Atly Reveals Nearly 2/3 of Gluten-Free and Celiac Consumers Find It Difficult or Impossible to Find a New Place to Eat That Accommodates Their Dietary Needs

The company's latest consumer survey demonstrates the realities of gluten-free dining and restaurant discovery in 2024

NEW YORK, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Atly, the user-generated social mapping platform revolutionizing location-based knowledge sharing, today unveiled its latest consumer survey results in a data report entitled "A Grain of Truth: The Realities of Gluten-Free Dining and Restaurant Discovery in 2024." The survey revealed that for 65% of gluten-free and Celiac consumers, finding a new place to eat that accommodates their gluten-free needs is difficult or even impossible.

Gluten sensitivity affects an astounding number of people, with up to 10% of the US population impacted. Simultaneously, Celiac disease has quintupled over the past 50 years, making "gluten-free" a common request at many dinner tables. And yet, for this growing community, eating out is a gamble at best and dangerous at worst. Whether they are diagnosed with Celiac or have chosen a gluten-free (GF) diet, these community members still struggle to find new places to eat that meet their needs. Even with many online resources and apps already available, the process is still lengthy and cumbersome, plagued by unreliable and out-of-date information.

According to the survey, gluten-free eaters face the following obstacles when finding a new place to dine out that meets their needs*:

• 57% suffer from a lack of information
• 57% from limited gluten-free options
• 50% from time-consuming research
• 48% from safety concerns
• 45% from uninformed staff
• 38% from out-of-date information

When trying to vet a new place to eat, 50% report that they usually spend over 30 minutes, and 46% find themselves needing to make phone calls to restaurants to verify their GF practices despite the plethora of available digital tools and online information. Even after this arduous preparation, 42% report that they've still become sick after eating out, and 53% of respondents still rely on friends to find a new place to eat. 

"In this very online age we are living in, despite the various digital tools available, people still prefer to turn to their friends and family and are forced to make phone calls to verify where they can eat," said Uriel Maslansky, CEO and Co-Founder of Atly. "This is not only an information quality problem but also a trust problem. Atly looks forward to continuing to tackle these issues for the gluten-free community and for many others in the future."

The survey found that gluten-free eaters have a diminished travel experience, with 65% saying they feel more limited in their ability to travel and 28% reporting they're less likely to travel at all. Fifty percent of GF eaters say their dietary needs affect how long they are willing to travel and 45% report their diet affects which accommodations and which cities they choose to stay in. Nearly 39% say their GF needs even affect the country they travel to. Overall, 55% of GF eaters say they feel more anxious while traveling because of their dietary needs.

"In today's world, where being gluten-free is increasingly common, finding a suitable place to eat should not remain such a significant challenge," said Joshua Kaufman, Co-Founder of Atly. "Our survey highlights the urgent need for a reliable, easy-to-use platform that empowers the gluten-free community to discover safe and enjoyable dining experiences without the stress, time, and uncertainty that currently consumes their experience. We're excited to continue utilizing data-driven insights to deliver innovative solutions for the specific location discovery needs people face across the globe, community by community."

To compile the report, Atly conducted a survey of 300 consumers across the United States who reported being Celiac or gluten-free. Among the respondents, who ranged between ages 18 to 60+, 40% reported being highly sensitive symptomatic Celiac, 20% symptomatic Celiac, 3% asymptomatic Celiac, 27% gluten intolerant, and 10% gluten-free by choice.

Download Atly here and subscribe to the Gluten-Free Eats map here. The map makes it easier and safer than ever to eat gluten-free and features over 40,000 places across the US.

*Numbers add up to more than 100% because respondents were allowed to select as many answers as applied.

About Atly

Atly is a social mapping platform that is purpose-built to discover places to go and things to do. The New York-based company is dedicated to facilitating location-based knowledge sharing by enabling users to create map-based communities alongside like-minded people about the places and things they love. With over 7,000 communities across the globe, Atly's proprietary collaborative app blends the visual intuitiveness of mapping with the niche-based specificity of online forums or interest groups, all while leveraging the crowdsourced insights of social media community sharing.

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SOURCE Atly