What is free from food?
Free from is a catch-all term used to denote food and drink that has been designed to exclude one or more ingredients to which at least some consumers can have either an allergy or an intolerance.
What is an allergy?
An allergy is usually defined as a specific response by the immune system to a substance that it mistakenly believes to be harmful. The Food Standards Agency requires that the presence of 14 specific allergens is highlighted on product labels. These are:
- cereals containing gluten
- crustaceans
- molluscs
- fish
- eggs
- peanuts
- nuts (tree nuts)
- soya
- milk
- celery
- mustard
- sesame
- lupin
- sulphur dioxide (if above 10mg/kg, or 10 mg/litre)
What is an intolerance?
Some people suffer adverse reactions to substances – particularly foods – that have not sparked an immune system response. These responses are normally classed as intolerances or sensitivities and have a very wide range of causes, symptoms and degrees of severity. Some conditions, such as coeliac disease or phenylketonuria are caused by specific foods or food components, such as gluten or the amino acid phenylalanine respectively.
What are the most popular types of free from food and drink?
A survey of supermarkets and natural food retailers indicates that the most commercially significant sectors of the free from market are:
- Wheat free/gluten free (flours, cakes, biscuits, pasta, bread)
- Cow-dairy free (milk, yoghurt, butter, desserts, cheese)
- Nut free (cakes, biscuits, chocolates, sweets, sauces)
- Egg free (cakes, mayonnaise)
The buoyant vegan / plant-based and vegetarian sectors are clamouring to be included in free from but the interaction between these sectors is resulting in consumer confusion as shown in this blog .
What is the size of the market for free from food and drink?
In July 2024 The Grocer published recent research by Kantar WorldPanel for the 12 months to w/e 14 April 2024. The annual UK market for Free From is now worth £3.9bn. Branded products now boast a share value of 67.5%, up from 67.1% in the previous year. Year-on-year growth of branded (13%) also exceeded that of private label (10.8%) and has been driven by “trip frequency, average price and more people entering the category” notes Kantar analyst Kishen Parekh.
Top sectors by value were
- Dairy
- Meat alternatives
- Chilled convenience
- Take-home savouries
- Ambient bakery
Overall free-from food prices are up. Brands grew an average of 16.2% per kg, whilst own-label went up by 8.9%.
Innovation has helped brands hold on to the bulk of the free-from market’s value – thanks to launches such as Gluten Free Cornflakes and Gluten Free Honey Nut Cornflakes in Nestle’s Go Free range.
Changes in Legislation
Under the EU regulations that came into effect in 2012, only foods that contain less than 20 parts of gluten in a million will be allowed to use the term ‘gluten free’ on their packaging. Previously, a food labelled ‘gluten free’ could have contained up to ten times more than this.
However no other free from category is regulated in this way. For example there is no specific regulation on what can be described as dairy free, meaning that different manufacturers and retailers are working to different regimes. Some dairy-free players are calling for the introduction of universally-accepted thresholds for allergens other than gluten.
The EU’s Food Information to Consumers regulation came into force in 2014. All eating-out establishments must be able to inform their customers as to whether any of the 14 major allergens are contained in their foods. This change was described as a “massive opportunity” for food service suppliers by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, founder of the Free From Food Awards. However two recent deaths have been attributed to inadequate allergy labelling of food-to-go items. In October 2021 “Natasha’s Law” was introduced by the UK government, requiring the out-of-home sector to label their products with allergen information to the same degree of accuracy as required by the retail sector.
Please note that although the above was originally EU legislation the UK has continued to follow these laws post-Brexit.
For more information
In 2015, Free From guidelines were jointly issued by the British Retail Consortium and the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). Although voluntary, they provide a useful set of core principles which allow a Free From claim to be made on-pack.
In June 2019 the FDF published guidance on gluten free labelling
‘Natasha’s Law’ – legislation covering the sale of Prepacked For Direct Sale (PPDS) foods is here
Between December 2021 and March 2022 the FSA carried out a consultation on May Contain and similar terms – final report here