The annual FDIN FreeFrom seminar took place last week, focusing very much on the future both in terms of those millennial and Generation Z shoppers and the export markets that we believe should be in the sights of all freefrom manufacturers.
All the presentations (which were very interesting) will soon be up on the FDIN site so I will not bore you with a recital. However, if you do want to know more about ‘millennials’ – who they are and what they want from life – check into my blog here.
Meanwhile a few random but hopefully interesting/amusing facts and figures plucked from the day.
- According to Kantar World Panel only 11% of those currently buying ‘freefrom’ food actually have a medical reason for doing it. That means that a whopping 89% of ‘freefrom’ shoppers are ‘lifestylers’ buying ‘freefrom’ because they choose to do so.
- But…. of the total ‘spend’ on ‘freefrom’ food, lifestylers only account for 55% of the total, meaning that those with a medical reason for buying the food account for 45% of the total ‘spend’.
- The last year has seen a 38% growth in the freefrom market.
- 30% of millennials believed that they have a food intolerance; half of those are self diagnosed.
- 8 in 10 shoppers still think that freefrom is more/too expensive.
- 55% of shoppers have ethical concerns about their food purchases; 65% want to know more about how their food has been grown/processed/transported etc.
- In the Middle East eating ‘freefrom’ has become something of a fashion statement.
- In China the fact that most of the population is lactose intolerant and yet they now all want to eat a Western diet is opening the door not only for lactose free but for other freefrom products.
Beer……
1 in 10 shoppers are up for trying a gluten-free beer!- In Australia, New Zealand and the US you cannot sell de-glutenised beer as gluten-free. Roll on the naturally gluten-free beers!
- In Scandinavia you can only buy beer in government controlled shops and there is just one beer buyer for all those shops. Seriously important guy…
- Beer used to be on prescription in Italy?….. I am not sure who actually said this and I have not been able to confirm it although Italian pharmacies do definitely sell alcoholic ‘elixirs’!
- 5 years ago there were only 6 gluten-free beers. Now there are 216!!!!
Not sure whether beer is available on prescription in Italy! Italy I think has a voucher system for diagnosed coeliacs … perhaps these vouchers can be used on GF beer too? Unsure. The attitude to alcohol is different, though, granted – when my mother spent time in a small Italian hospital some years back, wine was regularly offered at lunch.