A gluten-free diet for anyone with coeliac disease is not a choice. It’s a necessity. But a gluten-free diet is also very expensive. The charity Coeliac UK is running a campaign just now to try to make gluten-free food more affordable and accessible. I hope that policymakers and the food industry listen to them.
Why People With Coeliac Disease Need to Eat Gluten-Free Food
There’s often confusion about what coeliac disease is. Some people think it’s an allergy or an intolerance to gluten. But it’s neither of those. It is an autoimmune condition. Gluten triggers an immune response causing the body to attack itself. Therefore, anyone with coeliac disease must follow a gluten-free diet strictly.
If someone who has coeliac disease eats gluten, even just a tiny amount, they may suffer from stomach pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation. But it can also result in other health issues such as severe fatigue, muscle and nerve pain, mouth ulcers, brain fog, headaches and depression.
In some cases, sufferers might have no noticeable symptoms. However, gluten still causes damage. That damage might not be discovered until later in life.
The autoimmune response damages the villi in the small intestine so the body struggles to absorb vital nutrients. That could result in conditions such as anaemia, B12 deficiency and osteoporosis. If coeliac goes undetected or if someone with coeliac disease continues to eat gluten, there could be serious long-term consequences such as lymphoma and small bowel cancer.
A GLuten-Free Diet is Important for Other People too
People with coeliac disease must not eat gluten at all but many other people also need to avoid gluten. They are also affected by the high cost of gluten-free food.
Some people are gluten intolerant or have a gluten sensitivity. Eating gluten can cause the same symptoms as people with coeliac disease. People with other illnesses have sometimes discovered that avoiding gluten can ease their symptoms.
Those people are not avoiding gluten by choice. Just like people with coeliac disease, they’re avoiding it to maintain their health.
Since it’s a Health Issue, Gluten-Free Food Should Be More Affordable
Avoiding gluten is imperative for so many people but because of the high cost, some people are struggling to pay for basic food items. In some cases, coeliac disease runs in families. That could mean a parent and their children all need a gluten-free diet.
Just now, there is a cost of living crisis and everyone in the country is noticing an increase in their grocery bills. Prices for everything have shot up over the last year. People who need to avoid gluten were already paying over-inflated prices for their food and are now having to pay even more.
Gluten-Free Food on Prescription
I live in Scotland and, after my diagnosis of coeliac disease, my GP and dietician told me that I would be able to get some gluten-free essentials each month on prescription. For the first few months, I did that and it saved me so much money. I could get flour, pasta and long-life bread if I wanted.
At one time, gluten-free essentials were available on prescription throughout the whole of the UK. Then, a few years ago, that changed. In England, it stopped and many people really struggled financially to maintain their gluten-free diet.
It seems really unfair that some people have that option available if they need it but people in other parts of the UK don’t. It should be available to everyone.
When I Was Diagnosed With Coeliac Disease, I Was shocked at the Prices of Gluten-Free Food
After my gastroenterologist diagnosed me with coeliac disease, my husband and I went straight to the supermarket to stock up on gluten-free food for me. Prior to getting my result, I had spent time learning about what I could and couldn’t eat. I learned how to read labels so I knew what I needed to avoid.
How to Read and Understand Food Labels
What I wasn’t prepared for was the cost. Our shopping bill rose significantly. Basics like bread, cereal, pasta and flour had ridiculously high price tags. Some items were more than double the price of normal food.
It’s Not Just the Price – Size Matters Too
The price wasn’t the only thing that shocked me. The size of gluten-free products shocked me too. I had to pay more for so much less. Most gluten-free sliced loaves are tiny in comparison to normal bread – smaller slices and smaller loaves.
No bulk Buying and No Bargains
I was always in the habit of buying larger packs of things like cereal and pasta because they’re normally more economical. But, because I have coeliac disease, I can no longer do that because there are no large packs of anything.
And I also discovered that supermarket offers like 2 for 1 or 50% extra free rarely exist in the gluten-free aisle.
Coeliac Disease is an Illness With a High Price Tag
Unless you have coeliac disease or a food allergy or intolerance, you probably haven’t noticed the price of gluten-free food in supermarkets. I thought I would give a few examples here.
Since people can purchase ‘normal’ food in larger, more economical sizes, I have given the actual price and the price per 100 grams or millilitres to give a true comparison.
Some Price Comparisons
A loaf of Warburton’s gluten-free white bread which weighs 300g (11 slices) costs £2.20.
73p per 100g.
A Warburton’s normal white loaf weighs 800g (20 slices) costs £1.40.
18p per 100g.
A box of Tesco’s own brand of gluten-free cornflakes weighs 300g and costs £1.50.
50p per 100g.
A box of Tesco’s own brand of normal cornflakes weighs 500g and costs 63p.
13p per 100g.
A packet of Tesco gluten-free custard creams weighs 125g and costs £1.30.
£1.04 per 100g.
A packet of Tesco’s normal custard creams weighs 400g and costs 48p
12p per 100g.
When you look at the price per 100g, it shows a huge price difference, doesn’t it? The following chart shows more comparisons. If you click on the image, a PDF of the chart will open in a new tab.
Looking at that chart, you can see that the sixteen items on my gluten-free list totalled £14.05 per 100 grams/millilitres. The normal food totalled just £6.12 per 100 grams/millilitres. Surely we shouldn’t need to pay over twice as much.
A Plea to Food Manufacturers – Make Gluten-Free Food More Affordable
Please listen to us. We are not eating gluten-free food by choice. It’s a necessity so please make it more affordable. It feels as though the food industry is penalising us for having an illness.
I know that all manufacturers of gluten-free food will say the same thing – “But it costs more to make it.” I understand that. But surely there are ways to make gluten-free food more affordable.
Why is Gluten-Free Food So Expensive?
There are a couple of reasons why gluten-free products are expensive.
Wheat, barley and rye are the three cereals that contain gluten. (Gluten is also in oats but only due to contamination during growing and processing.)
So if a food producer can’t use wheat, barley, rye or oats, they have to use alternatives. Many plants, grains and seeds will be used instead and some of those will be more expensive.
What is Gluten-Free Flour Made From?
While wheat flour gives the perfect consistency for baking, no other single flour works in the same way. Instead, a baker creates a flour blend. They might use a mix of maize, potato and rice to get a product that works well. But they also need to add other ingredients. Gluten is the glue that holds food together and, without it, baked goods would crumble. So a manufacturer also needs to add a binding agent such as xanthan gum.
This means that gluten-free flour manufacturers have had to use many more ingredients and probably a lot of experimentation just to create flour. Obviously, they charge extra for that. Other food producers pay more for it to make their products, so they charge more for their products too.
The Cross-Contamination Risk
Everyone with coeliac disease knows the precautions they need to take to avoid cross-contamination.
How to Avoid Cross-Contamination
In a food production setting, the manufacturer needs to follow those rules too. There are a few companies like Schar and Genius which only make gluten-free products, therefore cross-contamination is not an issue.
But some companies produce both normal and gluten-free products. The bread manufacturer Warburtons has a dedicated gluten-free factory so there is no risk of cross-contamination. Other companies might not have separate premises so they need to thoroughly clean all equipment and every production line before manufacturing any gluten-free food. Naturally, that means the manufacturer has extra costs and they pass on that extra cost to the consumer.
Gluten-Free is a Legal Term
In order to add the words ‘Gluten-Free’ to a product, manufacturers need to have their product tested to ensure they can be legally classed as gluten-free. Obviously, that testing costs money and manufacturers pass that cost on to their customers.
I Understand That Manufacturers Need to Charge More If it Costs Them More
That special blend of flour, ensuring there’s no risk of cross-contamination risk and testing costs a manufacturer more, so it’s understandable that they charge more. But does the cost really need to be so high?
Can’t the Government and the Food Industry Work Together to Make Gluten-Free Food More Affordable?
Surely if the government and food manufacturers put their heads together, they could find a way to make gluten-free food more affordable.
People with coeliac disease or a gluten intolerance haven’t chosen this gluten-free diet. Their health depends on it but some people are really struggling with the cost. If they can’t afford to eat properly, their health will suffer. That will affect them, their families, their employment status and, ultimately, the NHS.
Something needs to change.
What You Can Do to Help
Please share posts and articles about the price of gluten-free food on all your social media accounts. I will have images on my social media pages which you are welcome to share.
When sharing anything related to this topic, add #GFCostPledge.
If you have coeliac disease, join Coeliac UK’s campaign to make gluten-free food more affordable and accessible. You can find details here: Pledge Your Support.
If you live in England, write to your MP and ICB (Integrated Care Board about this. Coeliac UK have template letters you can use. You can find the template for your MP here and for the ICB here.
Send Coeliac UK a headshot photo of yourself to add to their Wall of Support.
Thank you so much for reading.
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Take care,
Liz.
Thank you so much for all your hard work putting this together, I so agree with everything you have said and it is time to get this sorted. Well done and I will pledge ever thing I can to help with this. Thank you once again for all your effort. I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease 30 years ago, I am now 76, and had some really bad times being glutened and it’s not nice at all and I must admit gluten free food is getting much more expensive each day and I notice too that Vegan food is much more available that gluten free in the supermarkets. The same choices aren’t there for people on a gluten free diet.
Thanks so much for commenting, Alison. Finding gluten-free food must have been so much more difficult when you were first diagnosed. Now there is a bit more availability, but oh dear…the prices can be eye-watering at times.
I agree, there are lots of vegan options in the supermarkets these days. In January, people do ‘veganuary’ and the supermarkets ensure there are extra options for vegans. To make room, they shrink the gluten-free options. It’s the same at Christmas and Easter. Whenever they need extra space, they get rid of some gluten-free food. They must think we don’t need to eat!