Villepinte (France) (AFP) - Once firmly entrenched in their traditional gastronomy, consumers in gourmet havens like France and Italy are slowly starting to demand gluten-, dairy- and meat-free diets as environmental and health concerns kick in.

No-allergen pasta, vegan croissants, meatless hamburgers -- "free-from" food is one of the leading trends at this week's SIAL international food fair outside Paris, where companies say Europeans are starting to care as much about what is left out of their food as what goes in.

"Consumers have changed," said Elisabeth Leitner, export manager for Probios, an Italian company specialising in organic products and creator of vegan croissants, pointing to growing concerns about allergies and the environmental and health impacts of meat.

"There are more people leading alternative lifestyles. And people are talking about food and health on sites like Facebook and Twitter."

In France, four percent of people say they follow a diet free from gluten -- a protein found in wheat, rye and barley -- along with eight percent in Italy, seven percent in Germany and six percent in Spain, according to Mintel, a London based market research company.

- Anti-gluten fever -

Gluten-free foods are essential for people who suffer from coeliac disease, an auto-immune condition characterised by diarrhoea, vomiting and bloating after the ingestion of gluten.

However many consumers buy them simply because they perceive the products as healthier.

This anti-gluten fever has swept the United States in recent years and has earned increasing criticism for being a money-spinning fad.

"Gluten is to this decade what carbohydrates were to the last one and fat was to the 1980s and 1990s: the bete noir, the bad boy, the cause of all that ails you, and the elimination of which can heal you," Time wrote in a recent article on its website.

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Vegan croissants, gluten-free pasta: Europe wakes to fussy eating