Introduction to Wheat flour Substitutes for Baking

Wheat flour is critical to the baking industry, especially in the production of leavened baked foods that are highly sought-after by consumers. This is ascribed to its gluten component, which is activated by water. Gluten acts as a structural component that traps carbon dioxide produced during fermentation of flour dough and stabilises the dough structure with its synergistic interaction with wheat starch. Consequently, gluten produces baked foods with a unique viscoelastic property. 

The ongoing global wars in countries where wheat is grown has led to shortages and consequent increase in importation costs by countries where it is not cultivated. Moreover, there is currently increased prevalence of celiac disease. These challenges ascribed to wheat has provided opportunities for potential wheat flour substitutes. Cereals and tubers are rich carbohydrate sources which are limiting in gluten, thus making their ability to produce leavened baked foods technologically challenging. 

In alleviating the baking shortcomings of gluten-free flours, an array of physical, chemical, enzymatic approaches or their synergistic combination have been utilised in modifying the starch components in flour which has consequent effects on functional and baking properties. 

My goal within the next decade is to develop novel approaches in enhancing the baking properties of underutilised, lesser-known indegineous gluten-free flours through their modification with simple and novel methods such as heat-moisture treatment, flour-additive complexation and malting. The benefits of these methods include their eco-friendly nature, low cost of their adoption in flour milling operations, lack of chemical use and synthesis of toxic metabolites, and above all, their flexibility to achieve tailor-made objectives. Moreover, these methods have revealed  noteworthy outcomes which will be relevant to the the baking industry

This is the first of a series of posts sharing the findings of my research on the modification of gluten-free flours and starches from different botanical sources using the aforementioned approaches to ramp up their baking potential. 

Please do not hesitate to drop your comment about this post in the comment section. Thank you

Kindly check out my published works in this area by clicking on the "Scholarly Research" and "Flour and Starch Research" tabs in this blog.

Or 

Check out my Google Scholar and Researchgate affiliates on the right of this website. #wheatfloursubstitute, #ecofriendlymethods, #bakedfood #flourmodification, #bakingindustry

For more credible info check out these video and scholarly article sources:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gluten

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=structural+properties+of+gluten

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Gluten&btnG=

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Structural+properties+of+Gluten

https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=Gluten%20and%20baked%20foods&sort=relevance