The 12 million people in the USA with food allergies together with the 2 million people who suffer from celiac, a condition in which the immune system attacks the body when food containing gluten has been eaten, have determined more and more food companies to start producing and marketing allergens-free food.

Experts believe that the number of persons who have food allergies will continue to grow over the next years, but they do not have an explanation for the phenomenon. It is possible that lesser contact with germs and the way food is processed might have led to the current situation. What remains a fact is that each year, about 30,000 people with food-induced anaphylaxis, a very severe reaction to an allergenic factor, end up in hospitals, and about 200 of them don’t make it to tell the experience.

It is no wonder that startup companies, as well as older ones are quick to developing lines of products that are marketed as being free from ingredients such as eggs, peanuts, tree-nuts and even gluten.

While startups find the task of developing such products quite easy, the companies already established on the market face quite a few problems in doing so. Changing the formula of a product as well as the entire production process are expensive and risky decisions.

Retailers have also seen the possibilities that have appeared. More and more online stores that sell food for people with allergies have appeared lately, and given people’s increasing behavior of self-diagnosing allergies, they are most likely to flourish over the next few years.