Towards the development of wheat extruded snacks with reduced gluten toxicity

Abstract

The negative effects of gluten on human health are becoming a serious problem for the development of new foods. Gluten-free or very low-gluten labeling is an important factor in FMCG food marketing. An alternative to a gluten-free diet is the use of enzymatic hydrolysis to break down the immunogenic polypeptides of the gliadin and glutenin fractions. Gluten polypeptides that are resistant to gastrointestinal digestion can be hydrolyzed by prolyl endoproteases from Flavobacterium meningosepticum, Sphingomonas capsulate and Myxococcus Xanthus, or enzyme preparations from Aspergillus niger or Aspergillus oryzae. In many studies, the ability of high-temperature short-term extrusion to modify molecular structure of gluten and its fractions and improve enzymatic access to the biopolymers is noted. A method for integrating biocatalysis and extrusion processes to reduce or neutralize the immunogenic effect of gluten epitopes and to obtain extruded ready-to-eat snacks is proposed. The process flow chart includes the use of extrusion as a pretreatment stage for enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat and as a stage of thermal and shaping processing of extruded hydrolyzed wheat into ready-to-eat snacks.