The demand for gluten-free foods is booming. Some consumers are affected by celiac disease, wheat allergy or are gluten-intolerant or gluten-sensitive, but a large majority of gluten-free products consumers are in perfect health.
Even naturally gluten-free foods benefit from this new trend. Lots of manufacturers tag or label their food “gluten-free” even if it did not contain any trace of gluten originally e.g. vegetable or fish
This infographic shows some facts about gluten-free food
For companies manufacturing foods and beverages containing gluten, the gluten-free trend forces a decision of new product development and / or reformulation of existing products to benefit from a fast-growing, highly lucrative market that shows little sign of diminishing anytime soon.
Gluten is a protein contained in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and spelt. Used for its remarkable elasticity properties, it makes food fluffy, chewy or thicker. Creating acceptable gluten-free foods means beings able to replace it by another protein source. Egg white is an interesting replacement ingredient. It increases volume, improves color and makes the texture softer. As sorghum, amaranth, teff, buckwheat are some of the gluten-free whole grains, they can also be used in formula to avoid gluten in food products.
Whether to formulate new products to benefit from the new trend or to re-formulate existing products to make them gluten-free, a robust tool is needed. Lascom CPG provides formulation software helping R&D and Quality teams to formulate products efficiently. Addition or change of ingredients to a product formula results in an update to the nutritional labeling, ingredient labeling, allergen, costing, and any other flow-through information.