Is gluten-free losing ground within clean eating diets?

Although rumours from industry experts have forecasted a decline in the popularity of gluten–free products, results from GlobalData’s 2016 Q3 global consumer survey don't appear to confirm the hum. With two in five (38%) global shoppers trying to limit or avoid gluten entirely from their diet, future launches carrying such claims should perform successfully on the supermarket shelves through satisfying this continued demand.

A comparison between 2013 and 2016 also shows how consumers are increasingly more attentive to gluten. This is evident in the proportion whose doesn’t pay attention to this ingredient declining from almost a third of consumers in 2013 to just under a quarter in 2016. The results suggest that shoppers are moving towards a more moderate consumption of items containing the increasingly unpopular protein.

Despite only 1% of the global population suffering from celiac disease; gluten-free is part of those fad regimes that have seen lots of proselytes among health fanatics. Aligned with associating a gluten-free lifestyle with (many unproven) benefits including helping weight loss, the craze has spread especially in the West, and, reading the data, manufacturers have still room to capitalize on one of the most popular claims in the food industry.