Cost of Gluten Free Bread Worldwide

We always think gluten free bread in the UK is expensive but how does it compare to the rest of the world?

In the UK, on average you can expect to pay around £4 (though it can vary between £2.50 and £6 depending on where from and what brand) for a gluten free loaf, and I was curious so took to my Facebook page and asked the international followers how much gluten free bread costs where they are which got 100's of replies - thank you! Thanks also to Rachel, thesightseeingcoeliac on Instagram, who also helped to fill in bread costs in some places that hadn't been mentioned which she had visited.

Bread prices vary everywhere and I worked out the AVERAGE price based off those given to me (some places I received multiple for, others I only got one price), I converted the average cost from the local currencies to GBP (currency exchange as of 7th April 2023) to see what the prices looked like and saw they differed significantly.

Cheapest on the list was Cape Town in South Africa which averaged at £2.30 a loaf with Italy, Spain and Belgium all coming in as some of the cheapest countries for a gluten free loaf.

At around £3 were more EU countries such as Bulgaria, Greece and Luxembourg.

The UK and Ireland come in around the same average price as Australia and New Zealand - about a third of the way up the list.

It appears the majority of the EU float around £2-£4 so we sit with the standard for this location really even if we are a bit above mainland Europe based off the average.

Closer to £5 a loaf average were some of the US states, Canada and Czech Republic, also Thailand is edging toward £6. A couple of these places are countries where bread isn't as culturally popular (or at least not the sort of bread we'd have all the time) so it naturally would start creeping up more in those places.

Into the £7 and £8 bracket are more US states which personally I found quite surprising. Bread is fairly easy to get in the United States but very expensive compared to here - it is in most supermarkets over there unlike some of the other countries on the list where the bread is cheaper!

The highest three when it comes to averaged prices were are follows

Iceland - £10 for a gluten free loaf. The type of bread we'd use as sandwiches and toast here isn't as prevailant in Iceland but do have other types of bread that are more popular. Iceland isn't the cheapest country anyway so there will be a few factors playing into the cost there.

Turkey - like Iceland average is £10 a loaf but it is difficult to get what us brits would class as a gluten free loaf, they have there own cultural breads which can be bought gluten free but still expensive and with difficulty.

Lebanon - the highest on the list at £44. And this is because it is almost impossible to buy, if you can find it then it will cost you a small fortune!

So, overall, comparing worldwide, we are pretty average, maybe even a little below in the UK - which maybe surprising to some people! The most expensive places, unsurprisingly, are the countries where our form of bread isn't as popular so of course the price would be ramped up as there isn't the demand for it.

Many things contribute to the cost of products, especially gluten free - for more info on what makes gluten free products more expensive in general take a look at this blog.

How much does a gluten free loaf of bread cost where you live? Drop a comment below!