Baking & Snack - April 2010 - 56

INGREDIENT ALTERNATIVES

Winning Project
Melissa Daniel and Angela Dodd, graduate students at
Kansas State University, Manhattan, provided a good
example of formulating gluten-free products when
they developed a gluten-free waffle cone and won
the 2009 AACC International Student Division's
sion's
product development competition.
After trying several different glutenfree flours, they chose brown rice flour for
its texture and low degree of off-flavors.
To solve the problem of moisture migration,
on,
they added xanthan gum (0.2% flour weight
eight
basis) to bind the extra water and, thus, lower
ower
the cones' water activity. Flavors also played
a role, and the team decided to present vanilla
and cinnamon versions in the competition.
n. They

also tested strawberry and chocolate flavors.
The most difficult formulating problem to solve was
texture in the mouth, they stated.

◀ Made from gluten-free multigrain flour, sandwich bread exhibits the
texture and taste of conventional products and the nutrition of whole grains.
CONAGRA MILLS

not new to the marketplace, but the ingredients and
ingredient systems that make such products possible
have changed and for the better. While pioneers in the
category struggled to solve structure, texture and taste
issues of using gluten-free flours and gums, a new group
of ingredients has emerged with enhanced functionality.

storage proteins of amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa,
rice, sorghum and teff.
The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) requires the Food and Drug
Administration to establish a regulation defining the
term "gluten-free." In 2007, the agency issued a proposal
that set the threshold at no more than 20 ppm gluten and
provided guidance on the subject, but no additional rulemaking has taken place.
When bakers think of gluten, they generally have
in mind gliaden and glutenin, the two major proteins
of wheat flour that form gluten when mixed with water. This viscoelastic protein matrix, unique to wheat
gluten, supports the flour's starch component and
the other ingredients in the formulation, resulting in
the characteristic light, airy crumb of wheat-based
baked foods.
Baking without wheat's gluten presents certain challenges to the formulator. Gluten-free baked foods are

BAKING & SNACK / April 2010

WHOLE GRAIN, NO GLUTEN. Consider multigrain
flour, which is usually milled from wheat combined
with rye, oats and barley. In mid-March, ConAgra
Mills, Omaha, NE, introduced Eagle Mills GlutenFree All-Purpose Multigrain Flour to the natural
products industry. The new flour blends the "ancient
grains" amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum and teff
with brown rice and tapioca flours, a mixture that
"achieves the optimal blend of taste, nutrition and
performance for gluten-free breads and other bakery
products," according to Elizabeth Arndt, PhD, director of R&D for ConAgra Mills.
"Whole-grain nutrition was important to us in developing this gluten-free flour ingredient," she continued.
"Recently, traditional gluten-free products have come
under fire for less-than-stellar nutritional profiles. Gluten-free consumers are not only interested in bettertasting foods with more 'normal' texture; they're also
searching for better-for-you options."
She quoted the June 2009 issue of Harvard Health
Letter that recommended a gluten-free diet richer in
vitamins and fiber, identifying the "Super Six" whole
grains (amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum

Baking & Snack - April 2010

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