Gluten-free, new frontiers for bakery products

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The food industry has a limited number of cereals and other ingredients to safely prepare gluten-free foods. In fact, not only wheat but also barley, oats, spelt, kamut, rye, and triticale contain gluten. Rice and corn are gluten-free (which are very often the base for gluten-free pasta and bakery products), and buckwheat, amaranth, manioc, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff. Concerning barley, the food industry dedicated to the preparation of gluten-free foods should keep in mind that barley is contained in different ingredients on the market, and that it is widely used in particular for baked goods, such as malt and its derivatives (in theory gluten-free) such as maltodextrins and more recently beta glucans. Also gluten-containing cereal starches, although being safe in theory, do not always give sufficient guarantees; the same goes for wheat germ. Other ingredients and additives potentially containing gluten, and which therefore should be carefully checked before being added to the formulation of gluten-free products, are texturing agents such as binders, fillers and extenders (sometimes made with cereal fiber) and unreported starches (as they are additives’ co-formulants or suspenders). Among the new ingredients that have recently aroused interest in their applicability within the gluten-free sector, there are the following:
•         Gluten-free flour blends: instead of using only rice or corn flour, often ideal results are achieved (both from the organoleptic point of view and the structure of the product) by mixing a variety of gluten-free flours, e.g. tapioca and rice mixture which is ideal for biscuits and bread.
•         Resistant Starches (e.g. from corn): while common starches have typical caloric intake of carbohydrates, resistant starches are indigestible and are classified in all respects as dietary fibers, allowing to improve both the structure of the product and its health value for the consumer (e.g. decrease of postprandial blood glucose value); these amides can be added in various quantities to all gluten-free products.
•         New gluten-free seeds rich in carbohydrates (from cereals and not): innovative products include e.g. airless canary seeds, gramineous grass seeds whose flour can be used by 25% for the production of bread (if you want to get the volume of a conventional product) and even by 100% for cookies or other products that are not or slightly leavened; these seeds also contain particularly high content of proteins and minerals.
•         Legume flours: flour of peas, lentils and chickpeas are rich in proteins and are able to give the right viscosity to mixtures of baked foods, and structure to finished products; they are also rich in fiber and also ideal for vegetarians and vegans. Such flours were successfully used to produce pasta, snacks, bread and bread crumbs, meat-based products (e.g. bread crumbs for celiacs) or other meat (e.g. gluten-free and vegetarian meatballs and hamburgers).
•         Adding texturing agents: being gluten an essential protein for building in particular the structure of leavened baked goods, the lack of such structure may be partly compensated by the addition of texturing agents such as hydrocolloids and gums able to bind water and decrease “dryness” and crumbling that are often typical of products for celiacs.