Growing free-from market creating employment and opening up a rapidly expanding food sector

Free from food has gone mainstream so much so that 78% of Irish people who follow a gluten-free diet have not even been diagnosed as coeliac, writes Áilín Quinlan.

Who does not remember the days when gluten-free bread fell apart in your hands as soon as you tried to butter it; when gluten-free pasta went soggy in the saucepan, and when nobody had even heard of a gluten-free pizza, birthday cake or beer?

It’s not so long ago that free from foods were perceived by most consumers as medicinal-type products for people who had conditions such as coeliac disease, food intolerances or allergies.