The demand for gluten-free foods is increasing. However, because gluten is a structure-building protein essential for formulating leavened baked goods, obtaining high-quality gluten-free bread is a technological challenge.
A review published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety explores the contemporary approaches in gluten-free baking that allow improvements at the structure, texture, acceptability, nutritive value, and shelf life of gluten-free bread.
Several approaches have been used to understand and improve gluten-free bread systems by evaluating different flours and starch sources, ingredients added for nutritional purposes, additives, and technologies, or a combination of these elements. Some studies aimed to assess or improve gluten-free bread’s technological or nutritional properties, while others had multiple objectives.
Several studies used food science tools in order to improve technological and sensory quality of gluten-free bread, together with nutritional value. Some gluten-free breads are vehicles of nutrients and bioactive compounds.
The results of the reviewed studies should stimulate further research on the improvement of formulas and optimization of new gluten-free bread formulas, as well the evaluation of in vitro and in vivo trials on bioavailability in order to understand the efficacy of these products as vehicles that deliver micronutrients and bioactive compounds to celiac patients. The authors concluded that extensive research on interfacing food science, nutrition, and health is needed so that gluten-free bread with both good technological and nutritional properties can be prepared and made more available to those with celiac disease.
