Food Marketing & Technology - India July 2019 | Page 36

Processing
Major Challenges in
Gluten-free Baking
Baking gluten-free flours is drastically
more different than baking wheat flour.
As mentioned earlier, shifting to any
other flour requires extensive changes
in formulating the recipes, change of
baking parameters, etc. Also, gluten-
free baking poses many challenges to
the bakers and food processors. Some
are discussed below:
Texture of Baked Product: Absence of
gluten means the bread will not raise,
will be gummy, and will not have
air pockets. Gluten-free flours have
specific flavours of their own, which
are stronger than wheat flour. This
characteristic is evident especially in
bread, as they generally do not contain
any added flavouring agents. In cakes,
the result is less drastic, because of the
use of baking powder and sugar. The
gluten-free cakes are made by keeping
in mind the correct combination of
flours, sugar, fat and other ingredients.
These cakes will be less fluffy but will
be quite comparable with traditional
wheat flour cakes. The crust formation
will be different, but in general, the
look and feel of the product is similar.
Impact on Shelf Life: The gluten-
free bread is made using different
formulations in comparison to
standard bread, which implies
additional challenges in identifying
and optimising preservative strategies
for these products. Gluten-free baked
products have a very low shelf life
as the gluten-free bread get spoiled
within one day. This makes the mass
production and distribution of such
products difficult.
Sticky Nature: Some gluten-free
flours are very dry in nature. They are
also gummy, sticky, and less elastic.
Because of their stickiness, these flours
do not fare well with machines like
depositors and dough sheeters. They
may get stuck due to this. Therefore,
the production of gluten-free bread is
generally undertaken by retail
bakeries or by people who have
hands-on experience to deal
with them. Whereas, the making
of gluten-free cakes and cookies
is relatively easier and do not
have machinability problems.
Higher Cost: The price of a
gluten-free products is another
challenge as they tend to be
very expensive. It is not only the
cost of gluten-free flour which
affects the cost of the product,
but it is the changes in the entire
formulation that increases it.
The addition of various other
ingredients to mimic the action
of gluten also drives the cost up.
New Technologies to
Improve Bread Making
Gluten-free
products,
especially
bread, have a very high demand in
the market which is usually not met
with high supply. There are very few
manufacturers of gluten-free bread and
those that actually work are even fewer.
This area is constantly being explored
by the researchers and innovations are
happening in this sector, all across the
world. Some examples of technologies
used to develop a new type of crop,
flour or use of different strains are
mentioned below:
Use of Gene Editing Technology:
Food Marketing & Technology
36
July 2019
The recent developments in genome
editing technologies have significantly
improved our capability to make
precise changes in the genomes of
eukaryotic cells. With gene editing,
genes are not added or modified; in
fact, they are being edited/removed
to suit the desired needs. Through this
method, scientists have managed to
remove the gluten triggering protein.
But how is this going to help in baking
is yet to be seen.
Gluten-free Rice Flour: Hiroshima
University researchers on the other
side have been working on modifying
the method for production of rice
flour to achieve gluten-free bread.
Their results are quite impressive as
the crumb structure of this bread is as
good as wheat bread.
Gluten-free Bread Using Lactic Acid
Bacteria: Some scientists have tried
producing sourdough gluten-free
bread using different strains of Lactic
Acid producing bacteria. The resultant
bread has a good yield, good height
and increased shelf life.
Other than these innovative techniques,
using hydrocolloids, pre-gelatinised
starches, heat treatment of flours, the
roasting of some grains like quinoa
before grinding them into flour, use
of enzymes like glucose oxidase and
transglutaminase, yield good gluten-
free bread.
Conclusion
The demand for gluten-free products
is on the rise not only due to the
allergies, but also the growing trend
is perceived to be healthy and hence
gaining preference. All bakeries,
whether in manufacturing or retail are
now looking at gluten-free options.
Gluten-free cookies are also becoming
a new trend. All in all the gluten-free
products are growing very fast and
expected to expand further.
* Owner and Bakery Technologist
at Little Foods