AACC International - 2010 Meeting Abstract - A novel method for the production of gluten-free products using whey proteins

Meeting Abstract - Oral Presentation

A novel method for the production of gluten-free products using whey proteins
L. E. VAN RIEMSDIJK (1), A. van der Goot (1), R. M. Boom (1), R. J. Hamer (1)
(1) Wageningen University, Wageningen, NETHERLANDS
Cereal Foods World 55:A32

After a few decades of intensive research on gluten free bread, people obtained gluten free bread with acceptable properties. The formulation of current gluten free breads was obtained by trial and error, using a mixture of various ingredients. In this presentation we show that it is possible to obtain a gas holding bread by adding only two ingredients, namely whey proteins and locust bean gum. Key characteristic of the whey protein – locust bean gum mixture is the fact that the whey proteins are structured into a colloidal scale particle suspension. This particle suspension is obtained through phase separation and cold gelation. Phase separation is induced by addition of locust bean gum. Gelation is induced by the addition of glucono-delta-lacton, which gradually decreases the pH. In this way, a protein particle system was obtained, in which a large particle interaction was present. It led to elastic properties, which were comparable to gluten properties. The whey protein suspension was added to a mixture of starch, salt and water. The resulting dough was compared to a regular wheat flour dough and to gluten-starch doughs, with respect to strain hardening properties. The whey protein dough, however, contained only 2.5% protein, Due to the preparation method of the whey protein particles, we needed locust bean gum and a pH of 5.2. We checked the effect of locust bean gum and pH. The pH had a minor effect compared to meso-scopic structuring. The addition of locust bean gum increased dough consistency of the whey protein dough. The influence of the locust bean gum can be explained by a depletion effect. We were also able to bake a bread with the gluten-free dough described above, having a specific volume of 3.7 ml/g. We therefore concluded that by building a network with comparable interactions as the gluten network, we approached the unique properties that gluten gives to bread.