A bread alternative based on fibres, proteins and gum arabic has been formulated in order to keep up with current trends for low-carbohydrate and gluten-free bread. Dutch food technology specialist TOP has developed a new bread without starch, that has a low level of carbohydrates and is gluten free.
Consumption of bread has been under attack in recent years because of the high level of carbohydrates and the presence of gluten. Bread however, still forms a main part of the daily food consumption for many people and habits only change slowly. That’s why TOP has the ambition to develop a bread that hardly contains any carbohydrates and has no gluten. To realise this TOP has abandoned the idea of bread-on-the-basis-of- wheat and the team has started the development from scratch.
Bread has a light and elastic texture, with enough firmness to be able to put a spread on it. Traditionally the texture can be achieved by kneading wheat meal with water, yeast and salt. The gluten (proteins) are responsible for creating a structure in which the air produced by the yeast is contained. And the starch (carbohydrates) fixates this structure during the baking process, making it firm.
The alternative bread that TOP has developed is made of proteins, fibres and gum arabic and hardly contains any carbohydrates. Together with the yeast and salt these ingredients create a structure that is both light and elastic after the baking process and still has enough firmness to it.
“The bread could do with a bit more taste, but this can easily be solved in the future,” according to Dennis Favier, creative director of TOP bv.
The bread is developed during a feasibility project in cooperation with the company LikeFresh bv and with support of the province of Gelderland. TOP is currently investigating the possibility to further develop the bread and scale it. “We hope to find an entrepreneur that is interested in bringing this product successfully to market” said Favier.
