BREAD FROM CORN STARCH FOR DIETETIC PURPOSES .1. STRUCTURE FORMATION

Bread from corn-starch can be used for dietetic purposes in case low p rotein and phenylalanine content and gluten-free food is required (pat ients suffering from coeliac disease, phenylketonurea, and renal failu re), as corn-starch has only ca. one tenth of protein and phenylalanin e content as compared to the common bread flour and it can be regarded completely free from gluten. From production technological aspect, ho wever, corn-starch is very difficult to handle due to the lack of prot ein, more precisely, to the lack of good quality protein. The purpose of our work has been to study the effect of the most promising group o f additives, the binding agents which can substitute for gluten. Bread volume and crumb penetration have been evaluated and on the basis of the results the technological effect of xanthan, guar gum, locust bean gum and tragant has been estimated. Our results have shown that the b inding agents can be utilised as substitutes of the technological effe ct of gluten in gluten-free systems very well, resulting in highly sig nificant increase of bread volume and loosening of the crumb on the le vel P=0.001. The effect of the individual binding agents is rather div erse. The best quality bread can be produced with xanthan.