Why Is Gluten-Free Bread So Expensive?

on September 7, 2022

If you have just been diagnosed with coeliac disease or have someone in your family that has you may be shocked to find that the cost of gluten-free bread is usually double to triple the cost for loaves that are often half the size of wheat loaves. So what makes gluten-free bread so expensive?

There are several factors that affect the cost of gluten-free bread compared to wheat bread. The first is that the flours that are used to produce gluten-free bread are significantly more expensive because they are far less common than flour produced from wheat. The second factor is that companies need to take a number of additional precautions to ensure that the bread remains gluten-free.

These additional precautions include having a separate area where the bread is cooked and also separating the ingredients to ensure that there is no cross-contamination as well as certifying that the finished product does, in fact, have no gluten in it. This would require regular analytical testing of the products.

Additionally, gluten-free bread is a specialty product that is more difficult to make them conventional bread and therefore attracts a higher margin compared to the commodity product, wheat bread. As a result of this bread, manufacturers make significantly higher margins from offering specialty products.

Is It Cheaper To Make Your Own Gluten-Free Bread At Home?

Gluten-free bread can be made at home using either commercially available pre-mixed bread mixes or by making the bread from scratch using raw ingredients. However, because of the cost of specialty flour gluten-free bread will not be a lot cheaper than what you can purchase at a supermarket.

However, the one benefit that you will have is the bread is much fresher which means you can actually eat it without toasting it as soon as it comes out of the oven before it goes a little bit stale.

Why Are The Loaves Of Gluten-Free Breads So Small?

The reason why gluten-free loaves are significantly smaller than wheat bread is that the product produced is significantly denser than wheat bread due to the lack of gluten. Gluten is a natural protein that occurs in grains like wheat that provides elasticity to the dough which allows it to rise more easily and still maintain its shape.

Due to this elasticity, the loaves that are produced using wheat bread are lighter and fluffier which makes the texture altogether more pleasant to eat. As a result of the density of the bread, it takes longer to cook them all the way through. Therefore they need to use smaller loaves because otherwise the exterior crust would burn or at the very least become very tough.

This means that the weight of the loaves is also lower than wheat bread, typically by around one-third though this does vary depending upon the specific loaves that you’re comparing.

How Do You Make Gluten-Free Bread Taste Better?

While many manufacturers have put a great deal of work into improving the quality of their gluten-free bread there is still a common complaint that gluten-free bread to not taste very good in general. So what can be done to improve the flavor?

The first thing that I would highly recommend that you do is to make sure that you progressively try all the different commercial varieties of bread that are available because there are definitely some that are better than others in terms of how fluffy they are and their general taste. Unfortunately, the better quality bread tends to be the more expensive ones in most cases.

However, even the very best gluten-free bread tends to be not great to eat fresh simply because of the texture. It is typically crumbly, relatively dry, and dense. To improve this the easiest and simplest way is to toast the bread which has a significant effect on the texture as it makes it relatively crunchy.

Are There Any Alternatives To Gluten-Free Bread?

If you’ve tasted the bread and you really don’t like it and simply too expensive or you there are a couple of options that you can use if you are trying to make sandwiches for lunches. For this situation, the best option is to use crispbreads which have a crunchy texture that has a taste that is quite similar to wheat-based crispbreads.

However, because crispbreads are relatively dry they tend to need wetter ingredients to balance that out such as sauces, mayonnaise, and things of that nature. The same can also be said of gluten-free crackers which are also available in the health section of most grocery stores. These products are another option that does have a pleasant crunchy texture but they are also quite dry.

The other option which some coeliacs don’t particularly like is to purchase gluten-free wraps which are not as flexible as wheat wraps intend to crack relatively easily and are also dry in nature.

So if you’re starting out it’s really important to continually experiment with the products that are out there to make sure you get something that you really do enjoy that isn’t too expensive and will keep you full during the day.