POSSIBILITIES OF PRODUCING LOW-PROTEIN, G LUTEN-FREE BREAD .1. STRUCTURE FORMATION

Breand made from corn starch can be used for dietetic purposes when gl utenfree food is required with low protein and phenylalanine contents (for patients suffering from coeliac disease, phenylketonurea and rena l failure) as corn starch has only about one tenth the protein and phe nylalanine contenst of common bread flour and can be regarded as compl etely free of gluten. From the production technological aspect, howeve r, corn starch is very difficult to handle due to the lack of protein, more precisely, to the lack of good quality protein. The purpose of o ur work was to study the effect of the most promising group of additiv es, the binding agents, which can be used as a substitute for gluten. Bread volume and crumb penetration were evaluated to investigate the t echnological effect of xanthan, guar gum, locust bean gum and tragant. The results show that the binding agents can be efficiently utilised t o subsitute for the technological effect of gluten in gluten-free syst ems, resulting in a highly significant increase in bread volume and lo osening of the crumb at the P=0.001 level. The effects of the individu al binding agents differ considerably. The best quality bread can be p roduced with xanthan.