Healthier, tastier bread for people on gluten-free diets Spanish food researchers assessed several different flours in order to determine their potential for making more nutritious, more aesthetically pleasing gluten-free bread. Health © PhotoDisc Persons with coeliac disease suffer from a number of symptoms, including diarrhoea, weight loss and fatigue, because their bodies are unable to process gluten. Unfortunately, gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, barley and other cereals, is contained in a wide variety of foods. At this time the only treatment is a strict gluten-free diet. Gluten is an important source of protein and also introduces a pleasant elasticity to products with which it is made. However, gluten-free food products often fail to provide their consumers with enough nourishment and are not aesthetically pleasing. Thus, a LIFE QUALITY Programme project attempted to improve the most challenging gluten-free food: bread. Food scientists at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Spain analysed raw materials provided by their partners in the SNP BREAD project. The ingredients included corn flour and a variety of rice flours. They found that the protein content of the corn flour was very low while the ash content of the whole rice and parboiled rice flour was highest. Amylases are an important family of enzymes that facilitate the decomposition of starches, such as rice and corn flour. CSIC performed further chemical analyses to determine the ability of the new raw materials to be broken down by amylase. While the whole rice flour showed good a-amylase activity, none of the gluten-free flours showed substantial levels of b-amylase activity. The end result is that whole rice flour, since it can produce the necessary fermentable sugars, is a viable solution. Furthermore, CSIC suggests that the other gluten-free flours could be supplemented with exogenous sugars to facilitate the bread-making process. This work will contribute to the development of healthier, tastier bread and other food products for those restricted to gluten-free diets.
