Abstract
The objective is to verify if gluten-free (GF) and gluten-containing (G) breads differ in their sodium content and lipid profile. Samples of GF (n = 20) and G (n = 14) sliced white sandwich bread of commercial brands most frequently consumed in Spain were collected. The fatty acid (FA) composition and the contents of sodium, fat, cholesterol and phytosterols were determined. Sodium, fat and cholesterol contents were significantly higher in GF bread. The FA composition also differed, while G breads declared in most instances the use of sunflower oil as fat ingredient and presented a higher polyunsaturated FA percentage; GF breads declared a wide variety of fats and oils as ingredients (coconut, palm, olive, sunflower, etc.) which was reflected in their FA profile. Cholesterol content was higher in GF bread because five samples declared the use of whole egg, while G samples did not include any egg product in their formulas. Phytosterol content was higher in G bread but its variability was greater in GF bread. In conclusion, nutritional quality of GF bread varied depending on the ingredients used and might be lower than that of G bread. However, these differences in composition could be reduced or eliminated through changes in the formulation of GF bread. Moreover, the comparison of the results obtained in our laboratory for fat and salt content with the declared contents on the labels showed a much higher deviation for GF samples and it can be concluded that the quality of the nutritional information declared was lower in GF samples.
Highlights
Coeliac people represent about 1% of the European population [1]
Moisture data were used to express the contents of sodium, fat, cholesterol and phytosterols in dry weight (DW) basis
Since the differences between the results obtained for G and GF bread showed similar statistical significance regardless of whether the results were expressed on wet weight (WW) or DW basis (Table 1), we will here comment only the results on WW because they are more interesting for the consumers
Summary
Coeliac people represent about 1% of the European population [1]. Not many studies have investigated the nutritional effects of the GFD on healthy populations. As the nutritional evaluation carried out in these studies indicated that nutritional quality of gluten-free (GF) products was lower or equivalent to that of the gluten-containing (G) products, some authors do not recommend the consumption of GF products unless there is clear evidence of gluten intolerance [9, 11]. Much research is needed to reformulate GF products and specially GF bakery products in order to improve the nutritional quality, organoleptic characteristics and consumer acceptance of the GF products present in the market [9, 12, 13]
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