Gluten extraction from deoxynivalenol contaminated wheat by wet milling

Authors: MAGALLANES LOPEZ, ANA - North Dakota State University; Ohm, Jae-Bom; MANTHEY, FRANK - North Dakota State University; RAO, JIAJIA - North Dakota State University; SIMSEK, SENAY - North Dakota State University

Submitted to: Food Control
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/27/2020
Publication Date: 8/1/2020
Citation: Magallanes Lopez, A.M., Ohm, J., Manthey, F.A., Rao, J., Simsek, S. 2020. Gluten extraction from deoxynivalenol contaminated wheat by wet milling. Food Control. 120:107513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2020.107513.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2020.107513

Interpretive Summary: Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a toxin that occurs in grain affected by a fungal plant disease. Gluten is a valuable food ingredient produced by wet milling processes that include washing kneaded dough to extract it. Because DON is soluble in water, wet milling can be a valuable alternative method to remove DON from wheat flour, producing gluten. However, few reports are available regarding the effects of different wet milling methods on DON levels and gluten quality. Therefore, this research was conducted on hard red spring wheat and durum wheat samples contaminated with DON to investigate the impact of three different small-scale wet milling procedures on the removal of DON and the quality of extracted gluten. One wet milling procedure was identified to produce gluten that showed very low DON levels as well as high quality gluten that was comparable to commercial gluten. This result will be a valuable reference to promote the utilization of DON-contaminated wheat in gluten production.

Technical Abstract: The wet milling process can be a valuable alternative for deoxynivalenol (DON) contaminated wheat grain, taking advantage of DON water solubility. For instance, the extraction of DON-free wheat gluten for its further use as an ingredient. The present research was conducted on hard red spring wheat (HRSW) and durum wheat (DW) samples contaminated with DON, and further dry milled into farina and semolina, respectively. The samples were subjected to three different small-scale wet milling tests, dough-washing (Martin process), moderately sheared dough-water dispersion (medium shear), and highly sheared flour-water dispersion (high shear). After the wet milling process, the extracted gluten had DON levels below the limit of quantification (<0.2 mg/kg). Size-exclusion HPLC revealed that gluten samples obtained from medium shear and high shear processes were composed of more unextractable glutenins (UP1) than unextractable gliadins (UP2). This lower proportion of gliadins versus glutenins yielded better rheological performance, similar to the control (commercial wheat gluten), thus exhibiting a potential application as food ingredients.