Technological Aspects of Gluten Free Bread

For successful bread making process gluten has an important role to play. But many of the individuals are susceptible to gluten and are associated with the development of gluten related disorders even on ingestion of small amount of gluten. The increasing incidence of gluten related disorders promotes worldwide interests for development of gluten free bread. However the exclusion of gluten from bread formulation has unfavourable effects on the bread making process and sensory attributes, and raises technological challenges in terms of making good quality bread. Gluten-free bread has poor visual, textural characteristics, low nutritional value, decreased mouth feel and flavour, as well as a shorter shelf-life. The low quality of gluten-free bread still remains a challenge in gluten-free bread making. In response to this, the use of novel alternative flours, functional and nutritional ingredients, processing aids, additives, innovative techniques, and their combinations are being used to improve the quality characteristics of gluten-free bread. This book chapter will present the main problems related to gluten-free bread making technology and to summarise the approaches which can be used to improve the technological, nutritional, and sensory properties of gluten-free bread.