Improving quality of gluten-free foods

Tuesday, 15 June 2010 10:24

The European Union’s Healthgrain project recently held its final conference which focussed on innovation in improving the nutritional value of cereal grains. The program included a presentation on work carried out at University College Cork, Ireland aimed at improving the quality of gluten-free breads.

The work presented was an investigation into the effect of sourdough on the quality of bread made from oats, which found strains of lactic acid bacteria with antifungal activity and capable of exopolysaccharide and enzyme production which could significantly improve the quality and shelf-life of gluten free breads. Novel processing such as high pressure processing was also investigated as a means to create ingredients for gluten free cereal products.

Details of all the Healthgrain projects can be found on the web site: www.healthgrain.org