The £170m free-from sector continues to pick up more mainstream consumers. But that’s attracting more mainstream competitors into the market. How are smaller, specialist free-from brands retaining their point of difference in this ever more competitive market? Aline Tanner has been finding out.
More and more people in the UK are living with a food allergy or intolerance to certain foods, meaning a growing number of consumers require free-from foods. Fortunately, the food industry’s dedication and enthusiasm for creating foods that exclude one or more of the key ingredients linked with food intolerance and even chronic health problems, shows no sign of waning. Meanwhile busy lifestyles and consumer empowerment mean an increasing number of people self-diagnose and self-treat, which in turn is fuelling further demand for free-from products. Furthermore, despite the current economic climate the free-from category has remained buoyant, with dairy/lactose-free and gluten-free products in particular continuing to experience strong growth.
The free-from market still remains the speciality of the health food sector, with independent retailers with strong free-from sections in-store still successfully capitilising on steady – and growing – demand for free-from products. However, 2011 will see the free-from foods sector targeted heavily by mainstream retailers and manufacturers, with the main four supermarkets hoping for 80p% of sales in the specialist area of food for coeliacs coming from their own-label products this year.
Mintel forecasts that the value of the free-from market could reach as much as £350 million by 2012. UK sales of gluten and wheat-free products soared 18% to £108.3m in the year to July 11 2010, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel. Dairy free, meanwhile remains the largest sub-sector in the UK free-from market, having surpassed gluten free in 2007, according to Mintel. One in six people in the UK need an alternative to cow’s milk, while an estimated 600,000 people in the UK suffer with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance.
Onwards and upwards
So, sales of free-from products are soaring, but which sub-sectors and trends are driving the growth? Michelle Berriedale-Johnson of Foodsmatter.co.uk and organiser of the FreeFromFood Awards, says: “Sales of free-from are definitely soaring, driven mainly by the need for gluten-free foods – partly as a result of the rapidly growing numbers of coeliacs – diagnosis rates have gone from one in 300 to around one in 70 of the population over the last few years. Plus, there is a perfectly correct perception from consumers that too much gluten is bad for the digestion and that modern Western diets contain unhealthily high levels of gluten.”
Indeed, there are a growing number of people who want to follow a gluten-free diet because they feel better for it, and these ‘restrictor’ consumers are unequivocally helping to drive free-from sales. And according to Berriedale-Johnson there have been two enabling elements in this growth: “The focus of the supermarkets on free-from, which is very important in terms of the average family shopper who wants to be able to get everything in one weekly shop, and the growth of the internet/mail order as a way of buying food. While the former, she says, has made free-from food accessible to all, the latter has allowed tiny, one man/woman producers to access and service the growing market and give variety to the free-from offer.”
Growth areas
Growing sub-sectors in the free-from market include free-from frozen and convenience foods. Nutrition Point, a UK distributor of wheat-free and gluten-free products focuses on producing gluten and wheat -free frozen ready meals and convenience foods, while Triano Brands has launched its new Mamma Cucina brand, which is dedicated to gluten/ dairy/ lactose free frozen food from the bakery. Intolerable Food Company meanwhile offers a variety of frozen ready meals, all of which are dairy, gluten and wheat-free.
Michelle Berriedale-Johnson comments: “The free-from market has always been heavily weighted towards baked goods and dairy-free milk and drinks and this remains the case. However, there are some good developments in terms of ready meals, both ambient and frozen, ingredients (stuffings, sauces, etc) and up-market ‘treat’ foods such as chocolates and dairy-free ice creams. I see this continuing – and hope it does!”
Free-from desserts and ‘treat’ foods certainly appear to be a burgeoning sector. A good range of dairy-free ice creams is now readily available, such as Triano Brands’s Tofutti organic soya frozen desserts. Indeed, for those with lactose intolerance, soya products remain a popular alternative. Provamel, the UK’s leading soya brands for independents, has spent the last two years working to upgrade its dairy-free desserts to ensure they are wheat-free as well as dairy-free and gluten free, and the new addition will complement the existing range of soya products in the Provamel range.
The big gap still waiting to be filled, according to Berriedale-Johnson, is free-from food for the food service and the catering industry. “Eating out remains the most difficult area for anyone with a food allergy or intolerance,” she says.
Closing the gap between ‘regular’ and ‘free-from’ foods
Keen to combat the common misconception that free-from foods lack the flavour and quality of ‘regular’ food, gourmet gluten-free brand, Hale & Hearty prides itself on aiming to produce wheat-free and gluten-free foods that are both wholesome and delicious. Discussing how he envisages the free-from market developing in the future, Christian Konig, managing director of Hale & Hearty said: “We see the trend in free-from moving towards greater improvement in taste of all products. This will ultimately raise the bar in the category and see constant attempts to try and close the gap between ‘normal’ and free-from foods. As a rapidly growing category, and a key sector for health food independents, free-from will hopefully be found on shelf alongside regular products.
The category will simply offer a healthier choice in food, rather than being sidelined for those with special diets/health requirements.”
In view of the increasing concerns over mainstream food quality — GMOs, additives, irradiation etc, we are increasingly being regarded as a worry-free shop — where people shop in confidence that our food is safe and sustainable. Free-from is becoming so broad an issue, I wonder how long it will be before worry-free is going to be the new category.
