Sales of gluten-free products have grown annually by double-digit rates during the past five years as hundreds of new products have hit the market, and not all of them are good tasting. In this installment of our report, find out what are the most difficult products to reformulate and how companies are addressing such issues as limited shelf life, high ingredient costs and the lack of some nutrient values of gluten-free products.

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery: Which bakery products are the most challenging to reformulate into gluten-free versions and why?

Kyle Marinkovich, marketing manager, Cargill, Inc., Minneapolis: Gluten-free bread is one of the greatest challenges in the bakery space given the functionality of gluten in bread. Cargill’s patent-pending, breakthrough technology and formulation capabilities allow us to offer game-changing gluten-free bread with appearance, flavor and texture similar to that of conventional breads.

Cargill also offers a broad array of certified gluten-free bases in other applications that allow manufacturers to create multiple great-tasting products including cakes, muffins and cookies. All of which offer unique formulation challenges that Cargill’s technology helps our customers overcome to deliver superior products with the taste and texture the gluten-free consumer is looking for.

Carter Foss, technical sales director, American Key Food Products, Closter, N.J.:  Breads are the most challenging baked items to formulate in the absence of gluten. The quality of breads is gauged by their structure, texture, chewiness and consistency. The presence of a good crust also heightens the appreciation for breads. These are characteristics for which gluten is best suited.

Replicating these through the use of substitute flours and other ingredients is most difficult, especially since alternative gluten-free flours and starches being put to use in bread making behave far differently in the baking process. It is almost inescapable to use a broader combination of flours, gums and proteins to approximate wheat-based breads.

Even so, the quality is perceptibly different. A common approach is to use a host of other ingredients to produce what can be passed off as artisan bread, but the consequent product becomes too far detached from the mainstream regular breads that we have all come to appreciate at the breakfast table or with our sandwiches.

We have had great success by simply combining potato starch with our King Lion Premium Cassava Flour to yield the best-tasting, gluten-free artisan breads. One unique attribute is that it develops a nice “crust” on artisan breads.

SF&WB: What are the easiest ways to reformulate wheat-based products?

Foss: Some of the best ways to reformulate wheat-based products has been to include the use of egg whites as a protein replacement for gluten, gums to provide the elasticity or extensibility of the baked dough and potato or tapioca starch to lend viscosity and moisture retention. AKFP’s new cassava flour simplifies reformulation by reducing the number and complexity of ingredients to achieve the desired result.

SF&WB: How do you address such issues as shelf life of gluten-free products?

Alejandro J. Perez, low-moisture applications team leader, National Starch Food Innovation, Bridgewater, N.J.: The issue of shelf life for gluten-containing products and gluten-free products are very similar. Most rational approaches of bakery science that have been traditionally used also apply to that of gluten-free products. As is the case with gluten-containing products, base ingredients with high functionality that reduce the need for shelf life additives are desirable. Shelf life of gluten-containing and gluten-free products can be extended by freezing, modern packaging and moisture retention aids.

Foss: Shelf life can be extended by the addition of a starch or gums. Because the shelf life is typically short, a lot of products are kept in the refrigerator or freezer.

SF&WB: Why are gluten-free alternatives so expensive to their conventional gluten- and wheat-based counterparts?

Marinkovich: There are a number of reasons, but a couple of the key ones are scale and more complex manufacturing. Scale is an issue because many of the ingredients are specialty ingredients, batch sizes are not as big and finished products are not distributed as widely. Second, the complexities of manufacturing gluten-free product also add cost driven by activities such as segregation and testing. One thing to keep in mind though is that finished product margins are generally higher as well.

Cargill’s gluten-free bases help address both of these issues as manufacturers don’t have to purchase, scale and blend the ingredients themselves or store and test multiple ingredients. The bases are certified gluten-free and only require the additions of flavors and inclusions.

O’Brien: There are three factors that contribute to higher costs of gluten-free products:

Ingredient cost -- In manufacturing gluten-free products, lower-priced, ubiquitous wheat flour is replaced by highly specialized ingredients from limited source.

Health consequences -- Due to the severe health consequences that can result from contamination of a gluten-free product, several precautionary measures must be taken, plus segregated manufacturing that [can] incur additional costs. Special processes, quality control techniques and packaging to certify a specific product is allergen free are all examples.

Manufacturing scale -- The smaller scale of manufacturing leads to less favorable economics and greater cost per unit. Additional costs may also be incurred in multi-ingredient systems in the form of co-processing costs, special quality control and purification costs.

Foss: Wheat is one of the most abundant and economical agricultural staple commodities harvest in many parts of the world. The total volume of wheat harvested is more than ample to satisfy the global demand for wheat products.

The United States is the third largest wheat producing country in the world, after China and India in that order. In 2008, the [United States] was estimated to have produced 68 million tons and remains the biggest wheat exporter, selling close to half of the volume to other countries.

Wheat flour is, thus, a very cheap commodity ingredient. All other alternative flours and starches in use for gluten-free baking applications have traditionally been more expensive than wheat flour by varying degrees. The other recommended supplements in gluten-free formulations, proteins and gums are also far more expensive than wheat flour.

Having a multitude of ingredients to replace flour necessarily entails additional costs for a food manufacturer from procurement to inventory management, from materials handling to final production. These circumstances combine to result in more expensive gluten-free formulations, as compared with conventional wheat-based products.

However, because cassava flour is a reasonably low-cost ingredient, we anticipate that products made with King Lion Premium Cassava Flour will be roughly equivalent in cost to wheat-based products.
  
SF&WB: What nutrient levels do you sacrifice when reformulating to gluten-free products?

Marinkovich: Key nutrients that are often low in a gluten-free diet include fiber, iron, calcium, vitamin D, folate and B vitamins.

Perez: Traditionally gluten-free products have failed to mimic that of gluten-containing products in the areas of protein and fiber. However, with modern options such as highly functional flours from a non-wheat base, you no longer have to sacrifice the nutrient levels.

Foss: Nutrition is not normally sacrificed. Look for enriched gluten-free products to ensure you are getting enough thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, iron and fiber. Fiber and protein can be added to such products by way of flax seed, oats (from a non-wheat facility) or beans for example.

SF&WB: Please provide some insight on the taste and texture of gluten-free products.

Dar: Until recently, the best gluten-free baked goods have not quite matched gluten-containing products, especially when it comes to taste and texture. To be frank, many of them just do not make the grade. At National Starch, we have optimized several appealing solutions. Our experienced bakers and food scientists have developed a substantial library of gluten-free formulations, based upon a family of unique ingredients [such as] Homecraft Create GF 20 and Homecraft Create GF 10. The gluten-free prototypes we have produced with these ingredients have been benchmarked against leading gluten-containing products for taste and texture while exhibiting outstanding shelf life.

Marinkovich: The need for great-tasting, gluten-free products is high because for many consumers, following a gluten-free diet is a necessary way of life and these consumers’ needs are not being entirely met by current offerings today. Cargill’s portfolio of certified gluten-free bases are available to help solve some of the most challenging formulation issues in gluten-free baking and result in taste and texture breakthroughs across popular baked goods categories such as breads, muffins, pancakes, cakes and cookies.

Cargill’s gluten-free baking bases will help customers deliver gluten-free baked goods that feature authentic taste with flavor rivaling flour-based products and no funny aftertaste. A light and airy volume [rises] above the performance of other gluten-free products. Soft and moist texture [brings] indulgence to every bite, without the dry, hard mouthfeel of gluten-free alternatives.

Foss: Texture can be a challenge when formulating. Typically, a gum or combination of gums, are used to give some of the chewiness associated with a gluten product. The main thing one has to watch out for is adding too much gum or the product will be too chewy. Most food formulators and all pastry chefs know that tapioca is used in many delicate flavored desserts because of its clean flavor.

All of our customers who tried our baked dessert formulated with King Lion Premium Cassava Flour have not seen a difference with those made with regular flour. While a perfect gluten-free white pan bread may not ever be achieved, very good artisan breads have been successfully created using this new ingredient.

Editor’s Note: Check out next week’s installment on gluten-free products. Click here to read the first installment of this report.  

*Photo courtesy of The Wheat Foods Council