Mark Swanson knows about authentic taste.

As a child, a saleswoman tried to convince him that carob tasted like chocolate. Swanson didn’t buy it. So when he ate gluten-free gravies and sauces on the market that claimed to have beef or chicken flavor, he didn’t buy that either.

“They tasted like colored wallpaper paste,” Swanson said.

The owner of Terry Bakery in downtown Ypsilanti set out to make a better gluten-free gravy. And gluten-free sauces. And gluten-free soups.

Three years ago, Swanson and family members founded Full Flavor Foods LLC, makers of 10 gluten-free products, from four flavors of gravies to three soups and three kinds of sauces.

Sales have doubled each year, Swanson said, who hopes to see annual revenues hit between $6 million and $10 million within a decade.

“Gluten-free is the fastest growing category on grocery store shelves,” Swanson said.

The Ypsilanti-based company has gone from working with a local distributor and having their products in just a handful of stores — Arbor Farms Market in Ann Arbor was one of the first — to having close to 50 distributors across the country offering Full Flavor Foods nationwide in thousands of locations, from independent health food stores to natural grocer giant Whole Foods to conventional chains such as Meijer. Canada is next. Swanson said his company is close to selling in Canada, and has been in talks with companies for distribution in Europe and Latin America. 

Full Flavor Foods is also sold commercially through Sysco Food Service via Med-Diet, and accounts for 15 to 20 percent of the company's annual sales. It's a growing market, Swanson said. 

Full Flavor Foods has a national presence, from Alaska to Florida, and is distributed by regional companies, niche suppliers and national behemoth Sysco Corp.

Swanson said be expects Full Flavor Foods, whose line of powered soups, sauces and gravies come in foil-lined packages, to grow as gluten-free diets become more common.

A growing number of people are finding they have wheat allergies. Celiac Disease, an inherited autoimmune disease that affects more than 3 million people in the U.S, is also being diagnosed more, Swanson said. It affects the digestive process and is triggered by eating gluten in wheat, barley and rye.

Full Flavor Foods also hopes to develop a line of vegan offerings, Swanson said. Four of the 10 current products are vegetarian, and the four gravies and two soup mixes are dairy-free.

Institutions, from public school lunch programs to college food service, are beginning to hop on the gluten-free bandwagon. “It’s where vegetarian diets were 25 years ago,” Swanson said.

Institutional food programs began offering vegetarian options and then vegan choices. Now they are beginning to offer gluten-free choices. Full Flavor Foods are certified gluten-free by the University of Nebraska, Swanson said.

Sauces can be used as a springboard for tastier gluten-free eating, Swanson said. The company’s biggest sellers are beef and chicken gravies and cheese and cream sauces. They are frequently used to dress up a dish.

“A lot of people use the mushroom sauce mix to make a green bean casserole,” Swanson said.

Swanson said it’s important to keep Terry Bakery and Full Flavor Foods separate, literally and for business reasons.

Production of Full Flavor Foods is done in a gluten-free facility in Chicago, with a warehouse behind Terry Bakery for storage. The bakery has gluten in the air from the flour used for baking the muffins, brownies, quiches and more that are sold wholesale around the Washtenaw County area and during retail store hours Thursday through Saturday mornings.

Gluten-free products couldn’t be made at the bakery because of potential contamination, said Swanson, who owns the bakery with his wife, Debra, and brother-in-law J.T. Goodridge.

Swanson also wants to make sure no one confuses the two businesses. He owns Full Flavor with his parents, Dave and Anne Swanson, and brother Paul Swanson.

“People call Terry Bakery all of the time to see if we are gluten-free,” he said. “We are not.”

Swanson’s family has been in the food business for generations: His grandfather owned a dairy and founded Delsoy Presto Whip in Dearborn. His farther worked for a national manufacturer of food bases (stocks, sauces ad gravies) and Swanson followed him into the industry, eventually selling the white chicken soup base to Progresso Foods.

His mother’s wheat allergies, friends who has Celiac Disease and his background in food bases came together to create Full Flavor Foods, Swanson said.

Janet Miller is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com.