COMPARISON BETWEEN XANTHAN GUM AND HYDROXYPROPYLMETHYCELLULOSE IN THE PREPARATION OF GLUTEN-FREE BREADS

Gluten is a network formed by proteins, mainly gliadin and glutenin, which provides pasta with a good structure, texture and flavor, present in cereals such as wheat, barley and rye, being very important for obtaining bakery products, such as the bread. However, gluten causes problems for genetically predisposed individuals, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy. Rice flour is one of the raw materials most used to replace gluten-containing flours, however, it does not have proteins that have the same capacity as gluten, which generates doughs with low specific volume, altered flavor and texture. For this reason, it is important to use additives, such as xanthan gum or hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, which have the ability to retain and incorporate gas into the dough, giving the product greater volume and also improving its texture. In the present work, five formulations were developed in triplicate, substituting wheat flour for rice flour and sweet starch, being a control formulation without the addition of any additive, xanthan gum formulations 2 g and 5 g, HPMC formulations 2g and 5 g. Color, specific volume, firmness and water activity were analyzed. The standard (3329.55) and HPMC 2g (3329.55) formulations showed greater firmness when compared to the other formulations. The 2 g xanthan gum and 5 g xanthan gum formulations showed higher specific volume, and the control, 2g HPMC and 5g HPMC formulations showed similarities in specific volume. . The values obtained for the parameter L (brightness) show that all formulations tend to be white, as they have a color closer to 100. When producing gluten-free breads with the addition of additives such as xanthan gum and HPMC, it was concluded that they presented the expected results for gluten-free breads.