The Price Of Rice Flour

[dogear]

I've noticed that at the stores, I've seen so far rice flour is much more expensive than sorghum or millet.

Now the usual rational for the prices on gluten-free baking stuff, is that these are non-commodity items. But rice, despite the fact it isn't usually used as a flour, is much more mainstream in the modern world than millet or sorghum. However, rice is much more common in conventional gluten-free recipes. So here are the fact that don't add up.

1) Rice, millet, sorghum are all unconventional as flours.

2) But rice is grown and sold as a conventional food, sorghum and millet usually aren't.

3) Yet rice flour is more expensive than millet or sorghum flour.

Something doesn't add up. Rice certainly costs less than millet or sorghum grain.

So is something else going on? Are these companies charging more for rice flour because it is in fact the conventional cooking flour for what they perceive to be a "captive" market, where people have no chioce?

Furthermore, since Garfava flour is mentioned in so many gluten-free recipe books could it be the reason why Garfava flour costs more than twice as much as Garbanzo flour?

Or are Fava beans really that dear?

I've also noticed that xanthan gum is awfully expensive given it's presence in some pretty cheap gluten laden breads. Guar gum seems cheaper, even though it shouldn't be any harder to make-but it does give a lot of people diarhea at baking quantities.

Could we be looking at grain companies that are forcing high prices on the gluten-free community on the theory that most of the people have no choice, and are forced to pay?

[tarnalberry]

It's not just the commodity of growing, it's the commodity of milling and the competition for the resources in the processing. You can, also, get a mill yourself (small, counter-top units are available) and buy whole rice (and other grains) and grind it yourself. I agree there is some of the specialty marketing stuff, though I don't find the rice flours much more expensive than the amaranth and other alternatives myself. BTW, sorgum is actually grown in great quantity in the US, it's just not used in most human foods. ;-)

[dogear]

You see at the stores I see, a Bob's Red Mill Package of rice flour is $3.99, while the same size (Bob's again) package of sorghum or millet costs $2.79 and $2.29 respectively. Amaranth, quinoa and teff are more expensive, I think due to their non-commodity status. But I see no reason why rice should costs more than sorghum or millet.

I truly suspect a tactic of bilking on the theory of "these folks have no choice".

[tarnalberry]

You see at the stores I see, a Bob's Red Mill Package of rice flour is $3.99, while the same size (Bob's again) package of sorghum or millet costs $2.79 and $2.29 respectively. Amaranth, quinoa and teff are more expensive, I think due  to their non-commodity status. But I see no reason why rice should costs more than sorghum or millet.

I truly suspect a tactic of bilking on the theory of "these folks have no choice".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting. I do not see that sort of price difference at the stores I usually shop at. I wonder how much it varies by location...

There is definitely an element of the "captive audience", but we DO have a choice - these flours are not mandatory for us. We don't have to have baked goods, and we don't have to use rice flour if we choose to make them. It can be a hard decision to not have baked goods, of course, but it is a choice we have.

[dogear]

I'm pretty much a millet flour cook myself. I prefer millet not only because of the price but for other reasons:

1) Sorghum gives me horrible gas, diarrhea, and "brain fog" for days, of the kind that many of the "normal celiacs" here described from being glutened. (I know that's ironic given my situation but true.) It happens even with the tiniest bit of unsulfured molasses. When I first tried cooking with sorghum, I sort of panicked and wondered if my body was asking for a specific carbohydrate diet instead of just liking the gluten-free!!! I feared, that I'd never get to sample amaranth, teff, and all the other new grains that I've yet to here about.

2) One of the things, I worry about is how few crops the modern world survives on. Millet is at least marginally "outside" the 20 crops from which 90% of humanity gets 90% of its calories. Rice is right up there with wheat and corn. Besides, I eat rice and corn for meal foods all the time. I wanted to diversify.

3) Where rice takes about twice as much water as wheat to grow, corn takes slightly more and sorghum about the same, millet actually takes a good deal less water. And I'm pretty environemntally conscious, so I didn't want to end up depending so much on that thirsty rice.

4) Millet is more nourishing than rice.

I pretty much went without baked good, bread, or pizza for about the first nine months without gluten.

But either, way I think it is pretty bad for the grain companies to treat gluten-free products with a captive audience mentality. And it's short sighted to want to bilk a limited market rather than reach a larger one, in my thinking.

[Guest nini]

I find pure rice flour in the Hispanic market for very cheap... Mfr. in a plant that only processes rice and rice flour. I think I pay .30 cents for a small bag(don't remember how many oz)

[lpellegr]

The Asian market I go to has rice flour in 1 pound bags, 3/$1. This is also a much finer flour than Bob's Red Mill, not at all gritty. They also have sweet rice flour, potato starch flour and tapioca equally cheap, so if you are making up the gluten-free flour mixes on a regular basis this is the way to go. From what I hear the ones from Thailand at least are considered safe, although you have to take your chances on cross-contamination possibilities since you probably can't get a statement from the manufacturer. I think I had found info out on the web discussing the safety of the Asian flours, enough to satisfy me and I've had no reaction to my baked goods.

[tarnalberry]

I just found sweet rice flour at Trader Joe's (in Washington) for $1.69 for a 24oz bag!

[sweetie101282]

you can get 4 lbs. of white rice flour at meijers for under $3 in the ethnic foods aisle.