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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #356468
Research Project: Innovative Processing Technologies for Creating Functional Food Ingredients with Health Benefits from Food Grains, their Processing Products, and By-products

Location: Functional Foods Research

Title: Characterization of amaranth and bean flour blends and the impact on quality of gluten-free breads

Author
item Liu, Sean
item Chen, Diejun
item Xu, Jingyuan - James

Submitted to: Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/16/2018
Publication Date: 3/28/2019
Citation: Liu, S., Chen, D., Xu, J. 2019. Characterization of amaranth and bean flour blends and the impact on quality of gluten-free breads. Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization. 13(2):1440-1450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-019-00060-4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-019-00060-4

Interpretive Summary: For millions of people with gluten-intolerance, finding food products that are healthy, nutritious, and tasty is a daunting task. We investigated several gluten-free amaranths bread partially substituted with soybean, navy bean, and lupin flours. Both amaranth and bean flours were higher in protein, minerals and vitamins than whole wheat flour along with gluten-free benefits. In this study, we found volumes of breads using amaranth-soy 85:15 and 70:30 and amaranth-lupin 85:15 were larger than amaranth bread, and had less reductions compared to whole wheat bread. The amaranth bread and breads substituted with soybean, lupin and navy bean flours showed significantly higher or similar springiness compared to the whole wheat flour breads because of their high proteins and water holding capacity. All amaranth breads substituted with soybean and lupin flours showed improved nutritional values and acceptable texture qualities compared to breads made from amaranth and whole wheat flours, respectively. The blending of amaranth with bean flours offers a new way of developing gluten-free breads that have higher nutritional values and heathier than current commercial gluten-free breads that are based on starch.

Technical Abstract: Both amaranth and bean flours were higher in protein, minerals and vitamins than whole wheat flour along with gluten-free benefits. Nutritious gluten-free breads were developed using amaranth flour combined with 15% or 30% soybean, lupin, or navy bean flour, respectively. Amaranth and bean flours exhibited higher water holding capacity than whole wheat flour. The pasting property of amaranth flour was lower than that of whole wheat flour but higher than bean flours. All blends revealed shear thinning properties that are important for mouthfeel and industrial applications. Volumes of breads using amaranth-soy 85:15 and 70:30 and amaranth-lupin 85:15 were larger than amaranth bread, and had less reductions compared to whole wheat bread. The amaranth bread and breads substituted with soybean, lupin and navy bean flours showed significantly higher or similar springiness compared to the whole wheat flour breads because of their high proteins and water holding capacity. The firmness of bread using amaranth-soy 85:15 and 70:30, and amaranth-lupin 85:15 was improved by amaranth, which was very close to whole wheat bread. Amaranth breads with bean flours added high-value plant protein and nutrients in foods along with enhancing health benefits compared to the gluten-free bread using starches currently on market.