The gluten-free market across the historically wheat-centric snack and bakery industry has hit a point in its evolution where it has begun to mature and grow more refined. Snack producers and bakers now bring more intrinsic nutrition to products through more-astute ingredient selection and formulation tactics. A greater variety of quality products continue to hit supermarket shelves and restaurant menus. Also, like everywhere else across the food industry, a growing concern to develop cleaner, more-simplified labels is at play in gluten-free.
And despite persistent discussions about the gluten-free market hitting is plateau, the more-specialized “free-from” market—which eschews all major, and some minor, allergens—continues its ascent, and will bring a renewed sense of gluten-free awareness along for the ride. Also, in foodservice, gluten-free is still on a rapid trajectory, hitting historic highs as more operators bring a wider assortment of truly gluten-free foods to restaurant menus.