five years is somewhat less than what we've seen for theNike Hypervenom Phantom