Increasing Number Of Americans With Allergies Boosts Speciality Food Industry

June 8, 2008 9:17 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Catering to the food requirements of the growing number of Americans with various kinds of food allergies has become a multi-billion industry in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 12 million people in the U.S. with food allergies, while another 2 million suffer from celiac disease in which their body's immune system attacks itself if they eat gluten.

Packaged Facts places the market for food-allergy and intolerance goods as expected to top $3.9 billion in 2008. Research firm Mintel projects the gluten-free foods and drinks market to reach $1.3 billion by 2010 from $700 million in 2006.

Medical science does not have a clear explanation for the growing number of people with allergies to certain foods. Among the theories were lesser contact with germs, exposure to some types of environmental pollutants and the manner of processing foods for peanut allergies.

Marshall Plaut, chief of the Allergic Mechanisms Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told the Washington Post, "We don't know if some of them are true or there's some truth to all of them."

The retail sales of these gluten-free goods has also gone mainstream from specialty and health-food shops to regular retail outlets like Safeway, Giant Food and General Mills.