Gluten-Free Living ____Why is cost so high??

With such a small percentage of people affected by Celiac Disease or Gluten-Sensitivity, Statistically only 1% of the population, the companies are not in a huge rush to make gluten free food easily available in commercial settings. While you may find some gluten free labeled food in store, it’s hard to find ones that are good tasting with a good texture. Or that are even ACTUALLY gluten free.

Did you know that most store-bought “Gluten-Free” foods are not actually celiac safe? And even may bother people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Most of them have a small Allergen statement, such as “processed in a facility that also processes foods containing wheat or gluten” or “may contain wheat”. There are some people with celiac disease and NCGS that even the smallest trace of gluten can cause a reaction. So, this makes things difficult, to say the least…

I have over 20 years of experience baking gluten free and have over the years figured out what works best for me and achieves the best tasting and best quality of baked good! So when I bake my gluten free baked goods, I use a custom blend of gluten free flours that is FIVE different flours just to make one recipe. Yes, five different ones… I'm always looking for lower prices and shop around but do not want to compromise my quality. I try to go for certified gluten free and organic products. So for 10 lbs of my custom certified gluten-free flour it costs me $62 to make and that is just the flour blend.

So if we were going to break down just one of my recipes, we'll go for chocolate chip cookies. An Easy recipe to make normally, made a little more complicated when converted to Gluten-Free. For a batch of two dozen cookies, it takes me 1 pound of that flour to make. That means I’m using Around $6.50 in just flour. Then we must add in the other ingredients… which is around another $15 in additional ingredients.

Everything I use, I try to use organic and top-quality ingredients for my baked goods. That means a batch of 2 dozen cookies costs me an estimated $22 and if you only order a dozen cookies it would mean around $11 in just ingredients for that batch of cookies. That does not include the time I spent making them, my expertise, or any package I use when I sell them. By selling them at just that price, I make very little profit from the sale. But to price them much higher than that seems crazy to me.

The cost of gluten free living and the cost of safe foods is definitely on the expensive side. Had I made the same recipe with regular flour, it would have cost $4.45.

Gluten free is literally twice the price of normal food!

I also make sure all of the foods I make are 100% gluten free and safe! I don’t cook anything with gluten in it in my kitchen, none of my pans or mixers have had anything with gluten in them at any time. We are a completely gluten free kitchen and celiac safe!

**Sometimes my flour blend changes depending on what the recipe is. And the more complicated the recipe, the more the ingredients cost.

If we take a look in store bought “Gluten-Free” products… Even those are expensive… “A bag of five GF bagels costs $7.49, and a 12-oz loaf of GF bread costs $6.99. Eight ounces of pasta—half the size of a “regular” package—costs $3.99 to $5.99, and a GF baguette to round out your meal will add another $3.99.

It would cost you about $5.50 to buy those four items in traditional form and take five minutes in two aisles.

(https://www.thebillfold.com/2017/04/the-cost-of-going-gluten-free/#:~:text=Expect%20the%20GF%20product%20to%20be%20about%20half,round%20out%20your%20meal%20will%20add%20another%20%243.99)