Allergy-Free: The Next Gluten-Free?

Enjoy Life Foods is experiencing double-digit growth as the leader in ‘allergy-friendly’ packaged foods.

July 24, 2018

CHICAGO – Gluten-free food products are projected to grow to $7.6 billion by 2020. But a similar food category quickly taking the spotlight is allergy-friendly foods. As reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, two Chicago-based companies are focusing on the growing niche market of allergy-safe products.

“We’d heard that the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] had designated eight common food allergens,” said Joel Warady, chief sales and marketing officer of Enjoy Life Foods, which has seen double-digit sales growth each year since 2011. “So we said, ‘Well, what if we were gluten-free and free of the top eight?’ We certainly didn’t know the size of the opportunity.”

Measuring the allergy-free food market is difficult: Researchers either include it with the gluten-free category or exclude Whole Foods and Amazon sales data. This may be because only 15 million Americans are affected by allergies—the market isn’t large enough to warrant investment in allergy-free food development and testing.

But the rate of anaphylactic reactions to food increased 377% between 2007 and 2016, according to Fair Health. Reactions to peanuts increased by 445%. Companies are taking note: Southwest Airlines announced that it will no longer serve peanuts on any of its flights beginning August 1.

Another allergy-focused company, Safe + Fair, focuses on eliminating the main culprits. Its chocolate chip cookie is free of nuts, but does contain wheat, egg and soy. The company recently completed a $10 million Series C funding round, which will be used to develop a line of nut-free cookies and crackers called Skeeter Snacks.

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