Gluten-free goes saucy

Middle East inspired sauces

Gluten-free (GF) sauces company BisBas is predicting expansion in the GF market, following new data from Allergy UK, suggesting up to 25M people suffer from a food allergy or intolerance.

The family-owned company has launched a new line of Middle East-inspired GF sauces, following the release of the new data.

The three sauces include Fozia, a sweet tomato and coriander Arabian cooking sauce with black onion seeds and green chillies; Safia, which is an aromatic tomato-based sauce with garlic and herb; and Saba, a spinach and coriander sauce, which is fragrant and fresh-flavoured.

Grow

Other data presented at a Food and Drink Innovation Network Free-From conference, claims the GF market is forecast to grow by 46% to £561M by 2017. Meanwhile, GF foods have seen double-digit growth since 2008 and total free-from food sales in the UK were valued at £288M by Kantar Worldpanel in 2012. This has grown by more than 25% over the past year.

Muna Khorsheed, marketing director at BisBas, says: “We found that a number of our friends and family were finding it difficult to get hold of tasty and authentic ethnic cooking sauces that were suitable for their dietary requirements.

“We decided we needed to come up with a solution and BisBas cooking sauces were born.”

Growth in demand for ethnic food also supports the launch, she claims. The ethnic food market is growing quickly because consumer knowledge of ethic foods is also increasing.

£700M

Sales of ethnic cooking sauces and seasonings grew to more than £700M and is increasing by 3% year-on-year, according to statistics from market intelligence firm Key Note. The market is set to reach £816M by 2016, it adds.

“Consumers are also travelling further and want to experience these tastes when they get back,” adds Khorsheed.