Coeliac disease and gluten intolerance

Coeliac disease is a chronic and autoimmune intestinal disease that causes an intolerance to gluten, a protein contained in food – and especially in cereal and cereal-based processed foods.

In the long run, this causes damage to the inner lining of the intestine. Digestion may be impaired and the body’s ability to assimilate nutrients is diminished.

Unlike typical food allergies which trigger symptoms immediately after eating, gluten intolerance builds up over time and may go unnoticed for years. It is typically diagnosed ten years on average after the initial onset. It typically occurs in people genetically predisposed to it and it is more common in women than men.

Reimbursement for foods

It is possible to obtain a 60% reimbursement from Assurance Maladie for gluten-free diet foods if you have been diagnosed with coeliac disease. Your condition must have been confirmed by a digestive tract biopsy test.

Note that coeliac disease is considered one of the affections de longue durée, long-term conditions which have special reimbursement rules in France. However, unusually, it does not qualify for 100% reimbursement.

The 60% reimbursement is also based on an official tariff for each approved diet food, which may be lower than the price in the shop. The foods do not include unprocessed items such as rice or lentils that might form part of a gluten-free diet.

To obtain reimbursement, you need confirmation from your state health insurance body (usually Cpam) that you have cover for the illness and a current doctor’s prescription for the foods. The latter are renewable every six months.

You can ask for reimbursement for several items per month, but total reimbursement per month is limited to €45.73, or €33.54 for children under 10.

People diagnosed with coeliac disease are sent forms by their Cpam that can be used to claim reimbursements (see an example here).

You need to buy products that have detachable vignette labels. You stick labels of products you purchased in a certain month on the refund form and send it to your Cpam with a copy of the prescription, till receipts, and a sworn attestation that you were the person who made the purchase.

To simplify the process, you can ask for reimbursements for these foods directly via the ameli app for smartphones and tablets, from the App Store or Google Play. To use this, you should go into Paramètres (settings) and click to activate the service called Mes prises en charge de la maladie coeliaque.

Under Mes démarches, you can click Prise en charge de la maladie coeliaque. You can then scan a barcode from the label on a product and insert the price paid in the shop. You should obtain a message confirming that the purchases have been taken account of at the end of the process.

You are expected to keep the barcode for the product and the till receipt for at least two years in case of checks.

Where can you buy items?

The French Association for Gluten-intolerant People reports working with chains including Auchan, Franprix, Biocoop, Carrefour, Intermarché, Leclerc, La Vie Claire, Greenweez, Naturalia, Monoprix, Casino, Calicote, and Système U.

These include both physical and online supermarkets and some specialist ‘bio’ (organic and health food) shops.

Some have their own-brand gluten-free products, including Carrefour, Intermarché, and Auchan. Leclerc has an own brand of gluten-free products named Chaque Jour sans Gluten.

With respect to online shopping, Auchan was the supermarket we identified as offering the largest range of products.