BPC2019
Selection and Evaluation of Rice Flours for Gluten-Free Cookies
More and more people are now choosing a gluten-free diet. Over the past decade, various products have been utilized to replace wheat, which is high in gluten. Rice is often chosen for its neutral flavor, its whiteness, it is easy to digest, low in sodium, and has hypoallergenic properties.
The rice flours available on the market vary widely in the terms of suitability to replace wheat flour. This complicates their use in gluten-free preparations, since it has a direct impact on the quality of the finished products. The goals of this study were to determine the rheological properties of different rice flours using the Mixolab, evaluate the impact of the rice origin on cookie quality and draw correlations between rheological data and cookie characteristics.
Significant variations during mixing, pasting and gelling were noticed among the rice flours depending on their botanical origin. Mixolab Cmax, Cs, C2, C3, C4 and C5 varied from 0.59 to 3.33 Nm, 0.26 to 1.20 Nm, 0.31 to 1.44 Nm, 0.93 to 2.54 Nm, 0.74 to 1.93 Nm and 1.42 to 3.29 Nm, respectively. Looking at the results of the cookie tests baking, one can notice that all rice flours were able to produce cookies with correct shape and color. However, significant variations in cookie weight and thickness were noticed, in agreement with the rheological findings using Mixolab. Cookie weight and thickness varied, respectively, from 9.5 to 11.60 g and 48 to 64 mm. Results also revealed high correlations between technological tests results and rheological Mixolab characteristics. Correlation coefficients (R²) were 0.88 and 0.64 between cookie weight and C5 and cookie thickness and C4, respectively.
This study confirmed the strong variability in the quality of rice flours depending on their botanical origin. Cookie baking tests revealed significant differences between cookies in terms of weight and thickness. Significant correlations were found between rheological and test baking performances.
G. Tawil, O. Le Brun, A. Dubat and G. Vericel
CHOPIN Technologies, Villeneuve-La-Garenne, France
