Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities, 7th Edition

Report Overview

What are top trends in the gluten-free diet market?

• The market for gluten-free foods is largely being driven by consumers who simply choose to avoid gluten.

• Gluten-free snacks are the main inroads for casual gluten-free dieters.

Before the pandemic, retail sales of gluten-free foods experienced robust growth. Sales spiked significantly in 2020 as overall food retail sales soared, buoyed by consumers eating and cooking more at home. Consumers were particularly interested in home baking in 2020, leading to fast growth in sales of gluten-free baking products including baking mixes, flour, and dough.  

Sales continued to grow from 2021 through 2023, with high inflation being a particularly strong influence on sales in 2022. Gains will persist through 2028, though the gluten-free foods category is maturing.

Opportunities exist to drive growth in such a popular category. Many consumers view gluten as unhealthy and will seek out alternatives to products that typically contain wheat ingredients. Additionally, diagnoses of celiac disease and wheat allergies continue to increase, and even more consumers are coming to believe they have gluten intolerance, which will help to drive gains in the market for gluten-free foods.

Improvements in gluten-free foods are also prime growth opportunities, particularly for gluten-free categories that lag in sales penetration, as concerns about taste and texture remain among consumers who need to be on a gluten-free diet, as well as consumers who have a choice in consuming gluten.

With a focus on “what’s next” and current consumer trends, Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities is packed with insights about consumer trends, behavior, and motivations to help food producers, retailers, packaging companies, employers, and investors gauge consumer perspectives and find areas for growth in a competitive market.

Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities delivers actionable predictions and recommendations designed to guide producers, retailers, and investors in making business decisions by providing data and insights about consumer behavior and what consumers think about gluten-free foods.

Scope

Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities is the go-to source for a complete understanding of U.S. consumer trends regarding gluten-free foods. This report combines Packaged Facts’ extensive monitoring of the food and beverage market with proprietary surveys, and evaluates current trends and future directions for marketing and retailing, along with consumer patterns during the pandemic and inflation area and across the broader food and beverage market.

This Packaged Facts report analyses the market for gluten-free foods. Combined sales of key product categories are projected to grow at an average rate of 7.3% annually through 2028.

Consumer demographics, perceptions, motivations, attitudes, and behavior pertaining to food, diet, and health are taken into account; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers are also analyzed in a broad sense, as well as in the context of gluten-free foods.

This report covers retail sales of gluten-free foods in US dollars. Gluten-free foods are defined as food products that often contain gluten/wheat ingredients that are instead manufactured to exclude gluten/wheat. Sales are segmented by the following key product categories, which do not encompass the entire market of gluten-free products:

• Baking Mixes
• Cold Cereal
• Cookies
• Crackers
• Dough
• Flour
• Fresh Bread
• Pasta
• Salty Snacks

Retail sales in this report are defined as sales of gluten-free foods from venues such as:

• Grocery stores, supermarkets, and discount grocers (e.g., Kroger, Safeway, ALDI)
• Mass merchandisers (e.g., Walmart, Target, Meijer) and warehouse clubs (e.g., Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s)
• Convenience stores (e.g., Pilot/Flying J, Circle K, 7-Eleven) and dollar stores (e.g., Dollar General, Family Dollar)
• Other retailers, such as bakeries, co-ops, gift shops, and farmers markets
• All online outlets, including online-based grocers (e.g., Amazon, Thrive Market, FreshDirect), third-party pack-and-deliver companies that use their own workforces to purchase groceries at various stores and deliver them to customers (e.g., Instacart), brands that sell their own food products direct-to-consumer via their websites, and online sales from websites or apps of retailers in the previous categories

Historical sales are provided from 2017-2022, with expected sales reported for 2023 and sales projected from 2024-2028.

The reasons for and implications of shifts in consumer perception and behavior are analyzed in the context of future market opportunities.

Additionally, Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities has dozens of tables highlighting numerical survey data on household product usage and consumer demographics and psychographics as well as numerous marketing photographs. This report goes in-depth on COVID-19 and inflation trends that have affected the food and beverage market.

Report Methodology

The information contained in Gluten-Free Foods: US Market Trends & Opportunities was developed from primary and secondary research sources. Primary research includes interviews with food and beverage market experts; participation in and attendance at food industry events; and extensive internet canvassing.

Primary research also includes national online consumer polls of U.S. adult consumers (age 18+) conducted on an ongoing basis by Packaged Facts to analyze attitudes of consumers and their relevant food and beverage preferences.

Survey data from MRI-Simmons are used to analyze the demographics and psychographics of consumers who are changing their diet due to food allergies or gluten intolerance or buying foods labeled as gluten-free.

Supplementing Packaged Facts’ exclusive surveys are analysis of the 2022 and 2023 Food & Health Surveys conducted by the International Food Information Council, which analyze consumer food purchase decisions, diet and lifestyle choices, snacking activity, and perception of health benefits in foods.