Persistent Barriers of the Gluten-Free Basic Food Basket: Availability, Cost, and Nutritional Composition Assessment

• Published in: Nutrients 2024-03, Vol.16 (6), p.885
• Main Authors: Estévez, Virginia, Rodríguez, Juan Manuel, Schlack, Pía, Navarrete, Pedro, Bascuñán, Karla A, Núñez, Victoria, Oyarce, Camila, Flores, Catalina, Ayala, Jimena, Araya, Magdalena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: availability; basic food basket; Bread; Celiac Disease; Consumption; cost; Diet; Diet, Gluten-Free; Economic aspects; Flour; Food; Foods, Specialized; Free markets; Gluten; gluten-free; Gluten-free diet; gluten-related disorders; Glutens; Humans; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Product/Service Evaluations; Small intestine; Social change; Supermarkets; Wholesale industry
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu16060885

Gluten-related disorders are treated with a gluten-free diet. The "basic food basket" (BFB) consists of a list of basic foods consumed by low-income groups in society, including those lowest-cost versions within each food category. To evaluate the cost, availability, and nutritional quality of the BFB and gluten-free BFB (GF-BFB), foods were photographed, registering their cost, availability, and nutritional characteristics, in high quality and mid-range supermarkets, wholesalers, health shops, and corner shops, matching each regular BFB product with a gluten-free equivalent. Of the 1177 potential products, the selection of lowest-cost foods yielded 55 and 47 products (BFB and GF-BFB, respectively). Breads/cereals and drinks showed the highest differences (279% and 146%, respectively) while meats and sausages showed the lowest ones (18.6%). The GF-BFB cost represents 30.1% of the minimum wage, which covers the cost of 5.2 and 3.3 of the BFB and GF-BFB per month, respectively. Availability ranged between 22.7 and 42.4%. Lower availability was associated with poorer nutritional quality in the GF-BFB, which provides 5% less energy, 26% more fat, and 25% less protein than the BFB. Only 47% of gluten-free products declared their "gluten-free" condition. The results strongly suggest that the GF-BFB must be redesigned to be both gluten-free and nutritionally adequate.