Development and nutritional evaluation of multigrain gluten free cookies and pasta products

Present study was undertaken for development of gluten free processed products i.e. cookies and pasta by incorporation of gluten-free ingredients in different proportions. Gluten free raw ingredients i. e. finger millet (FM), pearl millet (PM), soya bean (SB) and groundnut (GN) were assessed for their nutritional characteristics. Results of nutritional analysis concluded that these ingredients are a rich source of crude fibre, protein, fat and ash or mineral content. Different formulations were prepared depending on variation of ingredients in each formulation. In case of cookies, the formulation containing all the four ingredients i. e. FM, PM, SB and GN in equal proportion (25% each) was liked most and scored highest on 9-point hedonic rating scale. Whereas, in case of steamed pasta (PS) and steamed as well as fried pasta (PF) products, the most acceptable formulation was the one containing 30% PM, 35% FM and 35% SB flour. Also, PF was liked more than PS as frying increased the palatability of fried products. Although, all formulations of both products were moderately acceptable having organoleptic score more than 7.0 as per assessment on 9 point hedonic rating scale but, the formulations containing higher amount of pearl millet were scored slightly lower as compared to other formulation mainly due to the lower values for sensory parameters such as colour, flavour and texture of such products. Incorporation of nutritious gluten free ingredients increased the content of essential nutrients such as crude fibre, crude fat, crude proteins and mineral or ash contents to a significant (P≤0.05) extent as compared to control.

Celiac disease: the situation on the Slovak market

Celiac disease, also known as celiac sprue, non‐tropical sprue, idiopathic sprue, idiopathic steatorrhoea and gluten‐sensitive enteropathy, is a serious genetic autoimmune disease, which damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. The latest researches show that while in the 1970s the prevalence of celiac disease in the world was 0.03%, in the present years the estimated prevalence is 1%. In average, the prevalence of celiac disease in the Western countries is close to 1:100. The celiac disease occurs more often in the case of women than of men, at a ratio of 2.8:1. The aim of the present paper was to bring few information about the celiac disease, highlight the increasing number of celiacs, as well as to determine the Slovak celiacs opinion about the situation on Slovak market and their consumer behaviour on the market of gluten free products. As research methods, there have been used the methods of survey and structured questionnaire consisting of 22 questions. The total number of respondents was 130 randomly selected celiacs from all over the Slovak republic. For a deeper analysis of the obtained results, there have been set out four assumptions and ten hypotheses, which have been tested with the use of Pearson´s chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U-Test and Cramer´s contingency coefficient. The results of the present paper show, that despite the fact that few of our findings are pleasing - almost 52% of our respondents stay that the labelling of gluten free products is sufficient, over 74% of respondents think that they have enough information about the availability of gluten free products and more than 89% of respondents think that the present scope of range of gluten free products is better as before; there are still some shortcomings, which has to be reduced or eliminated - only less than 7% of respondents think that the price of gluten free products is adequate, over 45% of respondents use this possibility of granting a monetary contribution for compensation of increased expenses on a special diet, almost 65% of respondents think that the scope of range of gluten free products is in the Slovak market insufficient, 53% of respondents think that the availability of gluten free products in the Slovak market is inadequate and only 48% of respondents prefer the domestic producers of gluten free products.

Comparable efficiency of different extraction protocols for wheat and rye prolamins

The identification and quantification of cereal storage proteins is of interest of many researchers. Their structural or functional properties are usually affected by the way how they are extracted. The efficiency of extraction process depends on the cereal source and working conditions. Here, we described various commonly used extraction protocols differing in the extraction conditions (pre-extraction of albumins/globulins, sequential extraction of individual protein fractions or co-extraction of gluten proteins, heating or non-heating, reducing or non-reducing conditions). The total protein content of all fractions extracted from commercially available wheat and rye flours was measured by the Bradford method. Tris-Tricine SDS-PAGE was used to determine the molecular weights of wheat gliadins, rye secalins and high-molecular weight glutelins which are the main triggering factors causing celiac disease. Moreover, we were able to distinguish individual subunits (α/β-, γ-, ω-gliadins and 40k-γ-, 75k-γ-, ω-secalins) of wheat/rye prolamins. Generally, modified extraction protocols against classical Osborne procedure were more effective and yields higher protein content in all protein fractions. Bradford measurement led into underestimation of results in three extraction procedures, while all protein fractions were clearly identified on SDS-PAGE gels. Co-extraction of gluten proteins resulted in appearance of both, low-molecular weight fractions (wheat gliadins and rye secalins) as well as high-molecular weight glutelins which means that is not necessary to extract gluten proteins separately. The two of three extraction protocols showed high technical reproducibility with coefficient of variation less than 20%. Carefully optimized extraction protocol can be advantageous for further analyses of cereal prolamins.