Advances and Ongoing Challenges in the Development of Gluten-free Baked Goods An increasing number of consumers are looking for gluten-free foods, and many food manufacturers and retailers are responding with expanded gluten-free options. The quality and number of gluten-free options have increased significantly over the last five years, but consumers are still waiting for an alternative to wheat flour that provides equivalent functionality in a wide variety of baked goods (e.g., structure, flavor, texture, and nutrition). Several alternatives have been investigated, but successful replacement of wheat flour in food formulations requires optimization of at least eight different functional aspects related to food processing. Applications incorporating a combination of modified or functional native flours or starches and small amounts of hydrocolloids, proteins, or fibers as texture improvers and nutritional enhancers have been the most successful. Although the products made with these ingredient systems come much closer to matching products that contain wheat flour than previous formulations, additional work is needed to discover or develop an optimal replacement for wheat flour. |