On the Facebook page of a Gluten Free manufacturer someone was moaning and whining about the cost of gluten free foods and said "there is absolutely NO reason for gluten free food to be more expensive!"
I didn't want to get into it on a social media site so I decided to take to my blog to share my point of view.
Gluten Free food is absolutely priced correctly. Is it as inexpensive as gluten-filled products? No way - not even close. Raise your hand if you would have a heart attack if you saw GF bread for .99? Yup, pretty much everybody. Could prices get that low someday? Why not. When I was diagnosed most GF flours were around $10 if not more. Nowadays you can get pretty good flour for around $5.
Onwards to this individuals misguided notions. Gluten Free products are typically not mass produced by large corporation. Sure Snyders makes GF pretzels but they aren't making as many GF as they are non-GF. Buying smaller amounts of ingredients and making smaller amounts of products with limited distribution means the product is more expensive. This is also why your friendly neighborhood grocer might only have a few items from a particular company or maybe even only offer one or two companies products.
As the demand for GF food increases and the greater number of individuals eating gluten-free the prices will drop since companies will now be making more product.
Am I super happy to pay $5 for a loaf of bread? Not really. Do I do it? Absolutely - especially if its a delicious product. I've seen prices get so much better and I can only hope that in a few more years gluten-free will be even more visible and products will get less expensive.
So let's all try to be happy that 1) these products exist and 2) that there are so many delicious GF goodies out there
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