Gluten-free bread, cake mixes and bourbon biscuits are also available to people with coeliac disease, an auto-immune disease, which is triggered by eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye.

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She said her intolerance to gluten - found in bread, cakes, biscuits and pastries - had dramatically affected her diet.

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We can make wheat with more gluten so that it will make better bread, and we can make tomatoes that keep their fresh-picked texture longer.

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Only last week, actress Gwyneth Paltrow provoked the wrath of the dietetic establishment while she was promoting her new low-carb, gluten-free cookbook, by saying she avoids feeding her children bread, rice and pasta.

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With an estimated one in 100 people affected by gluten intolerance, campaigners want the NHS to continue providing staple foods like bread and pasta.

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Gluten is the hunk of proteins that turns a ball of crumbling dough into an elastic, yummy ball of bread-to-be.

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