By Mia Hanuska
I. Love. Cornflakes. This summer, I think one of the most common words I used in my texts was “cornflakes” simply due to my discovery of the amazing cereal. Now, I’ve known about cornflakes since I was a wee young lad. It was one of the cereals my friends always had stocked in their pantries when I went over, but after taking a quick glance at the ingredient list, I discovered I am allergic to it. “How can you be allergic to cornflakes?” No, I’m not allergic to corn, but to the malt flavor that’s an ingredient in almost all brands of cornflakes here in the United States.
Fortunately, during a trip to Germany, I found two brands of gluten-free cornflakes at a common grocery store, REWE, in a small town, about an hour’s drive into the countryside from Munich. In fact, cornflakes weren’t the only gluten-free option we were able to find. Delicious breads, pastas, chocolate, and baking mixes were available, with REWE even having it’s own line “Frei von” (“Free from”) that offers countless alternatives for everyday foods. The prevalence of allergen-friendly lines interested me—Rossmann, Kaufland, and Edeka, all extremely popular supermarkets in Germany—also carry their own allergen-free brand-name products. Then we went out to restaurants and many menus marked gluten-free foods, and if they didn’t, most servers were fairly educated about it. I began to wonder: Why does Germany have a better offering of gluten-free options?
Intrigued, I reached out to Deutsche Zöliakie-Gesellschaft, or “German Celiac Society,” an organization that supports parents and children suffering from celiac disease. Miriam Geiger, a research associate there, kindly and thoroughly answered all my questions.
Miriam suggests multiple reasons for the number of allergen lines: one, conservative shoppers could feel overwhelmed with extreme labels on products, so a separate allergen line removes the busy packaging for non-allergen shoppers; two, Germans prefer not to spend much on groceries, so consumers are more likely to “choose products from the in-store brand allergen line than the branded product.” This second point makes sense—it’s easier and cheaper for customers to purchase all their goods at one store rather than jumping from store to store. It could also incentivize stores to create their own lines, as customers will spend more money at their store if it carries everything they need.
Moreover, Miriam contributes the diversity of products due to the “proximity to other European countries and the facilitated trade of gluten-free products.” She mentions that brands from Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Czech Republic can often be purchased in German stores. Italy especially, with its high concentration of celiac residents, has a much larger offering for gluten-free goods, so the chance of its products spilling into German stores is high. Schär, one of the more popular gluten-free brands, only has two production lines in the US, keeping the majority in Europe due to the fact that “Germany and Italy are more saturated markets.” In my experience, Schär sells a larger variety of products in Germany and Italy compared to the United States—I found many snacks I wish they carried here in the United States. Taking a look at the Schär US versus German websites, the US website lists only 53 products for sale while the German website lists way too many to count.
Why are the markets so saturated in Europe though? The prevalence of celiac disease in Germany is around 0.9%, around equally comparable to North America’s 0.5-1%. However, with the population and cultural differences, the need for everyday replacements in Germany would likely be higher. Germany’s food culture revolves around bread—the stereotypes of Germans eating bread and cheese at every meal very much reflect the current society—so Germans need more options for a tasty gluten-free bread replacement to easily swap during their meals. On the other hand, the United States helped popularize the gluten-free fad, and although it may be less popular now, it’s certainly thriving. Miriam reports that the trend in Germany “has lost its appeal…we don’t see much marketing of gluten-free products as healthier,” a contrast to the US American prevalence. Therefore, the gluten-friendly options in Germany are made for the celiac and gluten-free community, as opposed to the US’ creation of them for the “healthy diet.” Shouldn’t the United States have better options then, since more people are purchasing for a gluten-free diet? Not exactly. German celiacs can file for disability, allowing citizens a small tax benefit of 384 euros per person per year. Unfortunately, according to the United States, celiac disease does not impact people enough for it to be classified as a disability unless they have symptoms reliably for a year—but symptoms go away after removing gluten from their diets. Perhaps part of the reason companies make more products for European markets is that celiacs in Germany are more willing to pay the high price for gluten-free products due to the tax benefits they receive. Consumers in North America may not want to spend excessive amounts of money on their food, leading to a worse availability of options.
As for the “better” goods, not only are Germany’s products diverse, high quality, and taste great: they are also extremely safe for celiacs. Germany certifies gluten-free products with the Crossed-Grain trademark, a license for European products managed by the Association of European Celiac Societies (AOECS) and the German Celiac Society. In order to earn the trademark on their products, companies must have their production sites audited and products tested according to AOECS standards. The emblem is universal throughout AOECS territory, meaning consumers traveling throughout the area can be assured of quality and safety. However, it must be noted that the requirement for the AOECS trademark requires foods to contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten, while the United States’ version, Gluten Free Certification Organization’s, threshold is a mere 10 ppm. Although the difference sounds strict, it does not necessarily mean AOECS-certified foods are less safe, but simply that they aren’t held to the exact same standards. Through this process, German celiacs can be sure they are consuming safe products that won’t cause their disease to flare up.
Furthermore, gluten-free options in Germany taste so much better than their United States counterparts. Bread, cookies, and pastas’ mouth-feel is more “glutinous” despite lacking the integral gluten ingredients. A contributing factor to this may be an EU-funded project to improve the taste and quality of gluten-free products after complaints from the gluten-free community. Fraunhofer Institute, the main researchers behind the project, reports that “the baked goods producers involved in the project are already using the recipes [developed],” and consider the project a success.
Ultimately, Germany’s gluten-free food offering is just better than the US’. More German stores carry gluten-free products and companies there sell better, higher-quality products. Is Germany’s gluten-free food offering perfect? Definitely not—many citizens still complain about the lack of knowledge of allergens in restaurants and product ranges in smaller towns far from big cities. Nevertheless, it seems like the United States has much to learn and hopefully take inspiration from. All I hope is that sometime soon I can get a good box of gluten-free cornflakes in the States that I didn’t have to import from Germany.