Consumers can walk down the aisles of any supermarket and easily find nut-free, dairy-free, and of course, fat-free products.
Now another specialty food is appearing on grocers' shelves: wheat-free products.
They are a god-send to the growing number of consumers who find they can't eat wheat, rye or barley.
NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern has this report on the growing market and the response by one very large company in Merrimack.
Beer cheer: Who likes the beer tonight…whooaah…let’s hear it for the beer
Fade under sounds
Christine Muir of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, corals cheers from what is typically a sober crowd:
They are the 40 or so members of the Southern New Hampshire Celiac Support Group
Muir and her fellow Celiacs can't eat grains that break down into gluten.
That means no wheat, no rye, and no barley.
Or in other words, no pizza, no pretzels, no beer.
If they do eat those grains, celiacs can suffer from reactions ranging from indigestion to infertility.
The group gathered at the Bellevance Beverage Company in Nashua to sample Anheuser-Busch's new wheat-free, Redbridge beer.
The company began distributing it late last year.
TrevorName: Trevor Ward, Merrimack….I went and got some right away. That was my best Christmas present, having good beer.
Instead of wheat or barley, Redbridge is made from sorghum, a key ingredient in many African beers.
Will Allen is the assistant brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch Merrimack plant.
He says the statistics from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness convinced his company to get into the wheat free market.
Allen: One in 133 Americans have been diagnosed to have Celiac and of those, that can mean up to three million or more people.
The Celiac Foundation says even more – up to ten million people – choose to avoid wheat.
Alice Bast is the foundation’s executive director.
She says it was a great moment for Celiacs when Anheuser-Busch decided to play a part in wheat-free foods…
Because, says Bast, it was the tipping point for others to get into the business.
BastProfits: They’re saying hey, this is a marketplace. And they’re looking at it from a for-profit motive. Or there might even be organizations that by doing well will do good. So they get involved in creating a gluten-free product line.
And according to SPINS, a market research company, that niche market is growing.
SPINS natural foods expert Brent Coon:
CoonStats: Gluten-free products have reached almost 890 million in sales, which is up over 16 percent over last year.
But, says Coon, don’t expect other beer companies to jump on the bandwagon…because it's not easy.
CoonContaminate: If other beers are made in the same facility, there could be the potential for cross-contamination.
And that, says Coon, could mean lawsuits.
Bottling sounds, fade under
The Anheuser-Busch plant in Merrimack brews and bottles a dozen different brands of beer.
But they make a batch of Redbridge, every other week.
Brewmaster Greg Suellentrop says the factory has to shut down for eight hours to get ready.
SuellenClean: The kettles have to be cleaned. When we’re done boiling the hops, boiling the wort, every step of the process after that has to be essentially sterile. Otherwise, it will pick up proteins left in the piping.
But even after this exhaustive process, the company can’t label the bottles gluten-free.
(
The Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau doesn’t allow it because the FDA has yet to define what gluten-free means.
The FDA says it will have guidelines in place by 2008.
Bast, the executive director of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, says the need for clear labeling grows as more people are diagnosed.
Because, for Celiacs to get healthy, they need to know what they’re eating
BastDiet: You know, I feel very fortunate that my health was totally controlled through my diet.
I had multiple miscarriages, my hair was falling out, my teeth were breaking, and it turned out – 23 doctors later – that I had celiac disease.
Ironically (why is that ironic?), Bast adds, it’s the food industry – not the medical or pharmaceutical community – that’s generating awareness.
For NHPR News in Nashua, this is Sheryl Rich-Kern.
