Designing gluten‐free, anthocyanins‐enriched cookies on scientific basis

Abstract

SummaryThe essential treatment of the coeliac disease is a strict lifelong gluten‐free diet based on the avoidance of gluten, thus requiring new perspectives for identifying technological and functional alternatives for gluten‐free products, with similar functionality and efficiency. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the potential of purple corn flour (PCF) as a functional and technological alternative to design new gluten‐free, anthocyanins‐enriched cookies. The PCF was characterised in terms of phytochemical and antioxidant activity, yielding an extract with a total anthocyanin content of 14.94 ± 0.68 mg cyanidin‐3‐O‐glucoside (C3G) per g dry weight (DW). The results of the thermo‐mechanical tests indicated that composite flour consisting of rice flour (RF, 75%) and PCF (25%) is suitable for obtaining gluten‐free cookies. Tests showed increased anthocyanin content in cookies with 75% addition of PCF, up to 6.99 ± 0.20 mg C3G per 100 g DW, yielding an antioxidant activity of 18.46 ± 0.18 mm Trolox equivalents per g DW. The ELISA test confirmed the absence of prolamins recognised by the monoclonal antibody R5. The sensory analysis revealed that the substitution of RF with PCF had no significant influence on overall acceptability. The results of the shelf‐life tests performed on the cookies showed slight variation in phytochemicals in both variants, influencing the antioxidant activity. The obtained results may bring potential benefits to people on restricted diets and coeliac consumers, which can benefit from a contribution of bioactives, with significant health benefits.