Hypoallergenic wheat bread: response to an emerging issue

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of gluten intolerance raises the need to broaden the range of products that are suitable for coeliac. Usually, this means creating gluten-free (GF) products. However, limited amounts of wheat can be consumed safely by some people with moderate gluten intolerance. In this study, we attempted to produce high-quality bread with reduced immunoreactivity of wheat flour proteins by the partial replacement of wheat flour with wheat starch and by use of lactic acid fermentation. The resulting bread immunoreactivity was determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method and compared to that of regular wheat bread. The combination of flour mixture modification and fermentation lowered the immune response in digested bread samples by more than 90% in the case of anti-QQQPP peptide antibodies and by over 40% for human anti-gliadin antibodies.